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:Fri, 13 Jun 2003 14:40:53 +0100

 

The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

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

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

===================================================

 

Embargoed until 15 June 2003

 

Announcing

 

The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World

*************************************

Executive Summary

 

Why GM Free?

1. GM crops failed to deliver promised benefits

 

The consistent finding from independent research and on-farm surveys since 1999

is that GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits of significantly

increasing yields or reducing herbicide and pesticide use. GM crops have cost

the United States an estimated $12 billion in farm subsidies, lost sales and

product recalls due to transgenic contamination. Massive failures in Bt cotton

of up to 100% were reported in India.

 

Biotech corporations have suffered rapid decline since 2000, and investment

advisors forecast no future for the agricultural sector. Meanwhile worldwide

resistance to GM has reached a climax in 2002 when Zambia refused GM maize in

food aid despite the threat of famine.

 

2. GM crops posing escalating problems on the farm

 

The instability of transgenic lines has plagued the industry from the beginning,

and this may be responsible for a string of major crop failures. A review in

1994 stated, " While there are some examples of plants which show stable

expression of a transgene these may prove to be the exceptions to the rule. In

an informal survey of over 30 companies involved in the commercialisation of

transgenic crop plants….almost all of the respondents indicated that they had

observed some level of transgene inaction. Many respondents indicated that most

cases of transgene inactivation never reach the literature. "

 

Triple herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape volunteers that have combined transgenic

and non-transgenic traits are now widespread in Canada. Similar multiple

herbicide-tolerant volunteers and weeds have emerged in the United States. In

the United States, glyphosate-tolerant weeds are plaguing GM cotton and soya

fields, and atrazine, one of the most toxic herbicides, has had to be used with

glufosinate-tolerant GM maize.

 

Bt biopesticide traits are simultaneously threatening to create superweeds and

Bt- resistant pests.

 

3. Extensive transgenic contamination unavoidable

 

Extensive transgenic contamination has occurred in maize landraces growing in

remote regions in Mexico despite an official moratorium that has been in place

since 1998. High levels of contamination have since been found in Canada. In a

test of 33 certified seed stocks, 32 were found contaminated.

 

New research shows that transgenic pollen, wind-blown and deposited elsewhere,

or fallen directly to the ground, is a major source of transgenic contamination.

Contamination is generally acknowledged to be unavoidable, hence there can be no

co-existence of transgenic and non-transgenic crops.

 

4. GM crops not safe

 

Contrary to the claims of proponents, GM crops have not been proven safe. The

regulatory framework was fatally flawed from the start. It was based on an

anti-precautionary approach designed to expedite product approval at the expense

of safety considerations. The principle of ‘substantial equivalence’, on which

risk assessment is based, is intended to be vague and ill-defined, thereby

giving companies complete licence in claiming transgenic products ‘substantially

equivalent’ to non-transgenic products, and hence ‘safe’.

 

5. GM food raises serious safety concerns

 

There have been very few credible studies on GM food safety. Nevertheless, the

available findings already give cause for concern. In the still only systematic

investigation on GM food ever carried out in the world, ‘growth factor-like’

effects were found in the stomach and small intestine of young rats that were

not fully accounted for by the transgene product, and were hence attributable to

the transgenic process or the transgenic construct, and may hence be general to

all GM food. There have been at least two other, more limited, studies that also

raised serious safety concerns.

 

6. Dangerous gene products are incorporated into crops

 

Bt proteins, incorporated into 25% of all transgenic crops worldwide, have been

found harmful to a range of non-target insects. Some of them are also potent

immunogens and allergens. A team of scientists have cautioned against releasing

Bt crops for human use.

 

Food crops are increasingly used to produce pharmaceuticals and drugs, including

cytokines known to suppress the immune system, induce sickness and central

nervous system toxicity; interferon alpha, reported to cause dementia,

neurotoxicity and mood and cognitive side effects; vaccines; and viral sequences

such as the ‘spike’ protein gene of the pig coronavirus, in the same family as

the SARS virus linked to the current epidemic. The glycoprotein gene gp120 of

the AIDS virus HIV-1, incorporated into GM maize as a ‘cheap, edible oral

vaccine’, serves as yet another biological time-bomb, as it can interfere with

the immune system and recombine with viruses and bacteria to generate new and

unpredictable pathogens.

 

7. Terminator crops spread male sterility

 

Crops engineered with ‘suicide’ genes for male sterility have been promoted as a

means of ‘containing’, i.e., preventing, the spread of transgenes. In reality,

the hybrid crops sold to farmers spread both male sterile suicide genes as well

herbicide tolerance genes via pollen.

 

8. Broad-spectrum herbicides highly toxic to humans and other species

 

Glufosinate ammonium and glyphosate are used with the herbicide-tolerant

transgenic crops that currently account for 75% of all transgenic crops

worldwide. Both are systemic metabolic poisons expected to have a wide range of

harmful effects, and these have been confirmed.

 

Glufosinate ammonium is linked to neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal

and haematological toxicities, and birth defects in humans and mammals. It is

toxic to butterflies and a number of beneficial insects, also to the larvae of

clams and oysters, Daphnia and some freshwater fish, especially the rainbow

trout. It inhibits beneficial soil bacteria and fungi, especially those that fix

nitrogen.

 

Glyphosate is the most frequent cause of complaints and poisoning in the UK.

Disturbances of many body functions have been reported after exposures at normal

use levels.

 

Glyphosate exposure nearly doubled the risk of late spontaneous abortion, and

children born to users of glyphosate had elevated neurobehavioral defects.

Glyphosate caused retarded development of the foetal skeleton in laboratory

rats. Glyphosate inhibits the synthesis of steroids, and is genotoxic in

mammals, fish and frogs. Field dose exposure of earthworms caused at least 50

percent mortality and significant intestinal damage among surviving worms.

Roundup caused cell division dysfunction that may be linked to human cancers.

 

The known effects of both glufosinate and glyphosate are sufficiently serious

for all further uses of the herbicides to be halted.

 

9. Genetic engineering creates super-viruses

 

By far the most insidious dangers of genetic engineering are inherent to the

process itself, which greatly enhances the scope and probability of horizontal

gene transfer and recombination, the main route to creating viruses and bacteria

that cause disease epidemics. This was highlighted, in 2001, by the ‘accidental’

creation of a killer mouse virus in the course of an apparently innocent genetic

engineering experiment.

 

Newer techniques, such as DNA shuffling are allowing geneticists to create in a

matter of minutes in the laboratory millions of recombinant viruses that have

never existed in billions of years of evolution. Disease-causing viruses and

bacteria and their genetic material are the predominant materials and tools for

genetic engineering, as much as for the intentional creation of bio-weapons.

 

10. Transgenic DNA in food taken up by bacteria in human gut

 

There is already experimental evidence that transgenic DNA from plants has been

taken up by bacteria in the soil and in the gut of human volunteers. Antibiotic

resistance marker genes can spread from transgenic food to pathogenic bacteria,

making infections very difficult to treat.

 

11. Transgenic DNA and cancer

 

Transgenic DNA is known to survive digestion in the gut and to jump into the

genome of mammalian cells, raising the possibility for triggering cancer.

 

The possibility cannot be excluded that feeding GM products such as maize to

animals also carries risks, not just for the animals but also for human beings

consuming the animal products.

 

12. CaMV 35S promoter increases horizontal gene transfer

 

Evidence suggests that transgenic constructs with the CaMV 35S promoter might be

especially unstable and prone to horizontal gene transfer and recombination,

with all the attendant hazards: gene mutations due to random insertion, cancer,

reactivation of dormant viruses and generation of new viruses. This promoter is

present in most GM crops being grown commercially today.

 

13. A history of misrepresentation and suppression of scientific evidence

 

There has been a history of misrepresentation and suppression of scientific

evidence, especially on horizontal gene transfer. Key experiments failed to be

performed, or were performed badly and then misrepresented. Many experiments

were not followed up, including investigations on whether the CaMV 35S promoter

is responsible for the ‘growth-factor-like’ effects observed in young rats fed

GM potatoes.

 

In conclusion, GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits and are

posing escalating problems on the farm. Transgenic contamination is now widely

acknowledged to be unavoidable, and hence there can be no co-existence of GM and

non-GM agriculture. Most important of all, GM crops have not been proven safe.

On the contrary, sufficient evidence has emerged to raise serious safety

concerns, that if ignored could result in irreversible damage to health and the

environment. GM crops should be firmly rejected now.

 

Why Sustainable Agriculture?

1. Higher productivity and yields, especially in the Third World

 

Some 8.98 million farmers have adopted sustainable agriculture practices on

28.92 million hectares in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Reliable data from 89

projects show higher productivity and yields: 50-100% increase in yield for

rainfed crops, and 5-10% for irrigated crops. Top successes include Burkina

Faso, which turned a cereal deficit of 644 kg per year to an annual surplus of

153 kg; Ethiopia, where 12 500 households enjoyed 60% increase in crop yields;

and Honduras and Guatemala, where 45 000 families increased yields from 400-600

kg/ha to 2 000-2 500 kg/ha.

 

Long-term studies in industrialised countries show yields for organic comparable

to conventional agriculture, and sometimes higher.

 

2. Better soils

 

Sustainable agricultural practices tend to reduce soil erosion, as well as

improve soil physical structure and water-holding capacity, which are crucial in

averting crop failures during periods of drought.

 

Soil fertility is maintained or increased by various sustainable agriculture

practices. Studies show that soil organic matter and nitrogen levels are higher

in organic than in conventional fields.

 

Biological activity has also been found to be higher in organic soils. There are

more earthworms, arthropods, mycorrhizal and other fungi, and micro-organisms,

all of which are beneficial for nutrient recycling and suppression of disease.

 

3. Cleaner environment

 

There is little or no polluting chemical-input with sustainable agriculture.

Moreover, research suggests that less nitrate and phosphorus are leached to

groundwater from organic soils.

 

Better water infiltration rates are found in organic systems. Therefore, they

are less prone to erosion and less likely to contribute to water pollution from

surface runoff.

