NEEDGM?
Do we need GM? Taste and appearance
Saturday, 08 October 2011 13:15
Carrots
Do we need GM? Weed resistance
Saturday, 04 September 2010 16:31
Need GM? articles:
Cowpea
IITA releases non-GM high-yielding striga-resistant cowpeas (March 2009)
Resource-poor cowpea farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have seen their profits jump by 55 per cent thanks to improved dual-purpose cowpea varieties developed and introduced by IITA and its national partners in Nigeria. Paul Amaza, IITA Agricultural Economist, says that farmers who use traditional varieties earn about US$ 251 per hectare, while those who are growing the improved cowpea are getting US$390, or US$139 more, per hectare with proper crop management.
Non-GM approach to striga-resistant cowpeas in Africa (July 2007)
Maize
Drought-tolerant and striga-resistant maize released in Ghana (April 2010)
Ghana has released four Quality Protein Maize varieties tolerant of drought and resistant to striga hermontica - a parasitic weed that reduces maize yield - to farmers to boost maize production in drought-prone areas of the country.
IITA (Nigeria) launches new non-GM striga-resistant maize varieties (December 2008)
Maize farmers in West and Central Africa (WCA) could soon enjoy increased harvests and reduced crop losses due to Striga with the introduction of two new resistant varieties — TZLComp1Syn W-1 (Sammaz 16) and IWDC2SynF2 (Sammaz 15) — developed by IITA in partnership with the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, Nigeria.
Sorghum
Africa: researchers start to develop non-GM striga resistant sorghum (June 2010)
Image attribution:
Cowpea image: HeraldDesa at en.wikipedia
Maize image: Spedona at en.wikipedia
Do we need GM? Introduction
Need GM? articles:
Does mention of allergen-free peanuts, striga-resistant cowpeas, salt-resistant wheat, beta-carotene rich sweet potatoes, and virus-resistant cassavas make you think of GM?
If so, you've missed the great unpublished story – all the non-GM breakthroughs solving precisely the kind of problems (drought-resistance, salt-resistance, biofortification etc.) that GM proponents claim only genetic modification can provide the answer to.
While often speculative claims of potential GM "miracles" win vast amounts of column inches, the non-GM success stories generally get minimal if any reporting in the popular media. Without GM's often exaggerated crisis narratives and claimed silver bullet solutions, it seems there is no story!
The biotechnology industry and its PR people are keen to keep it that way, particularly because the non-GM solutions are often way ahead of the work on GM. They also bring none of the uncertainties that surround GM.
All of this makes keeping track of the many non-GM success stories especially important.
The GM breakthroughs that never were
Another reason it's important is because - thanks to the lack of success with GM "solutions" - non-GM success stories can end up being claimed as GM breakthroughs!
A classic instance is provided by the UK Government's former chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, who has repeatedly used non-GM breakthroughs as evidence of why we need to embrace GM. In one case, King claimed a big crop yield increase in Africa was due to GM, when it did not involve the use of any GM technology at all. On another occasion, King claimed a big success for GM flood resistant rice when what he was referring to was in reality a non-GM crop!
In both cases King was under pressure to provide compelling examples of why GM crops were needed. But far from King's examples showing why we need to embrace GM, they show the exact opposite, i.e. that we need to stop being distracted by GM and to get the funding and support behind the non-GM solutions to the problems we so badly need to address.
If you look at the menu above it gives links to just some of the many non-GM successes we have come across. It's worth noting, incidentally, that some of this progress is being made with the help of biotechnological approaches, like marker assisted selection, that do not involve the same kind of risks and uncertainties as GM, and which are in fact making GM obsolete. You can read more about this here.
What the biotech industry doesn't want you to know about GM "improved" crops
There's another way in which crops touted as GM breakthroughs are not always what they seem – and it's the best-kept secret of the biotech industry. Most of the crops that are touted as GM breakthroughs are nothing of the sort.
In summer 2010 Monsanto bought out part of a West Australian cereal breeding company, Intergrain. An Intergrain spokesman explained Monsanto's interest like this: "A really important concept is that biotech traits by themselves are absolutely useless unless they can be put into the very best germplasm."
The process operates like this. The biotech company raids the germplasm of natural crop varieties that have been developed by farmers and breeders over centuries for the desired traits. It uses conventional breeding and sometimes marker assisted selection – not GM – to get the plant it wants. Its own proprietary genes are added primarily so that it can patent and own the seed and resulting crop.
This GM tweak often adds nothing to the agronomic performance of the crop but is usually either a Bt toxin to kill insects or a herbicide-resistance gene that allows it to be drenched in herbicide. But it has one magical effect – on the biotech company's profit margins.
