Sunday, July 20, 2008
Cover Story
GMOs: The debate mustn't end
By Stella A. Estremera
AS GOVERNMENTS push for genetically modified crops as their tool to fight hunger and poverty, people must not allow open discussions to die down, a geneticist and molecular biologist from the New Zealand Institute of Gene Ecology warned in his presentation at a forum here, Friday.
"Genes that produce humans, the likes of Einstein, is 98.8 percent identical to that of chimpanzees. Twins have 100 percent similarity between their genomes but we know that they are different," molecular biologist Camilo Rodriguez Beltran said in the forum on "GMO: What can go wrong?" held at the Mindanao Training Resource Center (MTRC) of the Davao Medical School Foundation, Friday.
With the complex interaction of just a few genes, big differences in species and behaviors are derived.
"This is a concept of gene environment. A gene when introduced to a different environment is not stupid to believe that it can change the environment of the genome," he said. Most likely it will interact.
Citing the introduction of the cryotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into corn to make the plant (Bt corn) resistant to pests, he said, by isolating the gene from the thuringiensis bacteria that kills insects, man is actually "ordering the genes" to do what it does but this time not as part of the Bt but as part of the corn.
"But we know that gene products interact in complex and interconnected networks," he said. "Plants can't just do what we want just because of our intervention."
Beltran also pointed out that GMO agricultural crops are created in sterile laboratories, tested in equally sterile environments and field-tested in areas like the Philippines, whose agricultural profile is far different from the United States (US) where the GM plants were designed.
Gene flow isn't just about pollen
One of the biggest differences between the farm profile of US where the GM plants were made and the farms in developing countries like the Philippines is the farm size.
An average corn farm size in the US, Beltran said is 80 hectares. In Mexico, it is less than 5 hectares, in India between 2 to 2.8 hectares and in Kenya less than one hectare. While he does not have figures for the Philippines in terms of farm sizes, it would be safe to like it to the three other countries he has cited.
The farm size, he said, has great bearing on gene flow, specifically the travel of pollen from farm to farm by air.
In the US, a buffer will work because 80 hectares is such a huge tract of land. A buffer in a one-hectare of farmland in the Philippines will not do much to prevent pollen of the genetically modified corn from going over to the next farmland and cross-pollinating a native corn because the next farm will be just few steps away.
Aside from pollens, seeds are also sources of gene flow, and the biggest vector yet -- humans, the farmers and garden enthusiasts.
Agricultural practices play a very big part in controlling unintentional contamination of a GM plant, but agricultural practices in countries like the Philippines are so steeped in traditions, poverty, and inadequate if not non-existent infrastructure and services such that farmers cannot be expected to sell all corn harvest for one season lock, stock and barrel and then buy seeds to plant the following season.
Aside from the fact that it is a tradition to keep seeds for planting in the coming seasons, Beltran said, the supply system for farm goods are not in place such that farmers, even if they are made to understand that they should sell all the corn they produce and just buy the seeds of the next planting will still keep seeds. Why? Because the farmer is not assured that the supply will be there when he needs it. It could be that there will be no stock of seeds, or it may be that the roads will be flooded by a typhoon or bogged down by some calamities, he may not have the money, or the seeds may cost more next season.
The context is important
All these point to the context, he said. GMOs cannot be viewed outside the context of the country where it will be introduced because every country has distinct characteristics, agricultural practices, limitations, concerns and issues.
And in the context of the Philippines, most unsettling is the resistance management systems (RMS) that are in place... or not.
"Who is in charge of RMS?" he asked.
In the Philippines, there is none once the GM product is approved for commercial production - as Bt corn is.
"There are even management failures in countries where it was supposed to work," he said, pointing out that in the US, 21 percent of those in GM crops violated the refuge requirements. In the refuge requirements for GM crop farming, 40 percent of the land should be planted with non-GM crop to serve as some sort of a trap. As much as 21 percent of those into GM crops have disregarded this risk management measure because it's such a waste of land and the farmers know that the non-GM crops will just be wasted since the insects will feast on these.
"And yet, this is in the country where they developed all these strategies," he pointed out.
In New Zealand, which has the best and strictest biosecurity regulations in the whole world, there have been six recorded detections of illegal GMOs in the past three years.
