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GM: Food for thought
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Monday, 31 August, 2009, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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By M.S. Swaminathan
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 The term "genetically-modified (GM) foods" refers to crops produced for human or animal consumption using the recombinant DNA techniques. Crop plants are modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits, mainly biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, improved nutritional content, etc. These traits were earlier carried out through conventional plant breeding, but these breeding methods are very time-consuming and often not very accurate. However, with recombinant DNA technology, plants with the desired traits can be produced, very rapidly and with greater accuracy. For example, we can isolate a gene responsible for conferring drought tolerance, introduce that gene into a plant, and make it drought tolerant. One of the best-known examples of using non-plant genes to transform crops is the use of Bt genes, in cotton and many other crops. Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are lethal only to insect larvae. Bt crystal protein genes have been transferred into cotton, soya, corn, brinjal, enabling the plants to produce its own pesticides against insects such as the American bollworm, European corn borer. Bt genes are lethal only in the acidic, insect gut environment and do not get activated in an alkaline environment, prevalent in humans and other animals that feed on these plants.
Benefits of GM foods
The world population has crossed six billion and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is a major challenge in the years to come. GM foods promise to meet this need in a number of ways:
l Pest resistance: Crop losses from insect pests are staggering, resulting in devastating financial loss for farmers, sometimes starvation in countries such as ours. Indiscriminate use of pesticides is also a potential health hazard, and the run-off of agricultural wastes from excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers poisons the water supply and harms the environment. Growing GM foods such as Bt brinjal helps reduce the application of pesticides substantially, as 80 per cent of brinjal crop are infested with pests.
l Disease resistance: There are many viruses, fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases and thereby contribute to yield loss. Plant biologists are working to create genetically engineered plants with resistance to these diseases, such as developing sheath blight resistance in rice.
l Cold/heat tolerance: Climate change is a reality and farmers are facing the vagaries of weather, like unexpected frost or excess heat. Researchers have identified an antifreeze gene from cold-water fish and introduced it into plants such as tobacco and potato to study the efficacy of the plant to withstand extreme temperatures. Also, research is on to identify plants that can survive excess heat, submergence tolerance etc.
l Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance: As the world population grows and more land is converted for housing instead of food production, farmers need to grow crops in non-arable land, previously unsuited for plant cultivation. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salinity in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in large, barren wetlands/drylands in our country.
l Nutrition: Malnutrition is rampant in our country where people rely on a single crop such as rice as their main staple food. However, rice does not contain adequate amounts of all necessary micro and macronutrients. If rice could be genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins, iron and/or minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be alleviated. For example, we, at MSSRF (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation), are working on improving the iron content, with encouraging results.
l Phytoremediation: Soil and groundwater pollution continues to be a problem in many parts of the world. Plants such as poplar trees, brassica spp are being genetically engineered to clean up heavy metal pollution from soil contaminated with metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium.
Environmental activists, religious organisations, non-governmental organisations, have all raised concerns about GM foods and criticised agribusiness for pursuing profit without concern for potential hazards, and criticised the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversight. Most concerns about GM foods fall into three categories - environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns. Unintended harm to other organisms; reduced effectiveness of pesticides; gene transfer to non-target species are some of the concerns of the environmental concerns of GM crops. There is no scientific evidence to prove any of these concerns as real, since commercialisation of transgenic crops over the past 10 years, in the world. Allergenicity; unknown effects on human health are some of the main health concerns. All GM crops are subjected to thorough regulatory processes and toxicology and allergenicity tests data needs to be shared with the regulatory authorities prior to commercialisation.
Bringing a GM food to market is a lengthy and costly process, and agri-biotech companies want to ensure a profitable return on their investment. Many new plant genetic engineering technologies and GM plants have been patented, and patent infringement is a big concern of agribusiness. This is a genuine concern and therefore it is important for governments such as ours to fund and support public sector research in reputed universities or agriculture institutes to ensure quality research and also keep prices under check. I would like to emphasise that after weighing in all the hazards, environmental, health and economic concerns, only then decisions are taken to commercialise a GM product. So, while there can be ambiguity while conducting the research, or during trials, once they get regulatory approval, it simply means that they have been subjected to stringent scrutiny and are safe for commercial release.
Governments around the world are hard at work to establish an effective regulatory process to monitor the effects of and approve new varieties of GM plants. In India, very soon, we will have in place a very effective, independent credible regulatory authority to ensure safe release of GM products. GM foods have the potential to solve many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides. Yet there are many challenges ahead for governments, especially in the areas of safety testing, regulation, international policy and food labelling.
* M.S. Swaminathan is the chairman of the National Commission on Farmers. He is considered to be the father of India's green revolution.
Comments: Actually there is a mistake in this article. The gut of the insects is alcaline and our stomac is acidic and not the other way around like mention in the article.
Comments: Dr. Swaminathan has provided an excellent 'Food for thought' through his analysis of GM technology and its future. I would like to add a small comment that the term GM foods is not restricted to plants alone, but includes foods obtained from any organism genetically modified (omega-3pigs, although not available for consumption is a good example). As he suggests, there is a strong need for educating the technology in lay-man terms to both consumers and administrators who take serious decisions in advancing such technologies. The risks from GM fo
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