"Frontmatter". In: Plant Genomics and Proteomics
Download 1.13 Mb. Pdf ko'rish
|
Christopher A. Cullis - Plant Genomics and Proteomics-J. Wiley & Sons (2004)
S
AFETY I SSUES Safety concerns include the safety of GM foods themselves and the safety of releasing living modified organisms (LMOs) into the environment. These two issues clearly impact the adoption of the cultivation of transgenic plants as well as trade involving such commodities. The introduction of any safety legislation in a country has usually fol- lowed a major accident or incident. Such regulations are therefore reactive. In the case of modern biotechnology the system of regulation has been proac- tive right from the outset. In the USA the development of protocols for the testing and release of GM plants occurred before any release of transgenic plants. This proactive generation of regulations continues despite the lack of documented cases of harm resulting directly from the use of recombinant techniques either in the research environment or in commercial applications. One highly publicized study involved the feeding of monarch caterpillars on Asclepias spp. (milkweed) leaves heavily dusted with Bt-corn pollen, with S A F E T Y I S S U E S 1 9 1 Land area devoted to growing GM crops Land area (millions of Hectares) 1996 60 50 40 30 20 10 2001 2002 Year FIGURE 10.1. Land area devoted to growing GM crops (Data from James, 2002). the reported result that the caterpillars suffered, thereby triggering concerns about Bt crops (Losey et al., 1999). Subsequent studies demonstrated that, under actual field conditions, the likelihood of monarch caterpillars being exposed to damaging levels of Bt-corn pollen was low (Wraight et al., 2000; Zangerl et al., 2001; Stanley-Horn et al., 2001; Shelton and Sears, 2001; see also http://www.ars.usda.gov/sites/monarch/index.html for a full discus- sion of the history and conclusions of this controversy). In light of this, the question arises of how and why biotechnology is so fundamentally different from any other technology that it needs to be regu- lated in such a different way. Is it possible that any of the innovations that so fundamentally modified our way of life during the twentieth century would have happened had a full risk evaluation been required? The proac- tive approach implies a concern that there is something to fear from the new technology, a concern that is particularly pervasive in Europe. Download 1.13 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
Ma'lumotlar bazasi mualliflik huquqi bilan himoyalangan ©fayllar.org 2024
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling