In
This Issue:
NEW REPORT
BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY ON GM PLANTS
The Royal Society, United Kingdom's independent national academy of science
has issued a report entitled "Genetically modified plants for food use and
human health - an update." It is a revised version of the 1998 report which
concluded that GM plants offer benefits to agriculture, food quality, nutrition
and health. In the latest report, Jim Smith, chair of the working group commissioned
to update the 1998 report, says that GM foods that have been approved for use
are safe as compared to their conventional counterparts. Other key elements
that were stressed in the report are:
* The Society supports the continuation of biotechnology research aimed at
improving many qualities of crops, including nutrition and agronomic performance.
It is valuable in itself and as the only way to assess the true potential of
GM plants.
* The Society avers that scientific assessments must inform policy decisions
but cannot pre-empt them, and that public opinion must be taken account.
* The criteria for safety assessments should be made more precise and objective
and that disparities among different member states of the EU regarding the
application of the principle of substantial equivalence should be resolved.
* Effort should be made to study the possible effects of GM food on human nutrition.
More detailed guidelines for rigorous nutrition assessments should be set and
adopted for both novel and GM foods.
* In principle, the allergenic risks posed by GM plants are no greater than
those posed by conventionally derived crops. However, it was recommended that
GM foods be evaluated for allergic risk posed by inhalation of pollens and
dusts.
* The risks to human health associated with the use specific viral DNA sequences
in GM plants are negligible.
* It is unlikely that DNA consumption poses any significant risk to human health
given the very long history of DNA consumption from a wide variety of sources.
A complete copy of the report is available at: http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/files/
statfiles/document-165.pdf
ABC CALLS FOR PUBLIC DEBATE ON BIOTECH
The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), a new group formed by Monsanto,
Aventis, BASF AG, Dow AgroSciences, Dupont Co. and Syngenta AG admits they
have had unclear communication with the public in the United Kingdom. Reuters
reports that ABC offered to act on the government's calls for a public debate
on the technology.
"Clearly we have not done ourselves justice in providing good information, valid
information to allow a balanced debate," Syngenta's head of UK seeds and ABC
chairman Stephen Smith said.
He said a report based on a survey of 1,006 people in December 2001, found
that 51 percent would be more likely to accept GM food and products if government-hosted
field trials, assessing the impact of growing such crops, produce clear and
independent results.
The ABC group further added that it would commission and publish a report on
the role of biotechnology in the future of farming.
CORN GROWERS - RESPONSIBLE
STEWARDS OF BT CORN
Most GM corn growers continue to show responsible management of the environment
by practicing good stewardship of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops. According
to a National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) survey, majority of those farmers
are implementing management practices that will help avoid the potential of
insect resistance to Bt corn. Results of the survey conducted during last year's
harvest were forwarded to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in January
2002.
"This survey shows US corn growers understand the need to follow good insect
resistance management practices and are implementing these practices on a broad
scale. Nine out of 10 Bt cornfields were planted within 1/2 mile of the appropriate
non-Bt refuge," said Leon Corzine, a corn grower from Assumption, Ill., and chairman
of the NCGA Biotechnology Working Group.
"The survey results demonstrate that when given the appropriate information,
corn growers are responsible stewards of this technology. It's also an indication
of how we are working to maintain the long-term sustainability of new technology
as it becomes available. This is another example of how corn growers are continuing
to protect crops with products that are increasingly environmentally friendly."
The survey reports 87% of growers planting Bt maize in 2001 met the guidelines
established by the US EPA.
AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIST
BELIEVES GM FOOD SAFEST EVER
Genetically modified crops are the safest new foods ever introduced into the
human diet.
Dr. Phil Larkin of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
(CSIRO) Plant Industries in Canberra, Australia made this statement at the
Conference of the International Association for Plants Tissue Culture and Biotechnology
held last Jan. 2002 in Armidale. He further stressed that the benefits gained
from GM crops like reduced pesticide use, would lead to increased productivity. "...with
increased productivity comes not only farm incomes, but it flows on to issues
like water and wilderness and biodiversity. High productivity is essential
for all those new conservation and environmental values that we all have," he
adds.
Concern about GMOs have made Australian policy makers put up firm regulations
and controls over their commercialization. Dr. Larkin explains that this is
good, as it will increase the confidence of the general public about how safe
commercialized GM plants actually are.
Because of the tangible benefits of using GM crops, Dr. Larkin says that enormous
interest is growing among farmers and graziers to use GM in their production
system.
LOW RISK GM
SUGAR BEET
A risk assessment report prepared by a French government advisory panel reveals
that GM sugar beet intended to tolerate certain herbicides pose very little
risk of contaminating other conventional crops and therefore is considered
safe to grow on a wider scale.
However, these findings were not true for GM rapeseed. Field tests require
that further evaluation is needed for the said crop as its pollen and seeds
are known to spread more widely as compared to GM sugar beet. The report's
authors added "that large-scale experiments should be conducted on genetically
modified rapeseed in order to find management methods that will allow different
types of agriculture to coexist."
Field tests of both crops account only about a fifth of all French GM crop
trails in 2000.
BIOTECH PARK
PLANNED FOR HCMC
The city government of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam will unveil its plan to put up
a hi-tech biological park in early 2003 once it approves a project prepared
by the Biological Application and Research Shareholding Company. The park is
envisioned to contain the latest technology for improving rare plant varieties,
animal breeds and microorganisms, including meristem cloning to create disease-free
plant seedlings.
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