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deBriefings foods could act themselves as allergens or toxins, alter the metab- invest a growing share of its scarce resources in enhancing olism of the food-producing plant or animal, causing it to pro- —_ biotechnological capacities in public institutions, including the duce new allergens or toxins, or reduce its nutritional quality or © CGIAR, and in evaluating and responding to the challenges value. posed by incorporating private sector technologies into existing Because genetically engineered foods remain unlabelled, con- farming systems. Such funds would be much better used to sumers cannot discriminate between GE and non-GE foods; and expand support for ecologically based agricultural research, as all if serious health problems arise, it will be extremely difficult to the biological problems that biotechnology aims at can be solved trace these foods to their source. Lack of labelling also helps to —_ using agro-ecological approaches. The dramatic effects of rota- shield potentially responsible corporations from liability (Lappé __ tions and intercropping on crop health and productivity, as well & Bailey, 1998). as of the use of biological control agents on pest regulation, have been confirmed repeatedly by scientific research. 6. Failure of the "One Pest, One Gene" Approach The problem is that research at public institutions increasingly Transgenic plants which produce their own insecticides closely __ reflects the interests of private funders at the expense of public- follow the pesticide paradigm, which is itself rapidly failing due —_ good research, e.g., on biological control, organic production sys- to pest resistance to insecticides. Instead of the failed "one pest, tems and agro-ecological techniques. Civil society must request one chemical" model, genetic engineering emphasises a"one more research by universities and other public organisations on pest, one gene" approach—shown to fail over and over again in _ biotechnology alternatives (Krimsky & Wrubel, 1996). laboratory trials, as pest species rapidly adapt and develop resis- There is also an urgent need to challenge the patent system and tance to the insecticide that is present in the plant (Alstad & — intellectual property rights intrinsic to the World Trade Andow, 1995). Organization, which not only provide multinationals with the right to seize and patent genetic resources, but will also acceler- 7. Unknown Impacts on Human Health and Ecosystems ate the rate at which market forces already encourage monocul- The global fight for market share is leading companies to _ tural cropping with genetically uniform transgenic varieties. deploy transgenic crops massively around the world (more than _ Based on history and ecological theory, it is not difficult to pre- 30 million hectares in 1998), without proper advance testing of dict the negative impacts of such environmental simplification on short- or long-term impacts on human health and ecosystems. the health of modern agriculture (Altieri, 1996). In the USA, private sector pressure led the White House to decree "no substantial difference" between altered and normal 10. Biotechnology Bypasses Agro-Ecological Principles seeds, thus evading normal FDA and EPA testing. Confidential Although there may be some useful applications of biotechnol- documents made public in an ongoing class action lawsuit have _ ogy (i.e., breeding drought-resistant varieties or crops resistant to revealed that the FDA's own scientists do not agree with this | weed competition), much of the needed food can be produced by determination. One reason is that many scientists are concerned _ small farmers located throughout the world using agro-ecological that the large-scale use of transgenic crops poses a series of envi- _ technologies (Uphoff & Altieri, 1999). In fact, new rural devel- ronmental risks that threaten the sustainability of agriculture | opment approaches and low-input technologies spearheaded by (Goldberg, 1992; Paoletti & Pimentel, 1996; Snow & Moran, 1997; farmers and NGOs around the world are already making a signifi- Rissler & Mellon, 1996; Kendall et al., 1997; Royal Society, cant contribution to food security at the household, national and 1998). regional levels in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Pretty, 1995). Yield increases are being achieved by using technological 8. Minimal Funds for Environmental Risk Assessment approaches based on agro-ecological principles that emphasise There are many unanswered ecological questions regarding the _ diversity, synergy, recycling and integration; and social processes impact of transgenic crops. Many environmental groups have that emphasise community participation and empowerment argued for the creation of suitable regulation to mediate the test- (Rosset, 1999). When such features are optimised, yield enhance- ing and release of transgenic crops to offset environmental risks, | ment and stability of production are achieved, as well as a series and demand a much better assessment and understanding of eco- _ of ecological services such conservation of biodiversity, soil and logical issues associated with genetic engineering. water restoration and conservation, and improved natural pest- This is crucial, as many results emerging from the environmen- _ regulation mechanisms (Altieri et al., 1998). These results are a tal performance of released transgenic crops suggest that in the breakthrough for achieving food security and environmental development of "resistant crops", not only is there a need to test —_ preservation in the developing world, but their potential and fur- direct effects on the target insect or weed, but the indirect effects ther spread depend on investments, policies, institutional support on the plant (i.e., growth, nutrient content, metabolic changes), _and attitude changes by policy makers and scientists. soil and non-target organisms. Unfortunately, funds for research on environmental risk assessment are very limited. For example, _ Editor's Note: the USDA spends only 1% of the funds allocated to biotechnolo- For the complete text of this article, plus references, see gy research on risk assessment, about $1-2 million per year. http://nature.berkeley.edu/~agroeco3. Dr Miguel A. Altieri is associate professor in the Division of Insect Biology, Department of Environment ‘ . A Science Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 9. Private Sector Compromises the Public Good . . USA; e-mail agroscos@nature. berkeley edu. Dr Peter Rosset is Executive As the private sector has exerted more and more dominance in _ Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First, e- advancing new biotechnologies, the public sector has had to mail foodfirst@foodfirst.org, website www.foodfirst.org. NEXUS - 17 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2000