No Justification for ban on GM plantings

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the major funder of basic plant science research in the UK, rejects the arguments of those calling for a blanket moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops in the UK.

"It is important that Government and regulators receive scientifically informed advice," says BBSRC Chief Executive Professor Ray Baker FRS. "Experimental field trials are essential to provide the basic information required to underpin this advice and to allow us to continue to examine the environmental and other safety issues. A delay would achieve nothing, except to enable the UK's competitors in this technology to advance at our expense."

"To suggest that a moratorium is required is misleading: what is required is a continuation of research. The UK has scientific and regulatory procedures in place to ensure: that the results of this research feed through effectively and are considered thoroughly; that any moves towards permission for commercial growing of GM crops are pursued carefully and responsibly; and that any decisions are based on well-founded scientific advice."

Many studies into the stability, predictability and safety of GM crops are continuing in universities and research institutes sponsored by the BBSRC. They include: analysis of the behaviour of genes introduced by genetic modification over several generations; the likelihood and consequences of such genes moving within and between species; and the impact of GM crops on beneficial organisms such as the natural predators of pests.

"Some of these projects have been running for the last ten years," says Baker, "and we already have a great deal of published data that are available to regulators and biotechnology companies alike. We need to continue to proceed carefully on the basis of scientific experiments like these, which are rigorously monitored and reported. We must not be deflected from this by unsubstantiated reports and alarmist speculation."

As well as addressing environmental issues, basic and strategic research is also used to inform regulations about the safety of GM foods. Scientists have a duty to provide underpinning information about food safety.

At the BBSRC sponsored Institute for Food Research (IFR), for example, scientists are already working on the dietary fate of DNA. They are also studying the effects of gene introduction by genetic modification on the behaviour of resident genes and proteins in the host organism, to see if there might be any unintended or unexpected changes. These are two examples of how genetic modification technology has led to levels of experimental analysis and scrutiny never before used for products derived from the mixing of genes through selective plant breeding.

The food components from GM crops that are in our supermarkets have already been subjected to exhaustive testing. For example, the specific proteins made by the genes that have been introduced through genetic modification are tested both individually as isolated proteins and as part of a general test of the final composition of the food product. The standard and routine toxicology testing that is required would detect problems such as those claimed recently by scientists working on experimental GM potatoes, and this would mean that such products would not be permitted.

"If the new Food Standards Agency or any other bodies were to decide that yet more research is needed, we have the scientific expertise in place," says Professor Baker.

The UK is the European leader in biotechnology, and second only to the USA world-wide. The long-term economic benefits of the technology in new products and processes in medicine, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture and food production are widely recognised around the world.

"Plant biotechnology has an enormous amount to offer UK agriculture in terms of reduced input costs, and in higher yields and improved product quality, including the development of nutritionally enhanced foods," says Professor Baker. "We must not jeopardise the future international competitiveness of UK farming and UK food prices through a scientifically unjustifiable moratorium that would delay the underpinning scientific research and technical development."



Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). February 15, 1999.