Genetically modified crops: policy and globalisation issues

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Genetically modified crops policy and
globalisation issues

• Dr. Martin J. Hodson

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The Questions

• How?
• Why?
• What?
• Environment?
• Food?
• Ethics?
• Theology?
• Business?
• Politics?
• Globalisation?

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The Globalisation Problem

• The issues we face here are not necessarily
  related to whether GM Crops are a good thing or
  not.
• Like most technologies it is how they are used,
  and who they are used by that are the biggest
  problems.
• The globalisation problems are really just a
  symptom of a wider problem in agriculture and
  society.

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Where?
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Where?
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Where?
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1
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North America
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1980
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1980 to 1996

• 1983 genetically modified tobacco resistant to an
  antibiotic
• 1985 first GM crop trials
• 1993 US Food and Drug Administration allows
  companies to market GM seed
• 1994 Flavr Savr tomato, is approved in the US
• 1996 Herbicide-tolerant GM soya bean available in
  US

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Who produces GM Crops?

• 2008- Monsanto produced more than 90 of GM crops
  worldwide. Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, Dow and
  BASF make the rest.
• But patents begin to expire in 2014.
• Rise of GM crop research and production in China,
  India etc.

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2012

• GM Percentages of the top 3 crops grown in the
  USA
• Maize (Corn) 88
• Cotton 94
• Soybean 93
• Source USDA

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The Opponents- N. America

• Opposition takes the form of
• 1) Battles over patent law.
• 2) Worries over food safety.
• 3) Battles over food labelling.

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Percy Schmeiser (1997 onwards)

• Now, at 70, I am involved with this fight with
  Monsanto. I stood up to them because a farmer
  should never give up the right to use his own
  seed. I felt very strongly about it because my
  grandparents came here from Europe in late 1890s
  and early 1900s to open this land, to be free,
  and to grow what they wanted to grow. Now we are
  going back to a feudal system that they left
  because they were not freebasically we are
  becoming serfs of the land.

Percy Schmeiser (image Wikimedia Commons)
Roundup ready canola (oilseed rape).
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19 Feb 2013. Bowman vs Monsanto
US Supreme Court
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2010- USA
In a Deloitte 2010 Food Survey more than a third
of US consumers were very or extremely concerned
about eating genetically modified foods, down 3
percent from 2008.
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California Proposition 37 (2012)
Genetically Engineered Food Labelling- Election
Results
Yes or No Votes Percentage
Yes 6,088,714 48.59
No 6,442,371 51.41
TOTAL 12,531,085 100
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22 Feb. 2013

• New Jersey
• A coalition presses the state to become the
  first in the United States to label genetically
  engineered food

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UK Europe
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Early history in UK

• 1994 The first GM food, the Flavr Savr tomato
  (Calgene), is approved in the US
• 1996 GM tomato paste arrives in Britain.
• Sold well at first, but withdrawn by 1999.
• 2003 GM Nation Debate
• Frankenfoods

Frankenfoods
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Why so little GM in UK?
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Great Plains
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The Cotswolds
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Worries Associated with Food
Horse meat
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) "Mad Cow
Disease"
Foot and Mouth
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Oxford Farming Conference 3 Jan. 2013
We should not be afraid of making the case to
the public about the potential benefits of GM
beyond the food chain - for example, reducing the
use of pesticides and inputs such as diesel. I
believe that GM offers great opportunities but I
also recognise that we owe a duty to the public
to reassure them that it is a safe and beneficial
innovation.
Owen Paterson (UK Environment Secretary) Image
Wikimedia Commons
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Oxford Farming Conference 3 Jan. 2013

• "I want to start with some apologies. For the
  record, here and upfront, I apologise for having
  spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am
  also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM
  movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I
  thereby assisted in demonising an important
  technological option which can be used to benefit
  the environment."

Mark Lynas
"My conclusion is very clear the GM debate is
over. It is finished. We no longer need to
discuss whether or not it is safe over a decade
and a half with three trillion GM meals eaten
there has never been a single substantiated case
of harm. You are more likely to get hit by an
asteroid than to get hurt by GM food."
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Guardian Poll 3 Jan. 2013
Are you convinced that GM food is both safe and
beneficial? Yes 28 No 72
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Science 22 Feb. 2013 The GMO Stalemate in Europe
Louise O. Fresco, Editorial The European Union
(EU) differs from most of the world in its strong
opposition to the use of genetic modification in
agriculture. Europes lack of trust in GMOs
reflects a wider distrust of science. ..
efforts to ease acceptance of genetic
modification have failed.
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Developing World
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Golden Rice
Golden rice produces beta-carotene, a precursor
of vitamin A, in the grain. The idea is to
produce a fortified food to be grown and consumed
in areas with a shortage of dietary vitamin
A. Published in Science (2000) an eight-year
project by Ingo Potrykus Peter Beyer First
field trials 2004 Potrykus- golden rice to be
distributed for free to subsistence farmers.
Image International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI)
A US10,000 cut off between humanitarian and
commercial use was set. So if a farmer of golden
rice makes less than 10,000 per year, no
royalties need to be paid. In addition, farmers
are permitted to keep and replant seed.
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Golden Rice- latest

• In short, Golden Rice will only be made
  available broadly to farmers and consumers in the
  Philippines if it is approved by national
  regulators and shown to reduce vitamin A
  deficiency in community conditions. This process
  may take another two years or more. (IRRI, 21st
  Feb. 2013)

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Terminator Genes

• Restricts the use of GM plants by causing second
  generation seeds to be sterile.
• Would prevent gene movement.
• Never commercialised.
• But if companies lost patent battles

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It is hard to trust GM when it is in the grip of
a few global giants

• I fear much of the problem of trust stems from
  the chemical company Monsanto, which from the
  start has been the world's largest producer,
  researcher and distributor of the crops. Its
  fierce use of patents, its heavy-handed lobbying
  of governments to deregulate markets, and its
  buying up of seed companies internationally have
  scared the public, raised concerns among small
  farmers the world over and denied the public the
  potential benefits.
• John Vidal (The Observer) Sunday 3 February 2013

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Alternatives??

• Genetically modified plants and GM fish may have
  a sustainable contribution to make in some
  environments just as ecological agriculture might
  be a superior approach to achieving a higher
  sustainable level of agricultural productivity.
  International assessment of agricultural
  knowledge, science and technology for development
  (IAASTD, 2008)

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SRI
Indias Rice Revolution In a village in Indias
poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world
record amounts of rice- with no GM and no
herbicide. Is this one solution to world food
shortages? John Vidal (The Observer) Saturday 16
February 2013
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Globalisation Conclusion

• Huge differences between Europe and N. America
• Key battles are over patents and food labelling.
• At the moment much is controlled by one large
  company.
• Even if the technology is proven to be safe
  worries over multinational control are real and
  need to be addressed.