Setting up management systems may also turn out to be very expensive to a particular country because the technology is not locally generated.
He cited one experience in Nicaragua where the government sought to set up a detection unit and thus brought in experts from Norway and Switzerland who recommended a set of equipment.
Along with the arrival of the equipment came a new dilemma: who will operate these? Moreso, there were a lot of conditions assumed to be in place -- like the sterility of the environment where the detection equipment will be set up -- but were not there because Nicaragua is a far cry from Norway and Switzerland.
In the end, the equipment remained idle because running it will be more expensive.
"The political, social and economic context provides the needs that we have and the needs define the science," he said. This should be the flow of development.
But with GMOs, he said, the economic, social and political needs are made to adapt to the science.
"Context is where it counts. Developing countries should have the means and opportunity to develop the science for their actual needs... We can't adopt methods built up in a different context)," he said.
He noted that in the Philippines, the biosafety framework set in place is just an adaptation of those in Canada and the United States.
Beltran thus warned, "If you just copy, you will have an insect-resistant model that does not work in your country."
And then the insects
This does not include the looming reality that the insects targeted by the proteins like that in Bt corn will develop resistance to this cryo toxin.
"Scientists recognize that resistance cannot be stopped but can be delayed," he said.
The problem is GMOs "provide the best medium for insects to develop resistance."
This is so because in normal farming using chemical inputs, the pesticide is applied only during certain periods, not everyday, not every hour. After the spraying or application, the chemical is allowed to naturally disperse.
In a GMO, like a corn that has the toxin of the Bt that kills insects, the toxin is in the plant itself, available for an insect to partake of anytime, any day.
"They'll develop resistance and soon those insects will just say, 'Bring it on!'" he warned.
Mega country
While this is a great concern in the science world, the Philippines maintains its distinction as being among the biotech mega countries in the whole world, ranking number 10 of the top 13 with 300,000 hectares planted to Bt corn in 2007. Biotech mega-countries as defined by the International Service for Acquisition of Biotech Applications (Isaaa) are countries that have at least 50,000 hectares of land planted to GM crops.
The 13 biotech mega-countries with corresponding areas planted and GM crops are:
1. USA - 57.7M has; Soybean, maize, cotton, canola, squash, papaya, alfalfa
2. Argentina - 19.1M has; Soybean, maize, cotton
3. Brazil - 15.0M has; Soybean, cotton
4. Canada - 7.0M has; Canola, maize, soybean
5. India - 6.2M has; Cotton
6. China - 3.8M has; Cotton, tomato, poplar, petunia, papaya, sweet pepper
7. Paraguay - 2.6M has; Soybean
8. South Africa - 1.8M has; Maize, soybean, cotton
9. Uruguay - 0.5M has; Soybean, maize
10. Philippines - 0.3M has; Maize
11. Australia - 0.1M has; Cotton
12. Spain - 0.1M has; Maize
13. Mexico - 0.1M has; Cotton, soybean
Word of caution
Beltran stressed that he and his institute is not against GMOs. But they would want to stress caution.
"Out group is not out to avoid GMOS but to provide more discussions on the potentials risks. We believe this is a social topic," he said, admitting that there are very few in-depth studies on the effects of GMOs to the environment and even the people, basically because there is dire lack of funding for such.
The funds are poured into developing genetically modified organisms.
"In terms of biotech, it's the funding, Private funding where biotech matters," he said. He admits that the science community feels the pressure of where the funds are going.
"When there is a lot of money and investments, it's very difficult for researchers to say we don't need this," he said.
This is the very reason why this has to be opened as an ongoing discussion to all stakeholders.
"Genetic engineering has been taken over by molecular biologists. Ecologists, social scientists were never involved," he said. "We were not precautionary when we started on this. Molecular biologists have a narrow mind, we don't see the society as social scientists and ecologists do. But we are now making recompense by studying the potential risks."
What people can hang their hopes on are the existing regulatory bodies, although he himself does not trust regulating agencies because he knows how GM products are tested, and like all other applications in genetically modifying organisms, there is not much investigation done on the final product even right before this is approved for commercial production.
"We have to have confidence on our regulatory bodies, but we have to be critics of our regulatory bodies," he said. The only way to be that, however, is when people fully understand what the discussion is all about.
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