GM - why the frenzy?
It all began with determining the structure of DNA in the 1960s. Since then
our knowledge of DNA and understanding of genetics has provided scientists with
a powerful tool to address world needs in a way that was never possible before.
While advances in the pharmaceutical biotech industry receive worthy attention
it is the area of food or agricultural biotechnology which has enraged and
impassioned and been debated like no 
other scientific advance before.
"Why" we asked Dr Val Giddings, Vice President for Food and
Agriculture of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington, D.C.
Quite simply it is about food, says Giddings. "Food is personal, it is a
vital part of personal and national identity and if you are fortunate enough, it
touches our lives three times a day and if anyone is seen to be messing with
your food, it will lead to scaremongery and hysteria. The only thing people are
less rational about than food is sex."
Giddings argues that humans have genetically modified foods for thousands of
years, that maize in its present day format is much altered from its distant
forebear. It was also through human intervention and experimentation which
shaped three different grass strains into today's conventional form of wheat -
but it took ten thousand years of genetic modification! Through agricultural
biotechnology, scientists are able to achieve this in a much shorter space of
time, but the fundamental difference and herein lies the advantage he says is
that it is no longer a perilous and lengthy game of trial and error, scientists
know precisely which changes are being made in the DNA of the plant, where, why
and what the desired product will be.
"Agricultural biotechnology has a huge amount to offer in terms of human
health and industry. We have barely scratched the surface and the potentials are
much greater."
Americans have been eating GM for the past ten years. There the principle GM
crops being produced are soybean, maize and cotton with several in the
developmental stages. Between 60 and 70 percent of processed foods on US
supermarket shelves contain GM ingredients. As GM crops enter world markets
there has been a strong outcry and much resistance but nowhere as much as
Europe.
Going against the grain
European activists have launched the largest and most concerted attack
against GM crops. Activists argue that there has been insufficient testing to
support scientists' claims that GM crops are safe. Yet, tests crops in place in
parts of the UK are often undermined and destroyed by the very same activists.
Why Europe is skeptical
Europeans are highly skeptical of new developments after ineffective
government handling of health fiascoes such as mad cow and foot and mouth
disease. Europe Giddings believes is also in a difficult situation as far as
crop farming is concerned, as they need to reduce subsidies in the crop-farming
sector. There may also be he says a bit of resentment against perceived US
cultural hegemony, which flavors the European approach. Giddings does not
however believe that the public opinion poll, which is anti GM, is a measure of
human behaviour, when given the choice. He sites an example of tomato paste
which was brought to European shelves a few years ago and carrying a bold label
stating that the product contained genetically modified ingredients. The product
flew off shelves in the UK - it was hard to keep the product in stock. The
reason was simple -consumers shop for quality and good value and this product
clearly had both.
Furthermore, "Green groups" in Europe are far more powerful than
anywhere else as they are well funded by several interest groups. Activists,
says Giddings are part of the global protest industry driven more by a need for
financial gain than education and they are not accountable to anyone. He
believes that they are at the heart of the negative publicity and misinformation
and that the global protest industry find it far easier to raise money by
playing to people's fears than educating them. Keeping activists groups alive is
significant sponsorship from various interest groups who have much to lose from
a global acceptance of GM crops. Information gleaned from income tax returns of
various organizations sponsoring activist groups can make for some interesting
reading!
Scare tactics or truth?
In a recent article which appeared in a South African newspaper, it was
claimed that antibiotic- resistant marker genes in GM crops could lower people's
resistance to and ability to fight pathogens and that this would be of
considerable danger to HIV/AIDS infected people whose immune systems are already
compromised. Giddings response to this was "absolute complete and utter
nonsense". "Anybody with a background in microbiology would see this
as ludicrous". He said that apart from the initial step which uses
antibiotics, the crop improved through biotechnology never sees and does not
expose humans to the antibiotics. Furthermore there is in fact no known
mechanism by which a human can absorb plant DNA from food. If this were the
case, "then we would all be green and photosynthetic!" And in any
case, states Giddings, the antibiotics used in the initial laboratory
experiments are not generally important in treating human disease.
Research directions
According to Giddings we have only just scratched the surface of the
potential in agricultural biotechnology. He described some of the important
research directions. Scientists are working at adding value to crops by
inserting genes which will express a particular trait under controlled
conditions. There are a variety of resistance management projects underway which
seeks to prolong the life of the GM product. One way in which to prolong the
possibility of resistance being developed, for example in a crop which is
engineered to be pest resistant is to only have the plant expressing its
insecticidal properties when under attack.
Plants naturally mount resistance to attack from pests. When pests are in
high concentration, volatile compounds are expressed and this information is
communicated to other plants which then begin releasing substances to resist the
pests. So what scientists are aiming to do is to understand these mechanisms and
design the GM gene to only express its insecticidal properties when pests are in
high concentrations, a clever way to forestall resistance developing.
GM crops could become mini-pharmaceutical factories says Giddings, and their
production capacity is high. The cost of planting and harvesting a
pharmaceutical crop is much lower than building factories. This according to
Giddings will have direct benefit for the poorest of the poor.
"But perhaps the most exciting challenge is that through biotechnology
we can develop an understanding of the genetic architecture of photosynthesis.
If we could increase the efficiency of photosynthesis by one percent, we could
significantly increase available biomass fuel and lower human dependence on the
scarce resource of fossil fuel. If this were possible it would change the
world's political landscape and the very poorest of the poor would
benefit."
Giddings comments that there is an enormous need in the public sector for
governmental support of biotechnology research. In Africa this can be of
particular benefit. He sites cassava production as an example, an important
staple food in West Africa. Cassava mosaic virus lays waste to many cassava
crops, but a cassava crop improved through biotechnology can improve production
by as much as 70%. Giddings believes that biotechnology will deliver its
benefits to the poor.
Unfortunately in Africa, where many regions face famine, their acceptance of
the environmental and human safety of GM crops may come much sooner than the
changes in trade laws and limitations which could effectively bar them from
accepting GM.
Article by Dr Janice Limson, Science in Africa.
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