CAST Releases Biotech Issue Paper

December 3, 1999

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) has released a study citing how biotechnology crops with improved traits can provide nutritional benefits to millions of people who suffer from malnutrition and deficiency disorders. The study, decidedly pro-biotech, suggests that further research should monitor the effects of transgenic crops on species such as birds and butterflies.

Agricultural biotechnology "can improve the quality of life by developing new strains of plants that give higher yields with fewer inputs, can be grown in a wider range of environments, give better rotations to conserve natural resources, provide more nutritious harvested products that keep much longer in storage and transport and continue low cost food supplies to consumers," says CAST.

This year, according to the report, about 40 million hectares (1 hectare equals 2.47 acres) were planted to transgenic varieties of more than 20 plant species; cotton, corn, soybean and rapeseed were the most commercially important crops planted. Countries producing such crops include Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Mexico, South Africa, Spain and the United States. The international value of the crops increased from $75 million in 1995 to $1.64 billion in 1998.

Crops with improved production traits "could confer nutritional benefits to millions of people who suffer from malnutrition and deficiency disorders," the report says. "Genes have been identified that can modify and enhance the composition of oils, proteins, carbohydrates and starch in food/feed grains and root crops."

Drought and salt tolerance are possible through genetic plant breeding, the report says. That would benefit production worldwide on marginal lands. Breeding for those traits has had limited success with conventional breeding of the major staple food crops.

Potential ecological risks include increased weediness due to cross pollination that could allow the spread of traits such as herbicide-resistance from a GMO plant to non-target plants. There also is the risk that insects will become resistant to plants with the Bt gene. Non-target species such as birds and butterflies also could be at risk from the Bt gene.

"The monitoring of these effects of new transgenic crops in the environment and the devising of effective risk management approaches is an essential component of further research in risk management," according to CAST.

Health effects on humans could be potentially beneficial or occasionally harmful. A genetically modified food with a higher content of digestible iron likely will be positive if consumer by iron-deficient people. But the transfer of genes from one species to another could transfer allergic risk, and "these risks need to be evaluated and identified prior to commercialization."

The CAST report is available on the Internet at http://www.cast-science.org/biotc_ip.htm.