PERSPECTIVE - Oregon State University


Dec 11, 2012 (8 years and 10 months ago)



Moving the Debate on Genetically Engineered Crops Forward

The recent perspectives about crop GEOs (genetically engineered organisms) by Holzberg and Lassen et
al. (volume 30, issues 1 and 2, respectively) highlight the need for ASPB to continue

to be actively
involved in the GEO debate to provide accurate information to its members and the public. Here, we
would like to counter some of the oft
repeated scientific myths that we do not believe move the discussion
forward or provide new scientific
insights that help resolve the GEO logjam.

GEOs have definable scientific properties and can thus be discussed as a meaningful category.

prefer to use the term GEO rather than GMO (genetically modified organisms) because it provides a clear
on from traditionally bred crops. Each crop GEO is different and must therefore be considered on
its own merits or demerits. It is absurd to equate vitamin A rice (generated by funds from nonprofit
institutions; major beneficiaries are young children in de
veloping countries) with Roundup
Ready® corn
(privately funded; major beneficiaries are large growers and private companies in the developed world).
The process of genetic engineering is no more hazardous than hybridization, inbreeding, and
mutagenesis, wh
ich are all components of traditional breeding. The importance of critically evaluating
product rather than process has been emphasized in three independent National Research Council
reports (
). Generic discussions of the benefit or risk of “GMOs” are
not scientifically credible.

“Public skepticism” about complex technology, especially when it does not have large and direct
benefits to individual consum
ers, can be taken at face value.

People will tend to reach wildly different
conclusions about genetic engineering depending on how they are educated and particularly what context
they are given and who they trust. A recent USDA study of consumer demand sho
wed how willingness to
pay for biotech foods depends greatly on what the consumer is told and who is doing the telling
). This study also found, as have many other
studies of risk perception, that negative messages tend to be more penetrating than positive messages.
GEO activists therefore have a much easier time than those trying to promote balanced or positive
eptions of genetic engineering. Finally, because the largely urban public knows little about agriculture
or breeding, it can be easily misled about technologies. In a survey of consumer attitudes about labeling
by the Center for Science in the Public Inter
est, 40 percent said they wanted the use of hybrid corn to be
disclosed (
http: //
)! “P
skepticism” needs to be interpreted very carefully.

Corporate profit motives and business practices tarnish the science and technology by association.

Genetic engineering approaches did not originate with industry, nor are they being used only in
They are simply a powerful set of techniques that can be used in plant breeding where conventional
methods fail or are inefficient. The profit incentive and patent system, although by no means perfect, do
provide strong motivations to companies t
o develop new methods and products. The legal protection
provided by patents can result in scientific advances being publicized that may have otherwise been kept
as company secrets. Because of the complex laws relating to use of GEO crops, companies are li
kely to
profit only if their products benefit farmers or consumers and do not pose unreasonable risks to the
environment or health in accordance with accepted government standards. These standards define the
rules and the playing field on which companies m
ust operate. Given the continued rule of law, the profit
motive and public benefit are not inimical in a democratic society.

Labeling and process knowledge is a consumer right, regardless of its scientific basis and social cost.

Although labels themselv
es are inexpensive to print, the identity segregation, tracking, and testing
systems that a meaningful labeling system requires can be very costly to society. This is especially true
when, as in the European Union, very small levels of GEO ingredients must

be carefully identified in all
derivative products. Societies therefore choose not to label many trace ingredients or specific aspects of
crop and food production that may be of some nutritional or environmental relevance, even though this
information wou
ld be of interest to many consumers (e.g., pesticide residues, varieties, fertilizers,
irrigation practices, origins of processed foods). Labels also tend to be viewed by consumers as
“warnings” and thus can stigmatize crops that may have economic, health,

or environmental benefits.
Under current law, the FDA seeks to avoid information on labels that consumers may find “misleading”
with respect to nutrition and safety. For example, a label on a genetically engineered papaya indicating
that it contains “trac
e amounts of papaya ringspot viral DNA” would be accurate but misleading because
the average consumer does not know that the non

genetically engineered fruit is likely to be virally
infected and would therefore carry higher levels of papaya ringspot viral
DNA as well as protein. Generic
GMO labels are also of negligible public value, as the variety of genes, insertion events, and products
makes such a system nearly useless for tracking epidemiological patterns or for inferring personal risk or
benefit. Fina
lly, there has been no public uprising to label conventionally bred crops, even though their
nutritional and toxicological properties vary widely and have been far less well studied than GEO crops.
The decision whether to label GEO products is both scienti
fically questionable and fraught with social and
economic tradeoffs. It is anything but simple and clear, nor is it an inalienable right.

