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Institute of Science in Society
Science [ISIS logo]
Society
Sustainability
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Head to Head feature, Sovereign Magazine
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Genetically Modified (GM) crops
are neither needed nor beneficial
Mae-Wan Ho
Institute of Science in Society
Genetically Modified (GM) crops are neither needed nor
beneficial. They are a dangerous diversion from the real
task of providing food and health around the world.
The promises to genetic engineer crops to fix nitrogen, resist
drought, improve yield and to `feed the world' have been around
for at least 30 years. Such promises have built up a
multibillion-dollar industry now controlled by a mere handful of
corporate giants.
But the miracle crops have not materialised. So far, two simple
characteristics account for all the GM crops in the world. More
than 70% are tolerant to broad-spectrum herbicides, with companies
engineering plants to be tolerant to their own brand of herbicide,
while the rest are engineered with bt-toxins to kill insect pests.
A total of 65 million acres were planted in 1998 within the US,
Argentina and Canada. The latest surveys on GM crops in the US,
the largest grower by far, showed no significant benefit. On the
contrary, the most widely grown GM crops -- herbicide-tolerant
soya beans -- yielded on average 6.7% less and required two to
five times more herbicides than non-GM varieties.
The same GM crops have already given rise to herbicide-tolerant
weeds and bt-resistant insect pests. Worse still, the
broad-spectrum herbicides not only decimate wild species
indiscriminately, but are toxic to animals. One of them,
glufosinate, causes birth defects in mammals, while another,
glyphosate, is now linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. GM crops with
bt-toxins kill beneficial insects such as bees and lacewings, and
pollen from bt-maize is lethal to monarch butterflies.
According to the UN food programme, there is enough food to feed
the world one and a half times over. World cereal yields have
consistently outstripped population growth since 1980, but one
billion are hungry. It is on account of corporate monopolies
operating under the globalised economy that the poor are getting
poorer and hungrier. Corporations already control 75% of the world
trade in cereals. The new patents on seeds will intensify
corporate monopoly by preventing farmers from saving and
replanting seeds, which is what 85% of the farmers still do in the
Third World. Christian Aid, a major charity working with the Third
World, concludes that GM crops will cause unemployment, exacerbate
Third World debt, threaten sustainable farming systems and damage
the environment. It predicts famine for the poorest countries.
What about GM crops with enhanced nutritional value, such as
putting soya protein into rice, or incorporating genes to increase
iron content? The major cause of malnutrition worldwide is the
substitution of industrial monocultures for the varied diet
provided by traditional farming/foraging systems. Moreover,
intensive agricultural practices deplete and leach nutrients from
the soil, thereby changing the nutritional values of all food
crops for the worse within the past 40 years. No amount of genetic
engineering can reverse this trend, which can be achieved only by
re-introducing sustainable farming methods and recovering
agricultural biodiversity.
It is clear that GM crops offer no benefits and cannot feed the
world. There are also enormous risks. The most immediate are
random and unpredictable. Dr. Arpad Pusztai, an eminent scientist
in the Rowett Institute of Scotland, lost his job when he released
findings that showed two GM potato lines were toxic to rats. A
more insidious danger is horizontal gene transfer -- the transfer
of genetic material directly to unrelated species. It is inherent
to the way GM organisms are constructed that the foreign genes
introduced (transgenic DNA) may be more likely to transfer again
to unrelated species. Such horizontal gene transfer can give rise
to new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases and spread
antibiotic and drug resistances among the pathogens.
It was because of these concerns that the pioneers of genetic
engineering called for a moratorium in the '70s. Unfortunately,
commercial pressures cut the moratorium short. Since then, drug
and antibiotic resistant infectious diseases have returned with a
vengeance. New viruses are appearing at alarming frequencies,
while life-threatening bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant to
all antibiotics and are hence untreatable. New evidence also
indicates that transgenic DNA from dust and pollen in GM crops can
spread to organisms in all environments, including the human body.
Another hazard is that the transgenic DNA can jump into the
genomes of cells, resulting in harmful effects which include
cancer. In its interim report (May 1999), the British Medical
Association called for an indefinite moratorium on the release of
GM crops pending further studies on new allergies, on the spread
of antibiotic resistances and on the effects of transgenic DNA.
These concerns are shared by at least 100 scientists from 20
countries who have signed a World Scientists' Statement calling
for a 5 year moratorium and a ban on patents of life-forms.
While the `benefits' from GM crops remain illusory and
hypothetical, the successes of sustainable, organic farming are
well-documented, in the Third World, as well as in Europe and
North America. There is also an enormous `health bonus' in phasing
out agrochemicals which are linked to many forms of cancer, to
reproductive abnormalities and degenerative diseases.
The current obsession with gene manipulation may be entirely
misplaced. Indeed, genes and genomes can remain relatively stable
and constant only within a stable, balanced ecosystem. Organic
agriculture is predicated on such a balanced ecosystem. The
requirements for genetic health, similarly, are no different from
those for physiological health: unpolluted environment; wholesome
organic foods free from agrochemicals; sanitary and socially
satisfying living conditions. Those are the real choices for civil
society.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho is Reader in Biology at the Open University
and author of best-selling book, Genetic Engineering Dream
or Nightmare? The Brave New World of Bad Science and Big
Business, Gateway Books, Bath, 1998, 1999 (2nd. ed.).
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