"Frontmatter". In: Plant Genomics and Proteomics

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.