ISAAA: Developing nations faster on the GM uptake

In the coming two to three years, China and Brazil may form the vanguard of developing nations that are moving the most rapidly towards genetically modified (GM) crops. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA, based in the USA), the speed of such countries will exceed that of wealthier nations.

In its recently-published annual report on the global cultivation of GM crops, ISAAA states that 46 per cent of such fields are found in developing countries. By 2015, GM crops may add more than 70 million hectares to their current field area of 134 million, according to suggestions by the ISAAA China, Brazil, India, Argentina and South Africa are referred as "the big five" expected to utilize Bt crops to enhance yields in the face of stagnant growth in arable land.

According to ISAAA, India will sow GM seeds on a large scale despite the recent administrative ban on commercial release of the Bt line of a local eggplant known as brinjal and Brazil increase its national use of GM plants by a third. With more than 21 million current hectares, the South American country has moved into second place behind the USA as most significant cultivator land of GM crops.

  Zero tolerance’ of GM: New problems with the import of feed?

The European feed industry once again has warned of problems with the import of feed in the case that the EU upholds its policy of ‘zero tolerance’ for unapproved genetically modified (GM) plants. Currently, a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy is maintained in the EU towards low-level traces of unapproved GM plants as in pervious autumn, traces of such GM maize lines repeatedly were found in feed imports from the USA. Such shipments may not enter the EU. It is expected that the European Commission will issue ‘technical guidelines’ with regard, for example, to standardized analysis procedures and sampling for GM organisms (GMO). Such a technical solution appears more readily realizable than protracted and politically controversial changes in the existing European regulations for gene technology. In their approach to green gene technology, the major agricultural exporter countries in North and South America and their recipient markets in Europe are developing increasingly different manners.

Approval and the commercial use of newly-developed GM plants are carried out significantly faster on the other side of the Atlantic than in gene-technology-sceptic Europe. The problem of minimal admixtures GMO is an expression of this widening gap. The maize produces six different Bt proteins and resists thereby a variety of pests. In addition, the maize is tolerant of two active substances used to combat weeds.

 Genetically modified wheat: No influence on insect larvae and aphids

Two projects of the Swiss National Research Program "Benefits and Risks of the deliberate release of Genetically Modified Plants" have investigated the possible effects of fungus-resistant genetically modified wheat on fly larvae and aphids. The GM wheat had no influence on the development of the animals, or on mortality or reproduction. The researchers were interested in the effect of GM-wheat on fly larvae that decompose plant residues in the soil and so are involved in maintaining the soil fertility. Aphids were also chosen for study as they feed almost exclusively on plant sap and so are sensitive indicators for the food quality of the fodder plant.

Studies on fly larvae have been carried out by scientists through feeding larvae of two species of flies occurring in Switzerland with leaves from six different genetically modified wheat varieties. For comparison, larvae were also fed exclusively on six conventional strains of wheat. The researchers observed the development and the reproduction of the flies emerging from these larvae over four generations to see if there were any long-term effects. The different food sources had no effect on the fitness of any of the animals in any case.

A similar approach was chosen by the researchers for their project on aphids. In environmental chambers, 30 different aphid colonies were fed with eight different wheat species, four of which were genetically modified lines. The mortality, weight and fertility of the animals were recorded. All the measured parameters for all the differently fed aphids were comparable. No effects due to the genetic modifications were seen.

    Back..