What are the Benefits and Risks of GMOs?

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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
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Benefits
World Benefits
Environmental Benefits
Consumer Benefits
Agricultural Benefits
Farmer Benefits
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Farmer Benefits

• Better Control of Insect Pests
• More Flexible Weed Management
• Good Quality of Products
• Improved Yield
• Reduced Production Cost

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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
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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
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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
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http//www.apsnet.org/online/feature/BtCorn/Top.ht
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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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
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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
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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.

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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
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What are the possible risks?

• Environmental Risks
• Human Health Risks

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