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What are the Benefits and Risks of GMOs?

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Title: What are the Benefits and Risks of GMOs?


1
What are the Benefits and Risks of GMOs?
  • Nipon Iamsupasit
  • Technical Advisor,
  • Thailand Biodiversity Center,
  • 539/2 Gypsum Metropolitan Tower, 15th Floor,
    Sri-Ayudhaya Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Integrated Capacity Development for the Biosafety
of Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs) South-East Asia Workshop, November 6-8,
2001 Jakarta, Indonesia
2
Benefits
World Benefits
Environmental Benefits
Consumer Benefits
Agricultural Benefits
Farmer Benefits
3
Farmer Benefits
  • Better Control of Insect Pests
  • More Flexible Weed Management
  • Good Quality of Products
  • Improved Yield
  • Reduced Production Cost

4
Better control of insect pests
  • Bt cotton provides effective control of the three
    major caterpillar pests in cotton.
  • U.S. growers surveyed in 1999-they had much
    better control of tobacco budworms (77)
    bollworms (66) and pink bollworms
    (57)-Marketing Horizons, 1999
  • In Texas, Moore et al. (1997) estimated that two
    Bt cotton varieties provided 95 control of
    tobacco budworm, 90 control of bollworm
    (pre-bloom) and 99 control of pink bollworm.

The Journal of Cotton Science 5121-136 (2001)
http//www.jcotsci.org
5
More flexible weed management
  • The number of total sprayings can be reduced from
    5-7 to 1 or 2 per season.
  • Flexibility in terms of time management
  • Conventional weed control often involves
    intensive tillage. Promotes soil erosion. RR
    soybean, in general, fit into conservation
    tillage practices.

http//www.asa-europe.org/biotech2.shtml
6
Good quality of products
  • In case of corn
  • Lepidopterans can influence the development of
    stalk rot and ear rot disease in corn.
  • Fusarium ear rot and Aspergillus kernel rot are
    often associated with insect damage to ear or
    kernels.
  • Mycotoxins, fumonisins that canbe fatal to horses
    and pigs and are probable human carcinogens.
    Aflatoxins can be passed into milk if dairy cows
    consume contaminated grain.

http//www.apsnet.org/online/feature/BtCorn/Top.ht
ml
7
http//www.apsnet.org/online/feature/BtCorn/Top.ht
ml
8
Improved Yield
  • In the USA, Kerby 1996 in a 75 field comparison
    of three Bt cotton varieties and their non-Bt
    near-isogenic parents, showed a lint yield
    increase of as much as 207.2 kg/ha.
  • In a 109-field comparison in the southern and
    southeastern USA, Mullins and Mills 1999
    demonstrated a yield advantage of 22.4 kg/ha that
    resulted from adoption of Bt cotton

The Journal of Cotton Science 5121-136 (2001)
http//www.jcotsci.org
9
Improved Yield
  • The average gross yields from Bt cotton increased
    by 15 over conventional strains in China
    (Buranakanonda, 1999)
  • In India, a study conducted at 30 locations
    showed a 14 to 38 increase in cotton yield
    without a single spray of insecticide for
    arthropod species (Hindu Business Line, 2000)
  • Gianessi and Carpenter 1999 found that the
    average percentage loss in yield before Bt cotton
    introduction (1985-1995) was 3.7 whereas the
    average percentage loss in yield after Bt cotton
    introduction (1996-1998) was 2.3.

The Journal of Cotton Science 5121-136 (2001)
http//www.jcotsci.org
10
Reduced Production Cost
  • For every spray eliminated, a grower reduces the
    number of spray trips and related fuel, machinery
    and labor cost.
  • Using the estimated 972,000 ha of Bt cotton
    planted in the United States in 1998 as a basis,
    the use of Bt technology has saved 4.8 to 9.6
    million in total and variable costs to the grower.

The Journal of Cotton Science 5121-136 (2001)
http//www.jcotsci.org
11
Reduced Production Cost
http//www.uwex.edu/ces/crops/RRsoybn.htm
An average 23/acre incremental profit
opportunity with roundup ready. (http//www.farmce
ntral.com/s/rrs/s4rssbzzz.htm)
12
Agricultural Benefits
  • Increased productivity and yield leading to
    reduced or stable prices for consumers
  • More efficient use of agricultural chemicals
  • savings in energy inputs to farm production
  • Recovery of degraded land
  • Reduced chemical sprays, with less exposure of
    farm workers

http//www.health.gov.au/ogtr/general/benefits.htm
l
13
Agricultural Benefits
  • A recent United States Department of Agriculture
    (USDA) study reported an average 45 percent
    reduction in the use of insecticides on cotton
    containing the (Bt) gene
  • In the USA, farmers have reduced their
    insecticide applications to cotton by four
    million litres in the first three years of use.
  • In one study, 45 percent of farmers used no
    insecticide at all.
  • In Australia it has reduced pesticide
    applications by approximately 50 percent per
    annum/season.

http//www.afaa.com.au
14
Agricultural Benefits
  • Developing biotech crops capable of surviving
    under harsh conditions such as droughts or in
    regions previously considered unsuitable for
    farming.
  • The salt-tolerant tomato helps solve a major
    agricultural problem since crop production is
    limited by salinity on up to 40 of the world's
    irrigated land. The GM tomato can grow in soil
    irrigated by water that is about 50 times saltier
    than normal. Another potential use of the
    modified tomatoes is to reclaim damaged soil by
    soaking up the salts.