This process is never disclosed in the industry's hyping of its new crop varieties to the media. The questions we should all be asking are these: which natural parent variety or varieties did the company pirate for its GM variety? How much improvement was made in the parent variety by conventional breeding and marker assisted breeding, aside from the GM tweak? How do the natural parent variety, the non-GM improved variety, and the final GM variety compare with each other with regard to the desired trait in side-by-side field trials?
In other words, how much value was added by the GM manipulation?
The answers would be educational. But we won't usually get to hear them because the information is commercially confidential. And so the biotech companies are able to maintain their seductive lie that GM is necessary for the future of plant breeding.
One instance where do know how the trick was pulled is Vistive soya, which has been described as the first GM product with direct benefits for consumers. These supposedly healthier low linolenic acid soya beans, designed to produce oil that would reduce or eliminate unhealthy trans fats in processed food made from the oil, were created by non-GM means. But Monsanto deliberately turned them into a GM crop by adding a GM trait - resistance to its Roundup herbicide - that has absolutely nothing to do with consumer benefits. Interestingly, Iowa State University conventionally bred an even lower linolenic acid soybean variety than the Monsanto one and did not add any GM traits to it. Unsurprisingly, very little has been heard about it, compared to Monsanto's Vistive.
In late 2010 came news of an important breakthrough, this time regarding a drought-tolerant variety of corn/maize. Syngenta, we were told, "is leading the charge on a new generation of corn designed by its scientists to withstand drought". Syngenta's Agrisure Artesian drought resistant corn will be a GM corn, but not because GM led to the breakthrough - it didn't. The drought resistance was obtained via conventional plant breeding and masker assisted selection. But unrelated herbicide tolerant and pesticidal transgenes were subsequently added to turn it into a GM variety. As one critic noted, "They could have released the non-GM variety without the added transgenes... This could have benefited many farmers in countries which are suffering from droughts but which do not allow GM crop production. So much for trying to solve global food security."
Although there has been a massive amount of hype about how GM is the way to deliver drought-resistant crops, non-GM plant breeding has been much more succesful. To date there is not a single GM-bred drought-tolerant variety on the market.
Go to the menu above for links to many more non-GM successes.
Do we need GM? Industrial use
Thursday, 08 July 2010 22:01
Need GM? articles:
There are attempts to genetically modify plants for industrial use. For example, the paper and animal feed industries are genetically modifying trees and other plants to contain low levels of lignin, a substance that strengthens plant cell walls. This makes the plants easier and cheaper to process. But what's good for industry often isn't good for ecosystems. Lignin makes plants resistant to pests, diseases, and harsh weather conditions. So the genetic engineers are actually building weakness into the plant gene pool, with potentially harmful consequences.
Added to these risks are those arising from the genetic manipulation of crops. While the first type of risk is common to all food crops bred for industrial use, the second type of risk can be avoided by developing non-GM plants for industrial use.
The first GM plant for industrial use to be commercialized in the European Union is the Amflora potato, which is genetically engineered to produce a high level of amylopectin. But high amylopectin potatoes are also being developed without GM.
German potato breeder launches non-GM high amylopectin potatoes (September 2009)
Starch from these potatoes contains a substance called amylopectin that will be used in food, paper, adhesives, textiles and building applications.
Do we need GM? Health-promoting
Thursday, 08 July 2010 21:52
Need GM? articles:
You will almost certainly have read claims about GM crops with supposed nutritional benefits. Two of the most hyped are Golden Rice and GM tomatoes with supposed anti-cancer properties. These crops have, however, to date not been commercialised, even though in the case of Golden Rice it has been promoted as a life-saver for over a decade.
But while stories about GM "miracles" are lapped up uncritically by the media, non-GM research into solving exactly the same kind of problems seems to get minimal if any reporting, even though it has been far more successful.
Of course, a note of caution needs to be struck about food faddism. The supposed benefits of foods we've been told are healthy in the past have often later been brought into serious question. Even beta carotene, the friendly substance found in yellow and green vegetables, is presented by different authorities as variously a cancer fighter and a cancer promoter.
But for those who are attracted by the idea of "neutraceutical" foods, we don't need GM. Here are some non-GM examples of supposed "superfoods".
Beans
Non-GM iron-rich beans for Rwanda (April 2010)
Broccoli
Super-broccoli with high levels of chemicals credited with warding off cancer, health problems (October 2011)
Cassava
Cassava enriched with extra beta-carotene will be launched in 2011 by HarvestPlus (November 2010)
Cowpea
Maize
Non-GM beta-carotene enriched orange maize (September 2010)
Designed to help vitamin A deficiency.
