My first post on GM foods at this web-log was on 8th June and the first comment was from Stephen Dawson, he wrote:
In 1903 the first heavier-than-air machine achieved flight. A decade later aircraft were still custom-built, dangerous and had hardly any load-carrying capability. Now for five per cent of the average Australian income one can fly to London and back, being fed hot food and watching in-flight movies.
It would be a very brave, or silly, person who insists that GM techniques should be stopped because of some inchoate fear. GM will happen. It will yield unimagined new products and possibilities. If preserving land or other resources are signalled through the market to be high priorities, GM will help hugely. Not this year, maybe not in the next decade, but eventually for certain.
And, yes, GM food will happen. It may even become widespread. Other GM techniques and products will be developed. Because there is no way to stop it. Pandora’s box has been opened and its contents cannot be stuffed back inside. GM techniques will just get cheaper. And if one country, or a dozen, bans it, then it will just happen elsewhere.
While the European Union has imported tonnes of GM soy as animal feed for years, they have otherwise professed to being anti-GM and have banned the technology. Indeed a reason for not growing GM in Australia has been fear that we will be shut out of European markets.
Low and behold, French Farmers are now about to plant GM maize! Read the Reuter’s story here:
Published yesterday it is titled ‘French farmers head for gene maize harvest’ and begins:
French farmers are days away from starting work on a maize harvest that includes the first documented evidence of genetically modified (GMO) grain, the country’s AGPM maize growers’ association said on Tuesday.
The AGPM said 500 hectares of authorised GMO maize had been planted, more than half of which was destined for commercial outlets and would be sold to the animal feed industry in Spain.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
So what’s the problem with GM – do we have a checklist of problems /assertions ?
Or are we just “worried” in general?
Presumably with rampant insect resistance, losses to weeds, and statistics of insects munching something like 30% of all our food we produce – we need as much help as we can get ?
GM crops in Spain – no pain only gain. The reason that French farmers are now growing insect resistant Bt maize as feed for animals is purely economical. There is a market for it globally (imported into Australia from US in 2003) and even in EU ( Spain) and Bt maize shows increased yields by up to 15 % in Spain.
The French farmers have no doubt seen the economic boon GM maize has been for farmers in Spain that have been allowed to grow it since 1998. Spain is an important maize-growing country, accounting for approximately 11% of the total EU crop with 500,000 hectares sown to maize. Bt maize occupies 5-10 % of the total crop area i.e 25,000 to 50,000 hectares. Indeed, grain quality and food safety of GM maize is perceived to be higher because of the lower levels of fungal mycotoxins. Furthermore Bt maize is more effective at reducing yield loss than insecticides used on conventional crops so is a more environmentally sustainable crop.
See the following link for the economical analysis of the impact of GM crops grown in Spain:
http://www.pgeconomics.co.uk/spain_maize_PR.htm
I found this interview with a French farmer on the reasons he was willing to risk confronting Jose Bove and his French anti-GM storm troopers by planting GM maize on his property. Essentially he has a ready market for the crop across the border in Spain and he wantsto take the opportunity to evaluate for himself if GM maize lives up to expectations on higher yiled using less peticides. If so he would probably want to grow more of it. Most farmers in France and in Australia are pragmatic and want to see that the GM technology will provide them with some real benefit before they convert over to it. GM insect resistant cotton here in Australia has become such a runaway success because farmers can see the benefit.
See – French maize farmer sees more GMO converts
Reuters 19 September 2005
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-09-19T112716Z_01_YUE941153_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-FRANCE-GMO-MAIZE-DC.XML&archived=False