From green to gene revolution: The environmental risks of genetically engineered crops

Ecologist

Volumn 26, Issue 6, 1996, Pages 273-281

  Steinbrecher, Ricarda A ^a  

^a Test Tube Harvest Campaign W   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CROP; ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT; ENVIRONMENTAL RISK; GENE BEHAVIOUR; GENETIC ENGINEERING; GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROP; GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM; RISK ASSESSMENT;

EID: 0030324110     PISSN: 02613131     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. In the early 1980s, proponents of plant genetic engineering predicted that it would easily produce miracle crops that would resist drought, fix their own nitrogen from the air and resist disease. They envisaged corn thriving without added nitrogen fertilizer; cotton plants withstanding insects without added insecticides; drought-tolerant crops reclaiming environmentally-degraded land - and a high return on their investments. The technology has now proved to be more difficult, taken longer and cost more. Genetic engineers discovered that they were limited in the number of genes that could be transferred to between two and five without something going awry and in the kinds of traits that could be engineered with the genes that had been isolated. In particular, the most desirable traits, such as increased yields, drought resistance and nitrogen fixation, were discovered to be determined by many genes. Nitrogen fixation, for instance, is now believed to require a complex interplay of dozens of plant and bacterial genes, while the complement of genes that determine yield and drought-resistance are not fully understood. The biotechnology industry has thus had to scale back its expectations for the genetic engineering of plants. See Rissler, J. and Mellon, M., The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996, p. 14.
2. New Scientist, 7 January 1995, p.23. Over 1986-1992 in the 14 industrialized OECD countries, the proportions were: herbicide tolerance (57 per cent); virus resistance (13 per cent); insect resistance (10 per cent); quality traits (8 per cent); and "others" (12 per cent). See Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Evaluation of Biosafety Information Gathered During Field Releases of GMOs, DSTI/STP/ BS (92)6.
3. Other chemical companies include Upjohn (Asgrow Seed), DuPont, Sandoz (through its subsidiaries Northrup King and Rogers NK Seed), Ciba-Geigy, Hoechst-Roussel, ICI and American Cyanamid. See Rissler, J. and Mellon, M., op. cit. 1., p.13.
4. Ibid. Monsanto produced DDT and Agent Orange.
5. It is likely to be replaced by Roundup-Ultra.
6. US universities and government institutions include USDA Agricultural Research Service, Cornell University, North Carolina State University, University of Kentucky, University of California, Michigan State University; seed companies include Pioneer Hi-Bred (which accounts for over half the seed company applications), DeKalb Plant Genetics, Holden's Foundation Seed, Petoseed and Harris Moran; biotechnology companies include Calgene (which accounts for 82 per cent of the independent company applications), DNA Plant Technology and Agrigenetics; and food companies include Campbell Soup, Heinz and Cargill. See Rissler, I. and Mellon, M., op. cit. 1., p.13. Applicants in the UK for the years 1995 and 1996 to release genetically engineered organisms to the environment included Advanced Tech Cambridge, AgrEvo UK Crop Protection, Axis Genetics, Monsanto, Nickerson BIOCHEM, Plant Breeding International, Plant Genetics Systems NV, Scottish Agricultural College, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Sharpes International Seeds, University of Derby and Zeneca.
7. Ibid., p.11. Asgrow Seed Company has since been sold to the Mexican company, Empresas La Moderna.
8. Ibid., p.4. Traditional sources of Iauric acid are coconut and palm kernel oils, grown in tropical countries.
9. See McNally, R. and Wheale, P., "Biopatenting and Biodiversity", The Ecologist, Vol. 26, No. 5, p.227; Sheppard, J., Spilling the Genes: What We Should Know About Genetically Engineered Foods, Genetics Forum, London, October 1996.
10. See McNally, R. and Wheale, P., "Biopatenting and Biodiversity", The Ecologist, Vol. 26, No. 5, p.227; Sheppard, J., Spilling the Genes: What We Should Know About Genetically Engineered Foods, Genetics Forum, London, October 1996.
11. UK Genetically Modified Organisms Public Register Index which lists applications (since 1 February 1993) received by the Secretary of State for the Environment to release genetically engineered organisms to the environment.
12. See Rissler, J. and Mellon, M., op. cit. 1.
