Some thoughts on Genetic Modification

This started out as a response to an article my brother shared on Facebook which explored potential collaboration between Genetic Modification (specifically marker assisted breeding) and Organic Farming.

I have to admit to both a logical and an emotional reaction to Genetic Modification, and it is mixed. I would separate my issues on the basis of methodology, the specific purpose of the modification, and intellectual property rights.

Methodology:

Simple breeding, and marker assisted breeding do not bother me at all. Humans have been doing that in one form or another as long as we have been practicing agriculture and husbandry.

Transgenic implantation is another matter. With at least some of the earlier transgenic implantation the target gene was only part of what was implanted. They were often part of a bundle of genes, and the stuff that came with it may or may not have had an effect on the resulting organism. Even in the case of a well targeted implantation I would like to see the precautionary principle applied rigorously to these organisms. When introducing a mutation (which is essentially what is happening) that does not have many generations in similar organisms for study there may be long term or subtle effects that are not swiftly apparent.

Fully designed organisms, which I have found theorized and some references to early successes, bother me a lot. They do not have the safeguards of existing organisms to compare as a control group. They have no history on which to base reasonable predictions. I don't think we know enough to mess around with this field yet. We are children playing with grown up tinker toys.

Specific Purpose:

Modifications to improve the survival of a whole class of organisms, such as the work done to immunize oranges from a disease against which they contained no natural immunity, is troubling to me but justifiable. Jobs, economy, and nutrition would all be dramatically affected by the extinction of oranges. The search was made extensively for a variety that showed immunity, to no avail. Drastic measures were called for. I still strongly urge the precautionary principal be applied to the new organism because we do not know what other effect the implanted gene may have.

Modifications to improve the nutritive value of the organism, such as golden rice, though impressive and well motivated I find less justifiable. There are many cultivars of grain currently in existence that can provide similar nutritive value to golden rice, or can be combined with other foods to accomplish the same things, without the inherent risks I perceive in transgenic implantation. Spending our efforts on conserving heritage cultivars and landrace varieties, and searching through them for traits which can be hybridized through marker assisted breeding will, I believe, give us much greater value in the long run.

Modifications to better use chemicals, or to induce the organism to produce pesticides, such as 'Round-up Ready' or Bt corn, angers me because it creates the risk I have referenced above and multiplies it by the creation or encouragement of toxin use on our food sources. I do not always eat organic, though I much prefer to do so. I would far rather see insect damage on the food I eat then consume the toxins used to combat them. Bt toxin, sprayed on crops, is an organic pesticide that does not linger in the soil or the food. Bt toxin, produced organically by the food bearing organism, is present in the food when we eat it. Some evidence, which warrants further study, suggests the hypothesis that Bt implanted food may induce human intestinal bacteria to begin production of Bt toxin directly. That possibility greatly disturbs me. There are already cases in which the targeted pests and weeds for which the modifications developed a tolerance for the toxins (Bt and Round-up) such that further modifications became necessary. We need to find ways to avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides altogether through moving away from monoculture, moving towards no-till agriculture, and focusing on building healthy soil. The use of 'Round-up Ready' crops and Bt implanted crops is just as wrong-headed as expanding our use of coal and tar sands is in relationship to Global Climate Change.

Intellectual Property Rights

Perhaps the most disturbing element of Genetic Modification, to me, is the resulting patents on seeds and the restrictions on saving seeds. For at least the last 10,000 years humans practicing agriculture have saved seeds. During those millenia a great many civilizations have risen, dominated, collapsed, and disappeared. It is probable that our civilization will do the same (the growing weight of Climate Change, environmental toxicity, resource depletion, and damage to the oxygen cycle threaten to bring that about sooner rather than later if left unchecked). The trend to create life technologies that require high-tech maintenance over long generations is an act of arrogance only topped by allowing heritage varieties to go extinct. We threaten the survival of the survivors from our civilization. Seeds are our inheritance from the generations that have gone before, and they are the inheritance we leave to the generations that will follow us. We are, or should be, stewards of that inheritance and we need to treat them with the respect they are due.