The Power of Words

By David L. Brown

The relatively new science of genetic engineering is an important tool in the on-going race to feed a world population under threat. As human numbers expand, the resources required to produce food continue to decline as soil is lost to over-grazing or intensive agriculture; lakes and streams dry up or become polluted; and rich farmland is covered over with houses, highways and parking lots.

By inserting genes that carry specific benefits, scientists create crop varieties that have the ability to grow and produce more efficiently. The process is called genetic modification (GM). Examples include the addition of genes that confer greater pest and disease resistance, are able to make more efficient use of water and fertilizer, or to produce higher yields.

The so-called “Green Revolution” has pretty much run its course, world grain stocks are at all-time lows, and there is every reason to believe that famine is already spreading in some regions - so one might think that GM crops are being hailed as important keys to feeding a world that may be lurching inexorably toward an era of unprecedented famine. It’s a no-brainer, right?

One might think that, but one would be wrong.

The sad truth is that irrational fears have been spread around the globe by environmental activists and others who know little of the science behind GM crops, but who are quick to brand them all as dangerous “Frankenfoods.” That fear of the unknown is especially ingrained in “enlightened” Europe and in many parts of the developing world.

That’s despite clear evidence of the benefits of GM foods. For example, two varieties of modified rice were recently tested in China. The rice contained inserted genes that allow them to resist insect larvae that can devastate conventional crops and require large applications of pesticide. Eighty percent less pesticide was used on the GM varieties than on conventional test plots, and yet the GM rice in the field trials produced six and nine percent more grain respectively than conventional strains. The researchers pointed out that the farmers who grew the GM rice also suffered less pesticide-induced illness, an important added benefit.

Genetic modification is really nothing new at all. Mutation and transfers of genetic material between species have been going on for as long as life has existed on Earth. This is a constant and completely natural process that makes evolution possible. In fact we humans have been manipulating the genetic material of food crops and animals for thousands of years, for it was through selection and cross breeding to modify genomes that all of our present domesticated food sources were developed from their wild ancestors. The only thing that has changed is that science has given us the ability to target and more easily control those genetic changes in predictable ways, rather than having to rely on the long, slow process of trial-and-error selection and cross breeding used by our forebears.

The irrational fear of GM crops seems to be based on the idea that “unnatural” genes could somehow escape and invade other plant species, or create some sort of animal-vegetable monster, a kind of “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” scenario. In fact, the anti-GM phobia probably owes much to exactly that sort of Hollywood B-movie scripts, reinforced by an ill-informed press, opportunistic publicity seekers, and the usual suspects, politicians. (The European Union and others, for example, conveniently use the overblown fear of GM crops to block imports of U.S. produce, thus protecting European farmers.)

In fact, there is no such thing as an “unnatural” gene for they are the building blocks of life. It is only a question of identifying, modifying, or assembling genes that have special qualities and inserting them into the genome of a plant or animal that the genetic engineer wishes to modify. The same thing happens in nature, which is why species change, adapt, and evolve.

Where problems tend to arise is when GM crops are modified to make them compatible with commercial agri-chemicals, for example corn and soybean varieties that are resistant to a particular weed killer that can then be used with abandon and much to the profit of the patent holder. In Argentina, the use of GM soybeans with resistance to a certain weed killer led to the over-use of the herbicide, causing damage and illness in neighboring fields and villages. It was the excess use of chemicals that caused the harm, not the fact that the soybeans were genetically modified.

It makes more sense to develop and use GM seeds such as the rice that was tested in China - varieties that have natural resistance to pests or other built-in advantages - rather than creating a model that encourages farmers to use even more pesticide or herbicide.

Of course there is a strong profit motive involved. In fact, some chemical firms have purchased plant breeding companies and genetic labs and set them to work to create plant varieties that work specifically with their chemicals. They have in effect hijacked some of the potential benefit of genetic engineering merely to push sales of their patented pesticides and herbicides.

The emphasis on making crops compatible with specific chemicals - rather than giving them natural qualities such as immunity to insects or disease, the ability to better able to utilize water and plant nutrients, or higher yield potential - is short-sighted at best. It is when those latter goals are attained that GM has the greatest benefit. The ideal is to develop varieties that don’t need large quantities of agri-chemicals at all. Of course, that would not fit with the business model of the chemical companies that have bought up a large swath of the bio-engineering industry and turned it to the design of crops compatible with their chemicals.

Fortunately these are exceptions and there are many examples of more thoughtful and beneficial use of genetic modification, such as in the case of the rice recently tested in China. GM crops such as those, with the ability to produce more from each acre and using less, not more, artificial chemicals, offer the true promise for the future.

Some mistakes have been made, but many in the scientific community affirm that bio-engineering can be safe and make a major contribution to feeding the world. In fact, in the U.S. the use of GM crops is already widespread. As new discoveries are made, bio-engineers could be the world’s first-line defense against hunger.

© 2009 by David L. Brown, Inc. All Rights Reserved.