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Come dear folks of the village; gather your pitchforks and fire and pitchforks that are on fire, for we are to the laboratory!
The heathens have taken it upon themselves to play God with our so beloved foodstuffs! We must teach these heretics that their meddling is not to be tolerated, lest we soon be neck deep in killer tomatoes, singing plants, and tap-dancing ents! Let not the evil ones pollute our good earth with their foul contortions of nature! We must destroy their GM abominations…
...their Frankenstein Foods!
Not that’s all well and good, but at the end of the day there’s a lot to consider here with the issue of Genetically Modified food. First issues first, I am a scientist. Moreover, I am a geneticist. Consequently, as someone whose future career is based around genes the temptation for me to make jokes about Levis is immense. Oh, and also I’m hardly going to be against the idea of GM crops. But to paint you more of a picture I am most interested in the aspects of genetics in relation to disease, specifically human disease.
As plant genetics isn’t my specific field of interest I don’t feel overly pressured to defend GM crops, but I’m going to do it anyway. As often as I can recall, the media has been somewhat cruel to GM technology over the years. And to be fair if I had a massive cigar and was in charge of a news station I’d probably go with a sensational:
“GM is EVIL! Look at this! I’m waving my arms about! I must be right!” approach, rather than a more rational “it’s new and different, but it could help in the long run”. I don’t blame the media for its sensationalism and for putting the focus upon those who have arguments against GM, it’s just the way things are.
But the thing is we have been playing with the genetics of plants for ages!
But the thing is we have been playing with the genetics of plants for ages! It’s true. We strive to grow the reddest tomatoes, the greenest beans, and the juiciest plums, and the way we do this is we pick the best of the plants and only continue to grow them, thus providing selective pressure. And this is genetic modification.
We select based upon appearance, or phenotype, and the DNA packaged into the plant’s chromosomes (the genotype) controls the phenotype. The phenotype is to genotype what a building is to blueprints. By selecting the desired phenotype you also select for the related genotype. For example, if you grow a batch of 100 tomatoes and 1 of them is twice the size of the others due to some strange random mutation that has somehow occurred, you pick that tomato and replicate it, thus selecting for the genetic modification you have found.
This process of waiting for the change to occur naturally takes a long time, but the trick is we don’t have to any more.
With our increased understanding of genetics, we are now able to identify the change we want to happen and cause it to happen. It’s much faster, and merely an extrapolation of how plants have been cultivated for generations upon generations. We can change the genotype to get the phenotype we want. And think what we could do! There are plants that can survive in the harshest of environments and yet still thrive! If we found the genes that allowed this to happen we could put them into vitally important crops that cannot be successfully grown in the harsh environments associated with lesser-developed areas of the world.
Yes there are criticisms and fears that we don’t know what we’re doing, and that this is all beyond us. However, to date all implications that GM crops have damaged the environment and reduced the diversity of organisms have proved completely unfounded. I am very much in favour of GM crops, and all I can say is that I hope for the future that we can get over our fear of technology and embrace an ever advancing world which could improve quality of life worldwide.
If on the way home I get mugged by a vicious gang of mutant lemons, then so be it. I can take the irony. But it isn’t going to happen. Science never makes monsters! Believe me, I’ve tried.
Of course there is a lot of rabid argument on both sides, however whilst it is now quite practical to identify how some certain genes modify the phenotype, it is not a perfect science yet. As a geneticist I'm sure you're aware of how whilst a particular gene may have a particular, obvious effect on one aspect of the phenotype it may have countless unseen side effects especially if it is reliant on other genes within the chromosome or the mutation is applied in combination with other changes. (So I gather from my brief education in genetics this term anyway.)
This of course is all fine in the lab where things can be controlled and confined but the main stem of the concerns comes from trials in the open where there is, despite sterilisation & the use of terminator technology, a small possibility of cross-breeding with other nearby crops. Whilst most people are afraid of Tryffids roaming the countryside, the problems are much more subtle than that and something only needs to go wrong once for a huge area to be affected. Of particular concern are the effects of herbicide & insect tolerance, should the crop interbreed with weeds or indeed become uncontrollable itself.
Also I'm not sure what the Soil Association rules are but I'm pretty sure that'd lose Farmer X a lot of money when he can't get that lovely "organic" stamp on his crop.
Of course Monsanto and Syngenta have been rolling out their crops in more relaxed areas, particularly across the pond, for years and haven't encountered any problems (with their seed at least).
Whilst I am not in any way anti-GM, I am very concerned that effective controls and contingencies should be in place, no matter how small the chances.
P.S. For a tongue-in-cheek article on "what hell science hath wrought lately", click here
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