GEO crops contaminate neighboring crops and thus cannot coexist with other farming systems.

food is “contaminat
ed” to various degrees by many sources, including bred and wild crop relatives,
weeds, dust particles, insect and rodent parts, fungal toxins, agrochemicals, and much more. We could
avoid most of these contaminants by growing crops in contained, clean indo
or facilities, but economics
dictates otherwise. Instead, we identify tolerances that allow us to take advantage of the economic
benefits of growing crops out of doors while limiting exposure to undesired substances to low, but non
zero, levels. Different
farming systems already coexist that have adapted to these realities. For example,
the USDA national organic program standards (section 205.671) tolerate set levels of pesticide drift,
allowing organic farms to be located next to conventional farms. The st
andard practice for organic
growers is to notify their conventional neighbor that the farm is certified organic and to remind them of the
pesticide limits. The same can be true of GEO crops if tolerances for pollen drift are set at reasonable
levels and if

liability is clear.

GEO releases should be delayed until extensive, rigorous research is done that determines the long
term environmental and health impacts of each GEO.

Such an approach requires absolutes

but these
are not delivered by science or any
other secular form of knowledge, and such a rigidly “precautionary”
stance would preclude any kind of innovation in agriculture

conventional, organic, or transgenic. It also
ignores the benefits of GEOs compared to alternative systems; in adopting new tech
nology we seek to
solve problems, for which we accept some level of new risk. For example, although Bt has been
consumed for more than 50 years as a natural contaminant and as spray residue with no apparent
detriment to health, the consumption of slightly
higher concentrations in engineered crops has not yet
been tested over generations. However, we also know that insecticides

synthetic and biologically

are extensively used in many crops and can be highly toxic (220,000 deaths per year, primarily

farm workers in developing countries). Bt cotton has already led to enormous reductions in insecticide
use (over 150 million pounds in China in 2001, equivalent to 25 percent of all the insecticide sprayed
before the adoption of Bt cotton), and the exposu
re of farm workers to broad
spectrum pesticides has
been correspondingly reduced. Societies will always be considering benefits, risks, and uncertainties in all
their decisions about new technologies.

Modern organic methods have solved problems created
by the previous industrialization of agriculture,
and there is no need for further advances.

Although even the most fervid organic advocate would not
agree with this statement, it is heard increasingly from the urban public that is removed from the farming

process and the harsh realities of life in the developing world. In even the best
managed farming and food
distribution system, there are large challenges and opportunities to improve production. Thirty percent to
40 percent of potential global food, fibe
r, and feed are lost to insects, nematodes, diseases, and weeds.
Sixty percent to 70 percent of these losses are in the developing world, at a cost of $300 billion per year.
Abiotic stresses account for even larger yield losses. Incremental increases in th
e nutritional content,
disease resistance, yield, or stress tolerance of crops can go a long way to alleviating poverty by enabling
farmers to produce and sell food locally, as well as by providing more nutritious food to help offset the
malnutrition that
is experienced by one in six people in the developing world. Clearly there is tremendous
need for

and given our rudimentary knowledge of genomes and molecular physiology, there is likely to
be vast room for

crop improvement. GEOs, by enabling crop domestic
ation to proceed without the
limitations imposed by natural or random mutation as sources of variation, could logically play a large

With the arrival of GEOs, plant breeding, previously among the least controversial of agricultural
technologies, now
appears to have become the most hotly debated. One reason is that genetic
engineering enables an extraordinary level of novelty, and thus ecological complexity, so that it is difficult
for societies to come up with general rules governing deployment. To ai
d in this process, ASPB must
encourage science
based evaluation of each GEO crop, or at least classes of GEOs, with an eye toward
using GEOs to move agricultural systems toward improved sustainability. We hope that the myths
described above do not impede m
eaningful dialogue.

Pamela Ronald

University of California, Davis

Steven Strauss

Oregon State University, Corvallis