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Informing the public about modern biotechnology and biosafety

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Title: Informing the public about modern biotechnology and biosafety


1
Informing the public about modern biotechnology
and biosafety
  • Sixth Dubai international Food safety Conference
    Session
  • Moving with the trends and developments in food
    safety."
  • Dubai, 28 February 2011
  • Piet van der Meer,
  • Horizons sprl, Belgium

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2
Topics
  • Frequently asked questions
  • What is genetic modification/engineering? How is
    it different from conventional breeding?
  • What are the potential benefits of GM crops?
  • How is safety of GM crops addressed ?
  • What are the experiences with GM crops to date?

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Conventional breeding
  • Since humans started farming about 10,000 years
    ago, farmers have used crossing and selection to
    improve crops so that they
  • - produce more
  • - taste better
  • - are stronger in the field
  • - have a longer shelf life
  • - etc

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4
Conventional breeding
  • For 1000s of years, breeding was largely trial
    and error
  • 19th century Gregor Mendeldiscovered the rules
    of cross breeding.
  • Early 20th century discovery of inducing
    mutations by radiation and chemicals.
  • Early 20th century discovery of hybrids
  • Crop breeding has made major achievements and is
  • crucially important for food security

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Conventional breeding
  • Teosinthe
  • Todays sugar maize

6
Conventional breeding
  • Breeding and induced mutation also have some
    limitations
  •  
  • Cross breeding only works between related
    plants.
  • For some species breeding is extremely difficult.
  • Breeding can take very long, e.g. apples.
  • Linkage drag not only the desired genes go
    across.
  • Induced mutation is undirected and unpredictable.

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Genetic Modification of Plants
  • Scientific discoveries in the 20th century to
    overcome
  • these limitations
  • Discovery of DNA and genes located on
    chromosomes
  • Discovery of special enzymes to cut and paste
    genes,restriction enzymes, ligases, etc.
  • Discovery of transfer of genes into plant cells

8
Genetic Modification of Plants
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9
Genetic Modification of Plants
  • Technical characteristics of GM compared with
    breeding
  • Highly specific
  • Faster
  • Possible with plants that do not cross sexually
  • Much greater reservoir of genes

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10
Genetic Modification
  • New technology
  • Is it useful?
  • Is it safe?

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11
Biotechnology - the broader context
  • Escalating global challenges
  • Growing world population (9 billion in 2050)
  • Increased consumption of food, feed, and fiber
  • Increasing demand for renewable fuels
  • Loss of agricultural land
  • Shortage of water for irrigation.
  • Climate change
  • Reduced agrobiodiversity
  • Environmental degradation
  • Loss of natural habitats and biodiversity

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12
Biotechnology - the broader context
  • Escalating global challenges
  • Growing world population (9 billion in 2050)
  • Increased consumption of food, feed, and fiber
  • Increasing demand for renewable fuels
  • Loss of agricultural land
  • Shortage of water for irrigation.
  • Climate change
  • Reduced agrobiodiversity
  • Environmental degradation
  • Loss of natural habitats and biodiversity

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13
Genetic engineering - the broader context
  • The world will not be able to feed itself without
    destroying the planet unless a fundamental
    transformation of agricultural production takes
    place.
  • Farmers have to produce more while having less
    impact on the environment.
  • Need for Sustainable intensification (FAO)

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14
Genetic engineering - the broader context
  • Farmers need the availability of crop plants
    that
  • -  produce more per hectare,
  • -  produce more per litre of water,
  • -  are less dependent on pesticides and
    fertilisers,  
  • - can grow on marginal land,
  • -  have enhanced nutritional value
  • -  have reduced post harvest losses,
  • -  reduce soil erosion,
  • - etc.

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15
Genetic engineering - the broader context
  • These immense challenges cannot be solved by
    conventional
  • techniques alone.
  • Modern biotechnology can contribute significantly
    to
  • finding solutions for these challenges (Earth
    Summit
  • Agenda 21, 1992 World Summit 2005)
  • The future of the agriculture is not a matter of
    either this or
  • that technology but rather of combining the most
    suitable
  • approaches of each available technology.

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16
Situation with GM crops to date
  • Since the early 80s, a massive biotechnology
    research effort is conducted in many research
    institutions all over the world to improve crop
    plants.
  • In Agenda 21 (1992) a detailed blueprint was
    agreed for international collaboration in
    biotechnology research
  • Many thousands of research trials with GM plants,
    trees, and micro-organisms have been conducted
    over the last decades.

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17
Situation with GM crops to date
  • Since 1996, GM crops  have been grown
    commercially by farmers over more than 1 billion
    hectares world wide.
  • In 2010, 15.4 million farmers planted 148 million
    hectares of biotech crops in 29 countries
  • The GM crops grown commercially today are mainly
    soybean, cotton, maize and canola with insect
    resistance and/or herbicide tolerance.
  • Source www.isaaa.org.  