Vitamin A equivalence of the β-carotene in β-carotene–biofortified maize porridge consumed by women. Shanshan Li, Angela Nugroho, Torbert Rocheford and Wendy S White. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (September 1, 2010).
Iron-fortified non-GM maize cuts anaemia rates in children (May 2007)
Fortifying cereals with a type of iron supplement reduces anaemia, iron-deficiency anaemia and general iron deficiency in children in developing countries, according to new research.
Millet
High-iron pearl millet update (August 2011)
Millet rich in iron will be launched in 2011 by HarvestPlus (November 2010)
Peanuts
US scientists develop low-allergy peanuts (June 2010)
Scientists in the US are developing "low-allergy" peanuts, offering hope to thousands of people with allergies associated with the popular seed.
Non-GM process for allergen-free peanuts (July 2007)
An agricultural researcher at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has developed a simple process to make allergen-free peanuts. The new process – believed to be a first for food science – could provide relief to millions of peanut allergy sufferers, and be an enormous boon to the entire peanut industry.
Potato
"Healthy" non-GM purple potato goes on sale in UK supermarkets (October 2010)
UK scientists breed non-GM purple potato (January 2009)
A purple potato high in antioxidants has been developed by scientists at the Scottish Crop Research Institute.
Rice
Low arsenic rice discovered in Bangladesh could have major health benefits (February 2013)
Malaysian scientists develop high yielding non-GM red rice with low glycaemic index for diabetics (April 2012)
New non-GM rice strain could help atopic dermatitis and diabetes (December 2009)
The rice contains highly concentrated Cyanidin-3-Glucoside or C3G which is known to ease symptoms of atopic dermatitis and diabetes.
Soybeans
Swiss develop healthier, more digestible soybean (December 2010)
New soybeans bred for oil that's more heart-healthy (September 2010)
USDA and university scientists have conventionally bred new soybean lines to have high levels of oleic acid, meaning more monounsaturated fat, allowing less need for resorting to hydrogenation.
Sweet potato
Orange beta carotene-enriched sweet potato a hit in Mozambique (November 2011)
Beta carotene-enriched sweet potato already improving health, self-sufficiency in Solomon Islands (July 2010)
Gates Foundation supports non-GM beta carotene-rich sweet potato in Africa (April 2006)
HarvestPlus received a US$ 6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to introduce a nutritionally improved staple food - orange-fleshed sweet potato - into the diets of the undernourished in East Africa. As of November 2010, the sweet potato is already on the market. 2011 update: Orange sweet potatoes not just for Africa.
Tomatoes
Purple anthocyanin-rich anti-cancer tomato – seeds are actually on the market (January 2012)
Another non-GM anti-cancer purple tomato (December 2011)
Brazilian researchers have developed a purple tomato high in anthocyanins and vitamin C, nutrients that are thought to have anti-cancer properties.
Non-GM anti-cancer supertomato (July 2010)
Italian producers have unveiled a new 'supertomato' which they claim has the potential to slow the aging process as well as offering better quality and taste.
High beta-carotene non-GM tomatoes for West Africa (March 2009)
The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center - The World Vegetable Center has released the results of the evaluation of 20 tomato lines for adoption in West Africa. The testing is a part of a project on Vegetable Breeding and Seed Systems for Poverty Alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Wheat
Zinc-enriched wheat will be launched in 2011 by HarvestPlus (November 2010)
Do we need GM? High yield
Thursday, 08 July 2010 21:45
Need GM? articles:
“Let’s be clear. As of this year [2008], there are no commercialized GM crops that inherently increase yield. Similarly, there are no GM crops on the market that were engineered to resist drought, reduce fertilizer pollution or save soil. Not one.” – Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman, Genetic engineering — a crop of hyperbole. The San Diego Union Tribune, 18 June 2008.
Claims of higher yields from GM crops pop up constantly in the media. It seems to be an example of a misleading claim that is repeated so often that people frequently fail to question it. Yet in the case of the most widely grown GM crop, GM soybeans, there has been evidence of consistently lower yields for over a decade. Controlled comparative field trials of GM/non-GM soya suggest that 50% of the drop in yield may be due to the genetic disruption caused by the GM transformation process.
A US Department of Agriculture report confirms the questionable yield performance of GM crops, saying, "GE crops available for commercial use do not increase the yield potential of a variety. In fact, yield may even decrease.... Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of GE crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative."
Monsanto released its second generation RR2 Yield GM soybeans in 2009, claiming that they would deliver higher yields. By June 2010, however, reports had emerged that yields were again disappointing and that the state of West Virginia had launched a probe into Monsanto for consumer fraud for false advertising claims.
