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Genetically modified foods:the stakeholders, the issues,

the global context

HSCI E137 Mar 23, 2011Announcements:

•Monsanto film after class tonight

•First debate next week

•Essay on first debate due next week

Some numbers

• GM crops in the U.S.(2010)– Soy 91%

– Cotton 71%

– Canola 88%

– Corn 85%

– Sugar Beets 90%

– Hawaiian Papaya 50%

– Alfalfa: just approved

• Bt cotton in India: 90% of total cotton crop

The array of stakeholders• Monsanto and other biotech ag. companies• Pioneer and other seed companies• Government agencies• Farmers (in U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, Central

and Latin America)• Environmentalists/activists• Scientists (geneticists, ecologists, entomologists)• Consumers• Supermarkets and food companies• Grain processing companies• Indigenous peoples• “The commoners” (p. 239)

The issues

• Human health– The allergen issue– The antibiotic resistance issue– Arpad Pusztai– “greater precision” vs. “genes are not like

Legos”

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"Stopping GMOs is simply a numbers game. When enough shoppers stop buying GMO brands, the food industry will kick out all genetically modified (GM) ingredients. This happened in Europe, and it's happening in the US with GM bovine growth hormone (rbGH).”--From the Institute for ResponsibleTechnology website

The issues

• Human health

• Environmental impact (Ellstrand, 326-7)– Transgene flow from crop species into wild– Transgene flow into weedy relatives– The evolution of “superweeds”

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Farmers’ wide use of Roundup, a.k.a. glyphosate, has led to the spread of Roundup-resistant weeds across the country. At least 10 species of such weeds have infested millions of acres since 2000. (Map shows weed species in 2009).

(New York Times, May 4, 2010)

The issues

• Human health

• Environmental impact– Effect on non-target species– What are the environmental risks of GM crops?

The issues

• What is it about GM crops?– What is this debate really about?

• cf. Sagar (235) and van den Daele (246)• cf. Magnus and Caplan (86)

– What do the critics really object to?– “Is this simply GM technophobia?” (337)– Why the public opposition?– “Technology-inherent” vs. “technology transcending”

risks (231)

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Bt brinjal (eggplant) protest in Delhi (from GeneWatch, Jan-Feb 2009)

The global context

• What about developing countries?– Tripp’s “resource poor farmers” (303)

– Wambugu (307) and Juma (313) vs. U.N. Report on organic agriculture for Africa (in our newspaper clipping file under GM agriculture)

• What are GM crops in developing world for?• What’s in it for Monsanto?• The future of GM agriculture