13. Aspelin., et al., "Pesticides industry sales and usage: 1990 and 1991 market estimates," Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pesticide Program, Economic Analysis Branch, Washington, DC, 1992.
14. The Australian, 20 June, 1996; The Sunday Herald Sun, 23 June, 1996; The Canberra Times, 19 June, 1996. Ryegrass has also been found to have developed resistance to other herbicides.
15. The Australian, 20 June, 1996; The Sunday Herald Sun, 23 June, 1996; The Canberra Times, 19 June, 1996. Ryegrass has also been found to have developed resistance to other herbicides.
16. The Australian, 20 June, 1996; The Sunday Herald Sun, 23 June, 1996; The Canberra Times, 19 June, 1996. Ryegrass has also been found to have developed resistance to other herbicides.
17. The US and EU have agreed to the higher limit; Australia has still to reach a decision.
18. See, for example, Briggs, S.A./Rachel Carson Council. Basic Guide to Pesticides: Their Characteristics and Hazards, Taylor & Francis, London and Washington DC, 1992.
19. After complaints from New York State authorities and the Attorney General's ruling that Monsanto's advertisements were misleading, the company agreed in November 1996 to change its adverts in the state and to pay $50,000 costs.
20. Creating insect and fungal resistance is held to be especially desirable because the chemical pesticides commonly used to combat insects and fungi can be highly toxic.
21. Srivastava, C.P., "Insecticide resistance in Helicoverpa armigera in India", Resistant Pest Management 7, 1995, pp.4-5.
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23. Pimentel D., "Herbivore population feeding pressure on plant hosts: feedback evolution and host conservation", Oikos 53. 1988, pp.289-302.
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26. Godfray, H.C.J., op. cit. 21.
27. Personal communication with Florianne Koechlin, No Patents on Life!, Switzerland.
28. McGaughey, W.H., Science 229, 1985, pp.193-195. Lepidoptera is the large order of insects, including butterflies and moths, which have four membranous wings covered with scales.
29. Tang, J.D., et al., "Stable resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis in Plutella xylostella", Resistant Pest Management 7, 1995, pp.8-9.
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31. cited in Fox, J.L., "Bt cotton infestations renew resistance concerns", Nature Biotechnology 14, September 1996, p.1070.
32. As the cotton bollworm and the corn earworm are the same insect, corn could serve as a "refugia" for Bt cotton. But as more and more corn engineered with Bt is grown, this option will be restricted. A customer information leaflet from supermarket chain Sainsbury entitled "Genetically Modified Commodity Crops" states that "Certain varieties of maize, grown in the USA, have been genetically modified to be resistant to a pest, the European Corn Borer. This pest destroys, on average, four per cent of the world's annual crop and up to 20 per cent in severely infested regions." The implication is that a four per cent loss of maize is unacceptable and that there will be no loss of genetically engineered Bt corn. The leaflet does not mention the refugia, which should be up to 20 per cent of the growing area to slow down the build-up of resistance. No one has yet calculated - or at least not made public - the probable short- and long-term losses of Bt corn.
33. Hoyle R., "Taking the hex off transgenic plant exports", Nature Biotechnology 14, 1996, p.1628.
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36. Falk, B.W. and Bruening, G., "Will transgenic crops generate new viruses and new diseases?", Science 263, 1994, pp.1395-1396.
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39. Greene, A.E. and Allison, R.F., op. cit. 34.
40. "Wild" refers to plants that grow predominantly in habitats not heavily influenced by humans. Genetic transfer in the natural environment between simpler lifeforms, such as bacteria and viruses, tends to be more common and to take place at a quicker rate than that between plants.
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44. Hatchwell, P., "Opening Pandora's Box: The Risks of Releasing Genetically Engineered Organisms", The Ecologist, Vol. 19. No. 4, July/August 1989, pp.130-136.
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47. Napoli C., Lemieux, C. and Jorgensen, R., "Introduction of a chimeric chalcone synthase gene into results in a reversible co-suppression of homologous genes in trans", Plant Cell 2, 1990, pp.279-289.
48. Flavell, R.B.," Review: Inactivation of gene expression in plants as a consequence of specific sequence duplication", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 91, 1994, pp.3490-3496.
49. Schuh, W., et al., "The phenotype characterization of R2 generation of transgenic rice plants under field conditions", Plant Sci. 89, 1993, pp.69-79.