Conventional non-GM approaches, in contrast, have consistently been improving crop yields for decades and continue to do so. Such successes, in contrast with the often mythical claims for high-yielding GM crops, tend to go largely unsung.
Here are a few examples of what non-GM approaches have been achieving. What would the GM lobby give for success stories like these?
Beans
High yielding, multi-disease resistant, non-GM bean success in Rwanda (February 2010)
An excellent example of the success of traditional plant breeding practices - multi-disease resistant, very high yielding, and apparently freely distributed without Intellectual Property restrictions.
Cassava
High-yielding disease-resistant super-cassava for Africa (September 2010)
Cotton
Non-pesticide, non-GM cotton pest management success in India (June 2007)
A relatively low-tech approach to managing pests promises to help hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers across Asia raise yields and reduce environmental contamination.
Cowpea
Maize
Orange maize improves yields and nutrition for families in Zambia (April 2013)
Australian non-GM high-yield maize lines to target Asian markets (April 2011)
Zambia: better non-GM maize harvests (June 2005)
Although drought-prone Zambia is still facing many problems, huge improvements have been reported in its maize harvests - its main staple crop. A report from Inter Press Service notes, "... production changed dramatically after President Levy Mwanawasa took over from Frederick Chiluba in 2001.... [He] promoted innovations like mixed farming and conservation farming. Mwanawasa rejected GM maize and encouraged the growing of non-GM maize, resulting in bumper harvests for the past three consecutive years." When the Zambian government rejected GM maize in 2002, there were calls from the US Ambassador to the FAO for its leaders to be tried "for the highest crimes against humanity in the highest courts of the world."
Oil palms
Studying genes may lead to higher yield, sustainable oil palms (April 2011)
Rice
"Extended life" rice could quadruple yields, cut costs (September 2011)
"Super-rice" – bred for high yield, disease-resistance, etc. (January 2011)
Soy
High-yielding, soybean cyst nematodes-resistant non-GM soybeans (July 2007)
Soybean growers now have more options when selecting soybean varieties that have high yield potential and the ability to stave off soybean cyst nematodes - SCN, a tiny worm that infests the soil in many fields in Iowa and the rest of the Midwest of the United States and which steals soybean yields.
Tomato
US scientists develop high-yielding tomato (March 2010)
New hybrid tomato plants are super producers capable of generating more and much sweeter fruit without genetic engineering.
Do we need GM? Biocontrols and aflatoxin
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:11
Need GM? articles:
Aflatoxins are chemicals of fungal origin. They can contaminate food crops and have toxic effects on animals and people that eat them. Scientists have made breakthroughs in controlling them without GM.
Zambian farmers excited about prospects of safer crops with aflasafe[™] (February 2013)
Corn lines resist aflatoxins (September 2010)
Aflatoxin-resistant maize lines developed by US scientists (September 2010)
Making Kenyan maize safe from deadly aflatoxins with non-GM biocontrol (June 2010)
Non-GM method to control aflatoxin in maize works well in Nigeria (June 2009)
African scientists announce non-GM breakthrough in battle against aflatoxin (May 2009)
Non-GM technology reduces aflatoxins in maize in Nigeria (July/August 2007)
Do we need GM? Tolerance to specific soil and weather conditions
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:02
Need GM? articles:
GM promoters have jumped on the bandwagon of climate change, hyping GM crops as a means of helping humanity to survive climate change in articles like these:
"GM foods 'could feed growing population during climate change'" (Louise Gray, The Telegraph, 22 Jan 2009)
"Fussy eaters – what's wrong with GM food?" (Jonathan Jones, BBC News, 6 July 2010)
In fact, maintaining a broad gene pool of crop varieties suited to different climate conditions is the best way to ensure that we survive climate change. In addition, low-tech methods such as using cover crops, incorporating lots of organic matter into soil, managing water flow, and growing a wide variety of crops as insurance, are tried and tested ways of building resilience into farming systems.
Conventional plant breeding is effective in developing crops for different climate conditions. Here are a few examples.
Beans
Heat, drought and disease tolerant beans released (June 2010) And they yield and adapt well too!
Non-GM beans developed for harsh Mediterranean conditions (November 2007)
Cowpea
Maize/corn
Drought-tolerant maize wins 2012 UK Climate Week Award (March 2012)
Dow launches drought-resistant corn (January 2011)
Syngenta launches drought-resistant corn (December 2010)
New maize could prepare farmers for climate change (September 2010)
New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region.