Crop Biotech Update, August 3, 2001
15
Consumer Benefits
  • Better Nutrition and Quality
  • Researchers have succeeded in genetically
    modifying rice to enhance its vitamin A and iron
    content
  • Health Benefits
  • A research team of the Science University of
    Tokyo has succeeded in using genetically modified
    rice plants to produce the hepatitis B antibody,
    which can be used to produce immunity to the virus

http//www.eat2k.org/headlines/11-01-00_japanes_he
p_antibody.html http//www.biotech.ucdavis.edu/lin
ks/iron.htm
16
Consumer Benefits
Reduction of food contaminants, allergens and
natural toxic compounds in foods
..new application of genetic engineering is set
to provide alternative, non-allergenic versions
of certain foodstuffs for people who suffer from
food allergies". The most advanced project of
this kind is underway in Japan to develop GM
rice, minus the major allergen.
Http//www.eufic.org/gb/food/pag/food06/food063.ht
m
17
Environmental Benefits
  • Conserve natural resources, habitat and
    indigenous animal and plant life
  • Higher yields per acre for many crops produced
    through biotechnology mean that farmers would not
    require as much land to produce crops, thus
    helping to preserve forests and animal and plant
    habitats

http//www.icfcs.org/eco2.html
18
Environmental Benefits
  • Soil conservation
  • The development of herbicide-resistant crops has
    expanded farmers' ability to practice
    conservation-tillage farming. Conservation
    tillage is the practice of planting seeds through
    the stubble of last years crop, rather than
    plowing and disking the field. The stubble
    protects topsoil against loss to wind and rain
    and reduces chemical run-off to streams. By not
    plowing, farmers also conserve soil moisture,
    which can reduce irrigation demands in some
    regions.
  • http//www.icfcs.org/eco2.html

19
Environmental Benefits
  • Improved water quality through reduced soil
    erosion and run-off
  • Soil sedimentation or siltation is a major threat
    to stream quality in the United States. When silt
    enters rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and
    wetlands, fish respiration may be impaired, plant
    productivity and water depth can be reduced,
    aquatic organisms and their habitats may be
    smothered, and our aesthetic enjoyment of the
    water may be reduced. A summary of studies found
    that no-till farming, which is facilitated by
    biotechnology, can reduce soil erosion by 90
    percent.

http//www.icfcs.org/eco2.html
20
Environmental Benefits
  • More clean environment due to reduce use of
    agricultural chemicals
  • A study from Virginia showed that farmers who
    planted transgenic cotton showed a 72 percent
    reduction in insecticide use. Forty-five percent
    of growers did not to spray at all.
  • The results with canola grown in Canada are also
    impressive. Total herbicide use dropped from
    1400 to 400 grams per hectare in 1996

The Journal of Cotton Science 5121-136 (2001)
http//www.jcotsci.org
21
Environmental Benefits
  • Herbicide tolerant crops in the USA have recorded
    similar results to insect resistant crops. The
    USDA study showed an overall 17 percent drop in
    herbicide use on herbicide tolerant corn, cotton
    and soybeans.

22
World Food Supply Benefits
  • Biotech foods can make it possible to grow more
    food on the same land, especially under tough
    growing conditions
  • Biotech foods can reduce crop losses to pests and
    disease
  • Biotech crops can be more nutritious

Do we have enough foods to feed them?
(approximately 9,000 million people in 2050)
http//www.un.org
http//www.whybiotech.com/en/benefits/worldfood/co
n62.asp?MID39
23
What are the possible risks?
  • Environmental Risks
  • Human Health Risks

24
Environmental Risks?
  • Can GM crops become a weed or be invasive of
    natural habitat?
  • Can genes from genetically modified organisms
    cross over to weeds and create herbicide
    resistant weeds?(gene flow)
  • Can GM crops transfer genes to non GM-crops?(gene
    flow)
  • Could insects become resistant?
  • Are there any unintended effects on non-target
    organisms?
  • Risk to the capacity to maintain diverse farming
    practices, or impact to biodiversity.

http//www.afaa.com.au
25
Human Health Risks?
  • Increased health risks associated with
    allergenicity and toxicity in genetically
    modified foods
  • Why are antibiotic-resistant genes being used?
  • Horizontal gene transfer to other micro-organisms
    and become pathogenically.
  • Possible unknown long term or inter-generational
    consequences that may not be able to be
    adequately addressed once the GMO is widely used

http//www.afaa.com.au
26
To love is to risk not being loved in return
27
But risks must be taken, because the greatest
hazard in life is to risk nothing
28
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has
nothing, is nothing
29
Only a person who takes risks is free
30
http//www.farmsource.com/News_Trends/Edge/prdkn2.
htm
31
Thanks for your attention.
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