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          Institute of Science in Society

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          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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