 

4. Reduced pesticides and no increase in pests

 

Organic farming prohibits routine pesticide application. Integrated pest

management has cut the number of pesticide sprays in Vietnam from 3.4 to one per

season, in Sri Lanka from 2.9 to 0.5 per season, and in Indonesia from 2.9 to

1.1 per season.

 

Research showed no increase in crop losses due to pest damage, despite the

withdrawal of synthetic insecticides in Californian tomato production.

 

Pest control is achievable without pesticides, reversing crop losses, as for

example, by using ‘trap crops’ to attract stem borer, a major pest in East

Africa. Other benefits of avoiding pesticides arise from utilising the complex

inter-relationships between species in an ecosystem.

 

5. Supporting biodiversity and using diversity

 

Sustainable agriculture promotes agricultural biodiversity, which is crucial for

food security and rural livelihoods. Organic farming can also support much

greater biodiversity, benefiting species that have significantly declined.

 

Biodiverse systems are more productive than monocultures. Integrated farming

systems in Cuba are 1.45 to 2.82 times more productive than monocultures.

Thousands of Chinese rice farmers have doubled yields and nearly eliminated the

most devastating disease simply by mixed planting of two varieties.

 

Soil biodiversity is enhanced by organic practices, bringing beneficial effects

such as recovery and rehabilitation of degraded soils, improved soil structure

and water infiltration.

 

6. Environmentally and economically sustainable

 

Research on apple production systems ranked the organic system first in

environmental and economic sustainability, the integrated system second and the

conventional system last. Organic apples were most profitable due to price

premiums, quicker investment return and fast recovery of costs.

 

A Europe-wide study showed that organic farming performs better than

conventional farming in the majority of environmental indicators. A review by

the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded that

well-managed organic agriculture leads to more favourable conditions at all

environmental levels.

 

7. Ameliorating climate change by reducing direct & indirect energy use

 

Organic agriculture uses energy much more efficiently and greatly reduces CO2

emissions compared with conventional agriculture, both with respect to direct

energy consumption in fuel and oil and indirect consumption in synthetic

fertilizers and pesticides.

 

Sustainable agriculture restores soil organic matter content, increasing carbon

sequestration below ground, thereby recovering an important carbon sink. Organic

systems have shown significant ability to absorb and retain carbon, raising the

possibility that sustainable agriculture practices can help reduce the impact of

global warming.

 

Organic agriculture is likely to emit less nitrous dioxide (N2O), another

important greenhouse gas and also a cause of stratospheric ozone depletion.

 

8. Efficient, profitable production

 

Any yield reduction in organic agriculture is more than offset by ecological and

efficiency gains. Research has shown that the organic approach can be

commercially viable in the long-term, producing more food per unit of energy or

resources.

 

Data show that smaller farms produce far more per unit area than the larger

farms characteristic of conventional farming. Though the yield per unit area of

one crop may be lower on a small farm than on a large monoculture, the total

output per unit area, often composed of more than a dozen crops and various

animal products, can be far higher.

 

Production costs for organic farming are often lower than for conventional

farming, bringing equivalent or higher net returns even without organic price

premiums. When price premiums are factored in, organic systems are almost always

more profitable.

 

9. Improved food security and benefits to local communities

 

A review of sustainable agriculture projects in developing countries showed that

average food production per household increased by 1.71 tonnes per year (up 73%)

for 4.42 million farmers on 3.58 million hectares, bringing food security and

health benefits to local communities.

 

Increasing agricultural productivity has been shown to also increase food

supplies and raise incomes, thereby reducing poverty, increasing access to food,

reducing malnutrition and improving health and livelihoods.

 

Sustainable agricultural approaches draw extensively on traditional and

indigenous knowledge, and place emphasis on the farmers’ experience and

innovation. This thereby utilises appropriate, low-cost and readily available

local resources as well as improves farmers’ status and autonomy, enhancing

social and cultural relations within local communities.

 

Local means of sale and distribution can generate more money for the local

economy. For every £1 spent at an organic box scheme from Cusgarne Organics

(UK), £2.59 is generated for the local economy; but for every £1 spent at a

supermarket, only £1.40 is generated for the local economy.

 

 

10. Better food quality for health

 

Organic food is safer, as organic farming prohibits routine pesticide and

herbicide use, so harmful chemical residues are rarely found.

 

Organic production also bans the use of artificial food additives such as

hydrogenated fats, phosphoric acid, aspartame and monosodium glutamate, which

have been linked to health problems as diverse as heart disease, osteoporosis,

migraines and hyperactivity.

 

Studies have shown that, on average, organic food has higher vitamin C, higher

mineral levels and higher plant phenolics – plant compounds that can fight

cancer and heart disease, and combat age-related neurological dysfunctions – and

significantly less nitrates, a toxic compound.

 

Sustainable agricultural practices have proven beneficial in all aspects

relevant to health and the environment. In addition, they bring food security

and social and cultural well-being to local communities everywhere. There is an

urgent need for a comprehensive global shift to all forms of sustainable

agriculture.

 

 

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CONTACT DETAILS

The Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 OXR

telephone: [44 20 8643 0681] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

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