Can genetically modified crops help feed the world?

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Last week India rejected what would have been the country’s first genetically modified food crop, a transgenic eggplant. What does this mean for the future of genetically modified crops in India and other parts of the world? And can such crops help feed the world’s hungry? Talk with biologist Lisa Weazel of Portland State University. She’s the author of Food Fray: Inside the Controversy of Genetically Modified Food, and our guest on the latest The World Science Forum. The discussion is live through February, 19th.

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MARCO WERMAN: From Afghanistan we now turn southeast to India.  This week the Indian government rejected what would have been that country’s first transgenic food crop, a genetically modified eggplant.  The company that developed it, an Indian subsidiary of the American company Monsanto, claims that the crop would boost yields substantially and cut the need for pesticides.  But opponents are concerned that it might harm consumers, the environment and small farmers.  For a bit of perspective on the controversy let’s turn now to Doctor Lisa Weasel.  She’s a molecular biologist at Portland State University and the author of Food Fray, Inside the Controversy of Genetically Modified Food.  Dr. Weasel what’s going on in India right now in regard to this proposed new crop?  It’s a genetically modified eggplant or brinjo as it’s called there.

LISA WEASEL: That’s right.  I think that there’s a huge amount of controversy with consumers, farmers and government policy makers asking questions about whether or not there have been adequate safety and environmental regulatory research done on this crop and whether it’s really ready to be released for commercial growth.

MARCO: Maybe you can explain what the concern is about, because there’s already a genetically modified cotton that’s widely grown in India, and you know though GMO has been incredibly polarizing around the globe here in the US most of our corn is from genetically modified seed so why a genetically modified eggplant specifically?  Why is this causing so much concern for India?

LISA: Sure, I think that globally this is the first relatively unprocessed genetically modified food for human consumption.  Certainly in the US the large majority of our soy and corn is genetically modified.  But these are usually used for animal feed or when humans consume it it’s in highly, highly processed forms.  Derivatives of corn and soy.  So it’s not really entering the human diet in the same way that the BT eggplant would.  Also consumers don’t respond very well when all of the health and safety testing has been done by the company that’s marketing the product.

MARCO: And is that indeed the case?

LISA: Yeah there’s very limited independent research, particularly with long-term effects on either health or environment of these genetically modified crops.

MARCO: And so is the Indian government going to conduct its own independent testing on this genetically modified eggplant or have they basically said nope, it’s not coming in here?

LISA: No there’s just a moratorium on it so the Indian government has said that they need to set up more stringent regulatory systems and a lot of safety testing to develop their own tests and come to their own conclusions.

MARCO: What are the potential negative health effects on humans from specifically this GM eggplant?

LISA: In this case you’re introducing a new protein that has never been part of the human food system before.  It’s a toxin protein from a soil bacteria, and it’s toxic to the caterpillars that are eating the plant.  It’s not toxic to humans in the same way, but at the same time we really don’t know what the impact on human health might be of this new protein, and it may also affect other proteins in the plant.  So there might be some unintended consequences.

MARCO: Why do you think the subject of GMO is so polarizing in so much of the world except the US?  I mean if you say GM here, people think you mean General Motors.  If you say GM in the UK they know what you’re talking about.

LISA: Well certainly people around the world have different reactions and relationships to science and technology because the genetically modified traits have been developed and marketed by Monsanto, primarily.  You know a large American multi-national corporation that really hasn’t lent it a positive light in other locations around the world.  Americans are also a little less critical about their food consumption than other locations in the world.  Certainly India there’s a large cultural connection to food.  Europeans have a similar connection to their food.  One of my European correspondents for the research said if Americans are willing to eat McDonalds Special Sauce of course they don’t care if they’re eating genetically modified food.  So there’s a stereotype that Americans don’t really care so much about what they eat.  But I think that also the way that these crops have been developed and marketed has played a role in the global reaction as well.

MARCO: Where do you think the important breakthroughs might be in developing new crop varieties?  Are there other technologies that might revolutionize agriculture?

LISA: Certainly and I think it’s unfortunate that the GMO debate and the focus on transgenic plants, plants that cross the species barrier have genes from foreign species in them, has dominated so much of the debate because there are many, many molecular and genetic tools that can be very useful that when combined with conventional agriculture, hybridization, those kind of approaches can be very useful.  One of them is marker-assisted selection where you’re using molecular biology to have a little window into the DNA of the plant.  It can speed up conventional hybridization conventional breeding programs by allowing you to track and select those plants that are most likely to be best adapted to their local environments.  And that’s something that really doesn’t happen with these genetically modified varieties.  So I think that there are definitely very important tools that are perhaps getting brushed aside or neglected because so much of the energy and focus is on genetically modified varieties.

MARCO: Lisa Weasel we’ll have to leave it there but our listeners can continue the discussion with you on line in our latest World Science Forum.  Doctor Weasel will be taking questions about genetically modified crops and other new agricultural technologies.  The discussion will continue through next week.  To participate go to TheWorld.org/science and click on the latest science forum.  Doctor Lisa Weasel, professor of biology at Portland State University, we’ll be seeing you on line and thanks a lot.

LISA: Yeah, thanks for having me.

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