FEATURE - GMO crops - here to stay or gone with the wind?
Date: 06-Nov-01
Country: USA
Author: Peter Bohan
Five years after the first commercialised crop - when the Flavr Savr tomato was engineered with the flick of a gene to keep longer - genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have won acceptance from many farmers and endorsement by most scientists.
"I don't think there's any question of GMOs being here to stay," said Gerald Nelson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois and editor of "GMOs in Agriculture: Economics and Politics," a 300-page survey of the issues published this year.
"The question is whether we get beyond the initial wave of products like Bt (pest resistant) cotton or corn. I wouldn't bet a whole lot of money on that happening real soon," he said.
Consumers in Europe and parts of Asia, angered by what they see as products being foisted upon them without their consent, remain unconvinced. They have pushed for more testing, regulation, labelling and segregating or total bans.
In the corporate sector even Monsanto , the company most loathed by biotech opponents, has now acknowledged a public relations disaster and pledged to turn over a new leaf.
"There's a significant risk that the industry could still lose the credibility battle," said Edward Groth, senior scientist at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports and a leading consumer group in the United States.
"We are sort of at the same point with GMO crops that we were with pesticides 50 years ago. They were going to solve all the farmers' problems and pests were going to be a thing of the past."
The European Union, which froze the approval of new GMOs three years ago, has tried to placate critics by proposing rules to label foods in which they make up more than one percent.
The United States says this is impractical. Critics say it is too lenient.
Brazil, on the verge of approving GMO soybeans, has delayed again. Japan and South Korea's "zero tolerance" for StarLink corn - a genetically-modified grain which prompted widespread food recalls in the United States because of fears of allergic reactions in some people - has reduced sales of U.S. corn to those top buyers in the past year.
TAKING ROOT
In the food industry, the consumer is king. So the vocal protests from consumer groups have prompted costly food recalls and a tangle of trade and intellectual property disputes.
Despite the storm, GMO use has not actually stalled.
In 2001, plantings of GMO corn in the United States accounted for 24 percent of all corn acreage against 25 percent a year earlier. GMO soybean acreage rose to 63 percent from 54 percent and GMO cotton acreage rose to 64 percent from 61 percent.
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) estimates that GMO plantings globally in 2001 would reach 50 million hectares (124 million acres), up 10 percent from the previous year.
"Despite the ongoing debate about GMO crops, particularly in countries of the European Union, millions of large and small farmers in both industrial and developing countries continue to increase their plantings of GMO crops," ISAAA said.
The reason for the success of GMOs is economic.
GMO soybean growers in the U.S. claim savings of $5 to $20 per acre (0.447 hectares) from reduced fuel and herbicide costs. U.S. cotton growers report better yields and lower pesticide use from Bt cotton, which contains an insect-resistant soil bacterium.
Such lessons are not lost on the developing world.
"It is now widely recognised that we are at a post-Green Revolution standstill and that yield ceilings of the main food crops have already been reached in conventional breeding programmes," Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said in May.
"We must look to genetic engineering to help to move beyond these plateaux."
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES NEXT?
GMO research is advanced on canola, sweetcorn, raspberries, citrus and other crops that have an impact on rich cons