Cultivation of GM plants and biodiversity

Ladybird

Does the cultivation of GM plants affect biodiversity? This is a topic that has been discussed many times over the years. It is a fact that global biodiversity is shrinking and agriculture is one of the main causes. Monoculture and the use of pesticides and herbicides destroy large numbers of natural habitats, which reduces species diversity on agricultural land. Critics of plant biotechnology fear that this development will be exacerbated by the cultivation of GM crops. Numerous scientific studies have investigated how the cultivation of GM crops actually affects species diversity in fields.

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Citrus greening

Fruit and vegetables: Forgotten plant diseases

Until now, genetic engineering methods have been used almost exclusively on crops for which there is an international market. Many pathogens that affect regional crops could be controlled by using genetic engineering methods to develop resistant varieties. However, this is not commercially attractive for big companies. Although there are numerous public research projects in this area, there are hardly any market authorisations on the horizon. One reason for this is the high cost of the approval process.more

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Ploughing, chemicals or Bt maize?

The European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) is a serious problem for maize farming in Germany. Maize is now grown on 2.5 million hectares and is still on the increase. A severe corn borer infestation can lead to harvest losses of up to 50 per cent. It is difficult to combat the pest using crop rotation or chemical and biological methods, and the corn borer continues to spread to other parts of Germany every year. The losses it causes each year are now valued at between 11 and 12 million euros. What alternative control methods can be used to halt the corn borer and how environmentally friendly are they? GMO Safety spoke to Bernd Hommel from the Julius Kühn Institute in Kleinmachnow. more

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Golden Rice

Biofortification: Plants instead of pills

Millions of cases of illness and death, especially in developing countries, are caused by a lack of micronutrients like vitamins and trace elements. For this reason, nutritional supplements and industrially fortified foods are distributed in many developing and emerging nations. Now scientists are working on ways of fortifying the most important food crops with e.g. provitamin A, zinc and iron. Some of the methods used involve genetic engineering. more

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Disease-resistant bananas, drought-tolerant maize

Currently, genetically modified crops are only cultivated in three African countries on a commercial basis. However, in research and development plant biotechnology is already used more and more. Scientists work above all on crops that are better adapted to local growing conditions or that are more nutritious. At the same time, many African governments increase their efforts to regulate genetically modified crops in their countries.more

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Plant genetic engineering: China hesitates on the brink

China is investing more in plant biotechnology than almost any other country in the world. In 2008 the Chinese government set up a four-billion-dollar research programme. The aim is to develop new genetically modified varieties of many crops by 2020, independently of the big global agro-biotech conglomerates and their patents. However, at the moment, the only GM plants grown in China are GM cotton and GM poplars, and Chinese farmers are still not really using GM food or fodder crops.more

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Next-generation biotechnological plant-breeding techniques

Companies and research institutes are working on a range of new biotechnological plant-breeding methods. They include Zink Finger Technology and oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis and are designed to speed up plant breeding considerably. A study published recently by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) finds that plant breeders are already using these methods in practice and that commercial applications are to be expected in the foreseeable future. Whether the plants produced using these methods should be classed as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is not yet clear. more

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Fish, pigs and mosquitoes: Genetic engineering in animals

No genetically modified animals are currently used in agriculture. However, there are a number of animals under development that have been genetically engineered to achieve faster growth rates or better disease resistance, and transgenic insects are being developed to combat plant pests and diseases.more

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Pharma plants: Status report

Around the world, efforts are increasing to use genetically modified plants in the same way that e.g. bacteria and yeasts have been used until now, as production organisms for vaccines and other pharmaceutical substances. In the USA and Canada, but increasingly also in Europe, and especially France, pharma plants are being tested in release trials and the drugs they produce are already undergoing clinical tests. For biological safety, the cultivation of pharma plants poses completely new challenges. more