There has been much debate over the adoption of genetically modified crops in the UK. In this article we address some of the commonly identified issues and offer our own "smiley based" risk assessment.
Our smiley guide to risk
GM
foods may be poisonous to animals and humans
Before a GM food can reach the shops it will have been subject to extensive
regulation and analysis, way beyond anything that our non GM diet has
ever been subjected to. But even if that is not enough, our every day
diet consists of around 6000 different chemicals which we are perfectly
able to deal with through digestion. Most of these chemicals have been
created naturally in the biochemical pathways of living organisms and
it is very unlikely that GM crops are going to alter the fundamentals
of nature and expose us to anything new. Millions of Americans have
been eating GM crops for some years without ill effect which seems to
prove the point.
GM
crops may be harmful to beneficial insects
In practice GM crops will only include genes that produce an insecticide
where a significant pest problem exists already. In such cases the GM
crop is likely to be less harmful to beneficial insects because less
manufactured insecticide will need to be applied.
In laboratory experiments in the US it has been shown that the pollen from maize plants that were bred to contain an insecticide, BT toxin*, was able to kill the caterpillar of the Monarch butterfly. While this was indicative of laboratory risk, in the real world the risks are much lower as the Monarch caterpillars rarely eat maize pollen.
*BT toxin is a natural insecticide and the gene comes from a soil bacterium. The toxin is widely used by organic farmers and is poisonous to caterpillars but affects few other insects and is harmless to fish and mammals.
GM
crops may contaminate other nearby crops
There is certainly a risk that this can happen and producers growing
a traditional crop variety under an organic system might find their
production system compromised by a GM crop nearby. We believe that DEFRA
should keep a watching brief on this but we do not consider it a major
risk when one considers the amount of admix (non crop material) that
is harvested with a crop (especially an organic one).
GM
crops may encourage resistant weeds and pests
Yes, but resistant weeds and pests have been the story of agriculture
for the last 10,000 years. GM technology is another development that
farmers might adopt and if this leads to resistance, farmers will have
to revert to their more traditional methods of control.
An
artificial gene may leak out into wild plants
Yes, but there is nothing to say that this won't happen with non GM
crops anyway. All crops are selectively bred for improved characteristics
and these could just as easily escape. Don't forget too that the artificial
gene in the crop is already "out there".
GM
crops may lead to a reduction in biodiversity
This argument is usually advanced on the grounds that herbicide resistant
crops can be sprayed with a herbicide like glyphosate which will result
in the complete kill of weeds. Of course in practice farmers never seek
a complete kill of weeds because that requires too much expensive herbicide.
It is much more likely that farmers will try to use as little herbicide
as posssible and this may lead to generally weedier and more biodiverse
conditions. If the weed burden does become excessive, farmers will know
that they can still deal with the problem without killing the crop -
a situation that does not exist in conventional systems.
Too
much of a GM crop may be a bad thing
Yes, it would be foolish to plant a single variety of a GM crop too
widely only to find that it was particularly exposed to adverse circumstances
that arose. Diversification is the key to minimising risk and in agriculture
that means using differing varieties within rotations. This applies
to GM crops just as it does to conventional farming systems.
GM
crops may lead to greater farmer dependency upon agribusiness
Farmers will choose the farming system that most easily helps them to
make a profit and meet the demands of their customers. If this does
result in a greater dependency on agribusiness, does this matter?
GM
crops may offer no advantage over other farming systems
Then farmers won't use them.
GM
technology is producer driven rather than consumer sought
If GM technology produces solutions for our needs then the technology
will be adopted. It doesn't really matter much whether this was producer
driven or consumer sought - the marketplace will decide whether it succeeds.
Something
unexpected may catch us out
Absolutely and in our view almost everyone has missed the point about
the risk. The real risk of GM crops comes not within the food and farming
environment which is entirely artificial, but from taking a beneficial
biochemical pathway from an organism in the wild and then exposing it
to the competitive pressure inherrent within agricultural systems. If
the pathway which has served the wild organism breaks down in the agricultural
environment, the same may happen in the wild with obviously serious
affect.
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