Non-GM Breakthroughs Leave GM Behind

[Guest guest]

*Non-GM Breakthroughs Leave GM Behind*

 

Non-GM breakthroughs keep coming thick and fast for problems that GM

proponents claim require GM, but GM solutions, if any, are years away

From GM Watch: www.gmwatch.org

Does the mention of allergen-free peanut, salt-resistant wheat,

beta-carotene rich sweet potato, and virus-resistant cassava make you

think

of GM? If so, you've missed the great unpublished story of 2007 – all

the

non-GM answers to precisely the problems (drought-resistance,

salt-resistance, biofortification, etc.) that proponents claim only GM

can

solve.

 

While GM 'miracle' stories win vast amounts of column inches in the

popular

media, the non-GM stories are seldom reported. Without the GM lobby's

exaggerated crisis narratives and silver bullet solutions, it seems

there is

no story. The biotech industry and its PR people, of course, are keen to

keep it that way; particularly as the non-GM solutions are often way

ahead

of the work on GM. They also bring with them none of the uncertainties

over

environmental and health hazards that surround GM.

 

Thanks to the lack of success of GM 'solutions', non-GM success stories

can

end up being claimed as GM breakthroughs. This happened most recently

when the UK government's retiring chief scientist, David King, claimed

an important non-GM breakthrough in Africa as evidence of why we need to

embrace GM [1]. This tells us why we need to stop being distracted by GM

and support the non-GM solutions to crop production problems.

 

Many organic successes have been covered in detail in this and previous

issues of SiS (see for example, Message from Andra Predesh:Return to

organic

cotton & avoid the Bt cotton trap, SiS 29; Scientists Find Organic

Agriculture Can Feed the World and More, and FAO Promotes Organic

Agriculture, SiS 36; Organic & Sustainable series, SiS 37) [2-5]. Here

are

other examples over the past year.

 

Zambia gets better harvests from non-GM maize

 

Although drought-prone Zambia is still facing problems, huge

improvements

have been reported in its maize harvests – its main staple crop.

Production

is reported to have changed dramatically after President Levy Mwanawasa

took

over from Frederick Chiluba in 2001. He promoted innovations such as

mixed

farming and conservation farming. Mwanawasa rejected GM maize and

encouraged the growing of non-GM maize, resulting in bumper harvests for

the past three years [6].

 

Ironically, when the Zambian government rejected GM maize in 2002 [7]

(Africa Unites Against GM to Opt for Self-sufficiency, SiS 16), there

were

calls from the US Ambassador to the UN's Food and Agriculture

Organization

for its leaders to be tried " for the highest crimes against humanity in

the

highest courts of the world " [8].

 

Non-GM crop science gets £13 million boost in the UK

 

UK crop scientists have been awarded a £13.3m boost in funding to

carry out

research aimed at delivering benefits for farmers and consumers.

Researchers

say they will not be producing GM crops. Prof. David Pink at University

of

Warwick, Coventry, whose team has been awarded £500 000 to identify

genes in

broccoli that will extend its shelf life and maintain its nutritional

value

longer, said [9], " We are not going down that [GM] route because GM is

not

acceptable at the moment, and not acceptable to our plant breeding

partner]. "

 

GM drought-tolerant maize way behind non-GM methods

 

In March 2007, the South African authorities gave Monsanto permission to

conduct GM drought-tolerant maize field trials in South Africa. The

African

Centre for Biosafety released a report on the issue, pointing out that

drought tolerance GM maize is at least 8-10 years away from commercial

release, and points out that traditional breeding, marker assisted

selection, and building up organic content of the soil are proven and

immediately available methods of dealing with drought [10]. Nevertheless

GM

drought-tolerant crops are being used as PR tools by biotech lobbyists

to

promote acceptance of GM crops, to expand existing markets and develop

new

markets.

 

New non-GM drought-resistant maize in the Philippines

 

Philippine scientist Dr Antonio Mercado at the University of Philippines

Los

Banos has developed a new non-GM maize variety that was able to survive

a

drought for 29 days [11].

 

Indigenous rice better than GM-rice at dealing with stress

 

Navdanaya, a New Delhi-based NGO headed by Vandana Shiva, together with

farmers from nine Indian states, has developed a register of over 2 000

indigenous rice varieties. They say GM rice strains are not only costly

to

cultivate but also perform poorly compared to native strains in fighting

pests, diseases and environmental fluctuations. Several indigenous rice

strains adopted by the Indian farmers can withstand extremes of climatic

conditions, survive submergence for a fortnight and even withstand

salinity

with great success [12].

 

New Non-GM maize a body blow to grain borer

 

The larger grain borer is taking a beating from CIMMYT (International

Maize

and Wheat Improvement Centre) breeders in Kenya, as a new non-GM African

maize withstands the onslaught of one of the most damaging pests. CIMMYT

researchers found resistance to the borer in the Centre's germplasm

bank, in

maize seed originally from the Caribbean [13]. The bank holds 25 000

native

maize races.

 

Non-GM process for allergy-free peanuts

 

A researcher at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State

University has developed a simple non-GM process to make allergen-free

peanuts. An estimated one percent of children in the United States

suffer from the allergy. The inventor, Dr Mohamed Ahmedna, is optimizing

the process further to remove allergens from other foods [14].

 

While we do not have enough information on the process to judge any

potential downsides, it is noteworthy that a seemingly straightforward

solution has been found to a problem that GM proponents claim requires

the

use of GM.

 

Non-GM salt-tolerant wheat to bring life to dead land

 

Scientists at Australia's Molecular Plant Breeding CRC are using marker

assisted breeding to identify salt-tolerant wheat varieties which could

allow farmers to crop agricultural land lost to salinity across

Australia's

wheat belt. Some 67 percent of the dryland cropping area in Australia is

affected by salinity, resulting in meagre yields [15].

 

Scientists developed non-GM drought-tolerant canola species

 

Scientists based in Victoria, Australia, have developed a new species of

drought tolerant canola that could make up to 1.5 million hectares of

drought-prone farmland in Australia more productive and profitable.

Traditional breeding and molecular marker assisted selection were used

[16].

 

The breakthrough comes after pro-GM lobbyists persuaded the Australian

states of Victoria and New South Wales to lift their moratorium on GM

plantings, partly based on claims that GM would provide drought tolerant

crops. However, Robert Horsch, Monsanto's vice president, has admitted

that such crops are actually not so easy to develop, while Christopher

Horner,

another Monsanto spokesperson, has admitted such GM crops are years away

from commercial production [17].

Gates Foundation supports non-GM biofortified sweet potato in Africa

Biofortification alliance HarvestPlus has received a US$ 6 million grant

from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to introduce a nutritionally

improved orange sweet potato into the diets of the undernourished in

East

Africa. The orange sweet potato is rich in beta-carotene, an essential

building block of vitamin A, which helps to prevent blindness [18].

 

According to a BBC report, only a " relatively small " amount of

HarvestPlus's

work in biofortification involves GM. Harvest Plus's Bonnie McClafferty

said

[19], " We've been able to experience great success in actually finding

varieties to do conventional plant breeding with. " Harvest Plus has

recently

announced the discovery of a new non-GM method of improving the vitamin

A precursor content of maize [20].

 

Links to these and other non-GM success stories at:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8658, and

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7105

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/NonGMLeaveGMBehind.php

 

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