Link to full paper: Potential impact of investments in drought tolerant maize in Africa
Non-GM corn offers solution to modern climate challenges (April 2009)
One solution to the challenges of feeding the world may come not from the labs of genetic engineers, but from the timeless wisdom of Native Americans and a dedicated corn breeder from Montana.
New maize could prepare farmers for climate change (September 2010)
New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region.
Pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut
ICRISAT develops climate change-ready varieties (June 2009)
When the world gets warmer with climate change, the dryland tracts will become even drier, making it more difficult for the farmers to grow crops in this region. The improved crops developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) and partners are able to withstand severe droughts, tolerate higher temperatures and mature early, enabling the farmers to be ready to meet the challenges of climate change. The new crops include pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeon pea and groundnut.
Potatoes
Blight-resistant potatoes could lower carbon footprint from agricultural sector (July 2010)
Rice
Multi-trait super-ricebred to improve tolerance to salinity,flood, zinc deficiency, pests and other problems (January 2011)
African farmers develop new type of rice well-adapted to poor soils (July 2009)
Rice farmers in West Africa have developed a new type of rice adapted to poor soils. This has come about through spontaneous cross-breeding in the field between African and Asian rice cultivars.
Indigenous rice better than GM for dealing with stress (October 2007)
A New Delhi-based NGO, together with farmers from nine Indian states, has developed a register documenting over 2,000 indigenous rice varieties. They say GM rice strains are not only costly to cultivate but also are a poor match to the native strains in fighting pests, diseases and environmental fluctuations.
Sorghum
Tomato
Organic farmers in Nepal develop heat-tolerant, disease-resistant, high-yield tomato (December 2010)
A Nepali farm specializing in producing organic vegetables has developed nine varieties of tomatoes it says are high-yielding as well as tolerant to disease and heat. The tomatoes, named Srijana ("creation"), will be available in the markets of Kathmandu within a year.
Do we need GM? Salt tolerance
Need GM? articles:
For years, GM proponents have been claiming breakthroughs in developing crops that tolerate saline soils. But as of 2011, none have been commercialised. An article from 2009 said only that GM scientists "are close to developing crops that are tolerant of salt".
The difficulty is that the genes that salt tolerance in plants is regulated not by one or two genes but by a complex network of genetic functioning that cannot be replicated by the crude methods of the genetic engineer.
GM salt tolerant crops, if they existed, would be a band-aid solution to a problem that intensive and chemical agriculture has caused. The sensible answer to salination of soils is prevention by sustainable farming and water management techniques. If it's too late for prevention, then the soil must be rebuilt by incorporating plenty of organic matter into it and planting different crops in stages according to its recovery.
As any coastal grower knows, there is no shortage of naturally salt tolerant plants and crops. In India, Dr Vandana Shiva's biodiversity organisation Navdanya has collected indigenous varieties of salt tolerant crop seeds for years. Following the 2004 tsunami, scientists said that local farming would have to be put on hold for five years because too much salt had been washed into the soil. But Navdanya dug into its seed bank and distributed salt-tolerant crop seed to farmers, enabling them to keep producing.
While GM struggles to get out of the starting blocks in producing salt-tolerant crops, conventional breeding forges ahead. Here are some examples.
Wild parent spawns super salt-tolerant rice (April 2013)
New salt-tolerant rice strain could help in fight for food security (April 2013)
Salt-tolerant wheat developed in Australia (April 2010)
CSIRO researchers have developed a salt tolerant durum wheat that yields 25 per cent more grain than the parent variety in saline soils.
New salt-tolerant wheat set to bring life to "dead" farmland (July 2004)
Scientists have developed a non-GM salt-tolerant wheat which could allow farmers to crop a third of the 1.8 million hectares of agricultural land lost to salinity across Australia's wheat belt.
Do we need GM? Flood resistance
Need GM? articles:
Indian farmers adopt flood-tolerant rice at unprecedented rates (September 2010). See article for SciDev.net on same story.
Flood-resistant non-GM rice (February 2009)
At the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), scientists have developed a rice variety with high tolerance to submersion under water for extended periods.
"Snorkel" rice can survive deep water flooding (August 2009)
This rice, which withstands flooding by shooting up in height, has been hyped in many press stories as a triumph of GM. In fact, the "snorkel" genes were identified by marker assisted breeding and transferred into normally non-flood tolerant rice by conventional cross-breeding, none of which involves GM!
Indigenous rice better than GM for dealing with stress (October 2007)
A New Delhi-based NGO, together with farmers from nine Indian states, has developed a register documenting over 2,000 indigenous rice varieties. They say GM rice strains are not only costly to cultivate but also are a poor match to the native strains in fighting pests, diseases and environmental fluctuations.
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