| Friends of the Earth and other organisations
presenting anti-GM campaigns are correct to point out that genetic
engineering is distinct from traditional breeding by enabling
any gene from any species to be 'spliced' into crop plants,
a process that could have unexpected consequences. However,
by using this as one of the reasons for opposing all GM crops,
anti-GM campaigners are making a significant over-simplification.
It is not the GM technology per se that is dangerous,
it is the transferral of genes between unrelated species that
is at issue. GM technology does not have to involve the transferral
of genes between unrelated species.
Although one of the two major current application of GM technology
(synthesis of insecticidal 'Bt toxin') involves what I have
previously termed 'wide transfer' of genes (see Tester, 1999:
Nature 402, 575), many uses of 'the new
GM' (as I call it) do not involve wide gene transfer, but
involve the alteration of patterns of expressions of genes
that are already in the plant. This output is not significantly
different to the outputs of traditional breeding practises
(see my website, at www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/Tester/Home.html;
and Tester, 2001: New Phytologist 149: 9-11).
I therefore make two pleas to the pro- and anti-GM lobbies:
1. To the pro-GM lobby: Do not make claims that the current
UK field trials will provide answers to the safety of GM crops
- they will only provide some insights into some effects of
one application of GM crops. To overstate the significance
of the results will be importantly misleading.
2. To the anti-GM lobby: Do not make generalised criticisms
about GM technologies. How the technology is applied is crucial
- most issues arising from wide gene transfer are fundamentally
different to those arising from the modification of genes
in plants. Do not throw away all the technology just because
some applications are risky - some outputs will be no riskier
than the outputs from our activities of the past 10,000 years.
Dr Mark Tester
Dept of Plant Sciences,
University of Cambridge
I have worked as a researcher in plant sciences for almost
20 years,
entirely in the University sector, both in the UK and in Australia.
I work
on salinity tolerance in plants such as wheat and rice.
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