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18
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19
Genetic Modification
  • New technology
  • Is it useful?
  • Is it safe? - for the environment- as food and
    feed

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20
Biosafety - History 1972 First publication
recombinant DNA 1974 Berg Letter hopes and
concerns - moratorium 1975 Asilomar end of
moratorium - safety case by case 1986 first
transgenic plants 1986 OECD rDNA safety
recommendations - Blue Book 1986 US
coordinated framework for regulation 1986
European Directives on GMOs
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21
Biosafety History 1992 UNCED, Rio De
Janeiro 1992 Agenda 21 - maximise benefits
- minimise risks 1992 Convention on
Biological Diversity - art 19 international
collaboration on biotechnology - art 8g
national biosafety systems
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22
  • Biosafety - History
  • 2000 The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
  • Procedures for transboundary movement of living
    modified organisms in absence of national
    regulations
  • Agreed principles and methodology for risk
    assessment
  • Mechanism for information sharing - Biosafety
    Clearing House

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23
National biosafety systems
  • Different systems
  • Guidelines and standards, e.g Good Laboratory
    Practices
  • Regulations
  • Pre-market regulations
  • Post-market regulations

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24
National biosafety systems
25
Environmental Safety Food/feed Safety
  • Often different bodies involved, e.g - US
    USDA, EPA, FDA
  • - EU EFSA plus national authorities
  • Internationally agreed principles and
    methodology
  • Environmental safety Cartagena Protocol on
    Biosafety
  • Food/Feed safety Codex Alimentarius

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26
  • Environmental Risk Assessment - Methodology
  • Methodology
  • Procedure Follow a number of steps
  • Substance Take into account a number of
    parameters

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27
  • Environmental Risk Assessment - Methodology
  • Identification of relevant phenotypic and
    genotypic changes that may have adverse effects
  • Likelihood estimation
  • Evaluation of the consequences
  • Estimation of overall risk
  • Are identified risks acceptable or manageable?

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28
  • Environmental Risk Assessment - Methodology
  • Take into account the relevant characteristics
    of
  • The recipient (host) or parental organism(s).
  • Inserted sequences.
  • The resulting GMO
  • The intended use (e.g field trial, commercial
    use)
  • The receiving environment.

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29
Environmental risk assessment
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30
Food Safety Assessment
Codex Alimentarius Foods derived from
biotechnology
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31
Guidance European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
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32
Comparative GMO food/feed safety assessment
  • Two main elements
  • Intended changes
  • The inserted genes and related traits
  • Assess intrinsic properties and functions of the
    gene-product tiered approach
  • Possible unintended changes in the GMO
  • as result of insertion or expression
  • Assess composition

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33
1. Intrinsic properties and functions of the gene
products
  • Assessment of
  • Possible changes in toxicity
  • Possible changes in allergenicity
  • Case-specific topics, such as nutritional changes

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34
Toxicity
  • Step 1 For each newly expressed protein
  • Molecular and biochemical characterisation
  • Computer-aided comparison of homology with known
    toxins
  • Digestibility in laboratory assay

Codex Standard "Weight of Evidence Approach"
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35
Toxicity
  • Step 2 In cases indicated by step 1, and in
    specific cases whereby the composition of the GM
    plant is modified substantially.
  • Animal toxicity tests with pure protein
  • Whole food/feed testing
  • Laboratory animal toxicity tests (e.g. 90 days
    test)
  • Complex mixtures - More difficult to test than
    purified chemicals

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36
Allergenicity
  • General
  • Not an intrinsic, fully predictable property of a
    given protein
  • Airway-, contact-, and food-allergies
  • Food
  • "Big eight food allergens (90)
  • All food allergens are proteins

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37
Assessment of possible allergenicity
  • Is the donor of the novel gene a known allergen?
  • Comparison with known allergens - databases
  • In vitro digestibility and processing stability
  • When indicated by the above (weight of
    evidence) further testing, case by case
  • Reaction with antisera from allergic patients
  • Clinical tests, such as skin prick test
  • Animal models

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38
Case-specific issue Nutritional assessment
  • Food/feed contains nutrients, antinutrients which
    may be target of modification
  • In those cases assessment of nutritional value
  • Calculated from compositional data
  • Domestic and laboratory animal feeding
    studies(NB these are not toxicity studies)
  • Animal models
  • Chicken (rapidly growing)
  • Others, such as milk cows

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39
2. Unintended changes compositional analysis
  • Macro/micronutrients, anti-nutrients, toxins, and
    compounds from relevant metabolic pathways
  • Key parameters differ between organisms
  • Parameters in OECD consensus documents
  • Assessment
  • Comparison with appropriate comparator(s)
  • Multiple seasons and locations (crop)
  • Identify differences that are relevant to
    food/feed safety

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40
Experiences with GM crops to date
  • 87-fold increase in hectares since 1996.
  • Aggregated data indicate
  • Reduced production costs (50),
  • Yield gains of 167 million tons equivalent with
     62.6 million additional hectares  
  • pesticide reduction estimated at 356 million kg
    of active ingredient
  • Reduction of fossil fuel use
  • Source ISAAA

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41
Experiences with GM crops to date
  • No verifiable reports of adverse effects of GM
    crops on human health or the environment
  • NB Less mycotoxin contaminations in insect
    resistant crops due to reduced damage by pest
    insects

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42
Summary
  • Genetic modification is tool that allows traits
    to be introduced in crop plants in a very
    targeted way and with a much greater reservoir of
    genes
  • Although not a silver bullet, GM can help
    developing crops that produce more, that are less
    dependent on water, pesticides and fertilisers,
    that are more nutritious, and that have a longer
    shelf life

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43
Summary
  • Internationally agreed methodologies are applied
    to assess the environmental and food safety of GM
    crops.
  • The GM crops that are on the market to day are as
    safe as their non modified counterparts.
  • Data show rapid global expansion of the adoption
    of GM crops by farmers, and substantial increases
    in yield, and reduction of use of pesticide and
    fossil fuels.

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44
  • Thank you

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