Annals of Botany 94: 195-197, 2004
© 2004 Annals of Botany Company
Ford, B.J. (ed.) GM Crops: the scientists speak.
GM Crops: the scientists speak.
BJ Ford, ed.
Cambridge: Rothay House.
£14·95 (hardback), £10·95 (softback). 96 pp.
This volume represents the proceedings of a meeting of the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research held in 2002. The aim of the meeting was to clarify the current state of knowledge of GM technology and its implications for the world. This has resulted in a collection of papers that discuss some but not all of the current driving issues related to the application of biotechnology to crops. One of the most contentious things about the volume is probably its choice of title. As sources of information, scientists have not been trusted by the public to be objective on GM or to answer the public’s questions in the terms that they are asked. When scientists convey information derived from the proper use of the scientific method then they deal with areas in which they are professional and mainly objective. The introduction and use of GM crops is, however, a technology based upon science and as such involves issues that go beyond those which can be properly resolved by the use of the scientific method. When scientists discuss issues beyond science they commonly have no more status than many others, and in some areas less than those involved in social science. Scientists have factual views that can be tested in well-understood ways using the scientific method, but others which are beyond this approach to understand. This tension is unfortunately a feature of this volume. A comment in the introduction to the volume by Brian Ford illustrates this: ‘In Biology it is much harder to find opponents of GM technology. Is this because we are hell-bent on imposing a scientific imperative on the public no matter what the consequences might be or could it be that we perceive the strands of an agreement pointing to human benefit?.’
Beyond the introduction to the volume the first major chapter, by Malcolm Grant, the Chair of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission, covers the issue of GM and society. The chapter spells out the groups, events and processes involved in the Government’s GM review and emphasizes the role of the AEBC. This sets the background to the field-scale evaluation trials which feature later in the volume. In terms of understanding what has been done and why, the chapter is a valuable historic record by one of those most concerned. It is perhaps unfortunate that one of the illustrations in the chapter is of a GM herbicide-tolerant crop with the statement that ‘such crops require less frequent herbicide treatment’, when this is currently unproven and so a point of significant contention.
The world-wide status of GM crops is reviewed by Colin Merritt of Monsanto. Much of this is well known, but there is an emphasis on the impact of GM cotton in South Africa (RSA) and China. For RSA, emphasis is given to the reduction in hospital admission for pesticide-related reasons but without highlighting the unacceptability of previous practice or alternative means of resolving this problem. Traditionally for the biotech industry, the paper questions whether people in the UK are really against GM.
The strength of the volume is, however, in its final four papers. John Marsh, a social scientist, assesses the impact of GM on the food and farm sector. This paper draws out issues related to consumer behaviour, social acceptability and the behaviour of the food industry. It questions whether farmers will grow GM crops and what consumers really believe. He concludes, ‘If GM technology delivers what it promises then it will be applied to a growing extent in markets all over the world’, and ‘the industry has a deep interest in seeking to develop consumer trust’. Appropriately for this volume he emphasizes the key need for science to deliver the predicted results and for science and technology to be prepared to devote resources to maintain existing levels of trust.
The longest chapter, and the most science-based in the volume, is that by Joe Perry discussing the probable impact of GM crops upon the environment. This is the most data-rich chapter, which is authored by one of the main participants in the field-scale trials and so is highly topical. The evaluation of these trials, prior to the publication of their first results in autumn 2003, provides a valuable developmental insight. The highlight of the chapter is the section discussing the role of varying the separation distances between crops in influencing the degree of cross-pollination. The diagrams used illustrate in a stark manner the effect on potential land use of increasing the separation distance between organic maize and GM maize: from 200 to 450 m, a fall from 94 % of the available area to 40 %. Summarizing this section, Perry concludes that space considerations will be critical to co-existence and that ‘only with very substantial increases in separation distances could very low levels of contamination be achieved’. The final section of this chapter deals with wider issues and with the relative role of science and social science. The model envisaged is, however, still a very sequential or compartmentalized one with social science identifying areas of risk and science qualifying risks, rather than an approach which sees a range of value systems used in parallel and with ongoing public interaction. Nevertheless, for me this was the most original and provocative section of the volume and the most persuasive reason for purchase.
The final part of the volume includes chapters by Michael Gasion from IFR Norwich on the safety of GM products in food and by Brian Heap on GM crops and the third world, both significant areas of debate. The strength of both of these chapters is the critical assessment they bring to areas such as substantial equivalence and selectable marker genes in respect of food and the current state of world food supply and the real potential for GM crops in the third world. In this last section, Heap identifies the need for change both in consumers and in institutions such as biotechnology companies if GM technology is to have an opportunity to deliver improvements relative to many of today’s clearly unsustainable agricultural practices.
Each of the chapters in the volume has a good and useful reference list and an interesting biography of the contributors. As a volume it is much of a curate’s egg, but with enough helpful and critical discussion for it to represent a useful addition to the literature and a valuable primer for those who want a brief summary of current key issues as seen from a broadly science-based perspective.
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