Genetically modified crops: policy and
globalisation issues
Dr. Martin J. Hodson
The Questions
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How?
Why?
What?
Environment?
Food?
Ethics?
Theology?
Business?
Politics?
Globalisation?
The Globalisation Problem
• The issues we face here are not necessarily
related to whether GM Crops are a “good
thing” or not.
• Like most technologies it is how they are
used, and who they are used by that are the
biggest problems.
• The globalisation problems are really just a
symptom of a wider problem in agriculture
and society.
Where?
Where?
Millions hectares
90
80
70
60
50
40
Millions hectares
30
20
10
0
North
America
Latin
America
Africa
Europe
Asia &
Australia
Where?
1
2
3
North America
1980
1980 to 1996
• 1983 genetically modified tobacco resistant
to an antibiotic
• 1985 first GM crop trials
• 1993 US Food and Drug Administration
allows companies to market GM seed
• 1994 Flavr Savr tomato, is approved in the
US
• 1996 Herbicide-tolerant GM soya bean
available in US
Who produces GM Crops?
• 2008- Monsanto produced more than 90%
of GM crops worldwide. Syngenta, Bayer
CropScience, Dow and BASF make the
rest.
• But patents begin to expire in 2014.
• Rise of GM crop research and production in
China, India etc.
2012
GM Percentages of the top 3 crops grown in
the USA:
Maize (Corn) 88%
Cotton 94%
Soybean 93%
Source: USDA
The Opponents- N. America
Opposition takes the form of:
1) Battles over patent law.
2) Worries over food safety.
3) Battles over food labelling.
Percy Schmeiser (1997 onwards)
“Now, at 70, I am involved with this fight with
Monsanto. I stood up to them because a farmer
should never give up the right to use his own seed. I
felt very strongly about it because my grandparents
came here from Europe in late 1890s and early
1900s to open this land, to be free, and to grow what
they wanted to grow. Now we are going back to a
feudal system that they left because they were not
free—basically we are becoming serfs of the land.”
Percy Schmeiser
(image: Wikimedia Commons)
Roundup ready canola
(oilseed rape).
19 Feb 2013. Bowman vs Monsanto
US Supreme Court
2010- USA
In a Deloitte 2010 Food Survey more than a third of US
consumers were very or extremely concerned about
eating genetically modified foods, down 3 percent from
2008.
California Proposition 37 (2012)
Genetically Engineered Food LabellingElection Results
Yes or No
Votes
Percentage
Yes
6,088,714
48.59%
No
6,442,371
51.41%
TOTAL
12,531,085
100%
22 Feb.
2013
• New Jersey
• A coalition presses
the state to become
the first in the
United States to
label genetically
engineered food
UK & Europe
Early history in UK
• 1994 The first GM food, the Flavr Savr
tomato (Calgene), is approved in the US
• 1996 GM tomato paste arrives in Britain.
• Sold well at first, but withdrawn by 1999.
• 2003 GM Nation Debate
• “Frankenfoods”
Frankenfoods
Why so little GM in UK?
Great Plains
The Cotswolds
Worries Associated with Food
Horse meat
Bovine spongiform
encephalopathy
(BSE)
"Mad Cow
Disease"
Foot and Mouth
Oxford Farming Conference: 3 Jan. 2013
Owen Paterson (UK
Environment Secretary)
Image: Wikimedia Commons
“We should not be afraid of
making the case to the public
about the potential benefits of
GM beyond the food chain - for
example, reducing the use of
pesticides and inputs such as
diesel. I believe that GM offers
great opportunities but I also
recognise that we owe a duty to
the public to reassure them that it
is a safe and beneficial
innovation.”
Oxford Farming Conference :
3 Jan. 2013
"I want to start with some
apologies. For the record,
here and upfront, I
apologise for having
spent several years
ripping up GM crops. I
am also sorry that I
helped to start the antiGM movement back in
the mid 1990s, and that I
thereby assisted in
demonising an important
technological option
which can be used to
benefit the environment."
Mark Lynas
"My conclusion is very clear: the GM
debate is over. It is finished. We no
longer need to discuss whether or not
it is safe – over a decade and a half
with three trillion GM meals eaten
there has never been a single
substantiated case of harm. You are
more likely to get hit by an asteroid
than to get hurt by GM food."
Are you convinced that
GM food is both safe and
beneficial?
Yes 28%
No 72%
Guardian Poll
3 Jan. 2013
Science 22 Feb. 2013
The GMO Stalemate in Europe
Louise O. Fresco, Editorial:
“The European Union (EU) differs from most of the
world in its strong opposition to the use of genetic
modification in agriculture.”
“Europe’s lack of trust in GMOs reflects a wider
distrust of science.”
“….. efforts to ease acceptance of genetic
modification have failed.”
Developing World
Golden Rice
Image: International
Rice Research Institute
(IRRI)
Golden rice produces beta-carotene, a
precursor of vitamin A, in the grain. The idea
is to produce a fortified food to be grown and
consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary
vitamin A.
Published in Science (2000) an eight-year
project by Ingo Potrykus & Peter Beyer
First field trials 2004
Potrykus- golden rice to be distributed for
free to subsistence farmers.
A US$10,000 cut off between humanitarian and commercial use was
set. So if a farmer of golden rice makes less than $10,000 per year, no
royalties need to be paid. In addition, farmers are permitted to keep
and replant seed.
Golden Rice- latest
“In short, Golden Rice will only be made
available broadly to farmers and consumers in
the Philippines if it is approved by national
regulators and shown to reduce vitamin A
deficiency in community conditions. This
process may take another two years or more.”
(IRRI, 21st Feb. 2013)
Terminator Genes
• Restricts the use of GM plants by causing
second generation seeds to be sterile.
• Would prevent gene movement.
• Never commercialised.
• But if companies lost patent battles……
It is hard to trust GM when it is
in the grip of a few global giants
“I fear much of the problem of trust stems from the
chemical company Monsanto, which from the start
has been the world's largest producer, researcher and
distributor of the crops. Its fierce use of patents, its
heavy-handed lobbying of governments to deregulate
markets, and its buying up of seed companies
internationally have scared the public, raised concerns
among small farmers the world over and denied the
public the potential benefits.”
John Vidal (The Observer) Sunday 3 February 2013
Alternatives??
“Genetically modified plants and GM fish may have a sustainable
contribution to make in some environments just as ecological
agriculture might be a superior approach to achieving a higher
sustainable level of agricultural productivity.” International
assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for
development (IAASTD, 2008)
SRI
India’s Rice Revolution
“In a village in India’s poorest
state, Bihar, farmers are
growing world record amounts
of rice- with no GM and no
herbicide. Is this one solution to
world food shortages?”
John Vidal (The Observer)
Saturday 16 February 2013
Globalisation Conclusion
• Huge differences between Europe and N.
America
• Key battles are over patents and food labelling.
• At the moment much is controlled by one large
company.
• Even if the technology is proven to be “safe”
worries over multinational control are real and
need to be addressed.