A Production of the Shiva Working Group on Global Sustainability* and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

January 1995

Genetic engineering techniques are currently being used to produce a wide range of new products, which the biotechnology industry believes will benefit all citizens. Most research involves plants and animals although some effort is now being put on genetically engineered microbes, such as nitrogen fixing bacteria, frost suppressive bacteria, and some microbial soil amendments. Following is a sample of the rationales promoted by the industry for experimenting with agriculturally-related genetically engineered products and some of the concerns raised by scientists and researchers.

GENETIC ENGINEERING AND PLANTS

* Herbicide tolerant plants won't die when sprayed with broad-spectrum

herbicides, thereby allowing the herbicide to be used more.

* Insect and disease resistant plants contain toxins and other

factors produced by other organisms, including bacteria, scorpions and other venomous organisms. The toxins enable the plant to resist pests.

* Delayed ripening allows food to be shipped farther. For example,

genetic engineering allows the regulation of ripening in the trademarked FLAVR SAVR tomato.

* Environmental tolerance enables plants to become more drought

resistant, freeze tolerant, and so on. This allows the geographic range of crops such as corn and soybeans to expand, potentially intensifying monoculture cropping and transforming local economies.

* "Quality modification" promises improvements in value. For example,

altering the protein content or amino acid balance by creating a high lysine corn could help improve nutrition for the poor and hungry in our country. However, present applications have focused on the development of herbicide-tolerant corn.

* "New commercial products" such as "pharm" plants that produce

pharmaceuticals or modifications to canola and soy oils to enhance their use as industrial chemical inputs for the production of specialty soaps and cosmetics.

GENETIC ENGINEERING AND ANIMALS

* Essential nutrients may no longer be required in animal feed if

animals are engineered to no longer need these nutrients. How will this change the animal?

* Faster development may result from engineering animals that eat more

or digest more efficiently so that they can grow larger and/or be slaughtered earlier. However, growing fast creates problems for the animal; some of these animals may be more prone to disease and stress.

* Environmental tolerance is a factor being engineered in certain

animals that currently cannot tolerate cold or heat or wet or dry. The animals would be able to withstand these environmental extremes so that they can be produced in now inhospitable areas--possibly leading to their escape and ability to out-compete wild species.

* "Quality modification" in animals that are engineered to produce

characteristics humans find good to eat. The most well-known example is the genetically engineered lean but physically crippled pigs.

* "New commercial products" may "include "pharm" animals, similar to

the concept of "pharm" plants. Examples would be cows or goats from which pharmaceuticals can be extracted from the milk.

* Bioinsecticides use genetically engineered viruses and bacteria to

kill insects. Whether these microbes can escape and infect other organisms is not yet known.

* Artificial hormones stimulate faster growth, greater milk

productions, and so on. However, they also cause greater incidence of the disease mastitis, requiring the use of antibiotics which flow through the milk for human consumption.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The public must be kept informed about new developments in genetic engineering. The more informed we are, the more opportunities we will have to make informed decisions about these products. Labeling is one way to ensure the public can make an informed decision. Requiring that regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration put labels on genetically engineered foods can ensure the public's right-to-know about the latest events in genetic engineering.

In the U.S., only Minnesota and North Carolina have as yet regulated the development and use of genetic engineering. To find out what regulations may be under consideration in your area, contact your state legislators and local extension agents.

As soon as possible, governments, in cooperation with scientific experts and non-governmental organizations, should develop and adopt an international, legally binding biosafety protocol to regulate genetic engineering and to protect the public in the case of accidental or intentional release of genetically engineered organisms to the environment.

*The Shiva Working Group on Global Sustainability is a coalition of faculty, students and community leaders in Minnesota.

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One in a series of info sheets on Intellectual Property Rights available from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. For a complete listing send email to: ipr-info@iatp.or