Davis, California
April 28, 2008
A team of biologists, including a
UC Davis plant scientist,
is proposing that maps be created showing where all of the
billion-plus acres of genetically engineered crops have been
grown in the United States.
The comprehensive biotech mapping system, modeled after one now
in use in Arizona, would permit much-needed studies of the
positive or negative environmental impacts of genetically
engineered crops, the researchers suggest in a Policy Forum
piece published in the April 25 issue of the journal Science.
"Such maps would enable scientists to better analyze the effects
of genetically modified crops on wildlife, water quality, insect
pests and beneficial insects," said UC Davis Professor Paul
Gepts, an expert on the evolutionary processes that have shaped
the evolution of crop plants.
In Arizona, farmers routinely share maps of biotech cotton
fields with scientists at the University of Arizona, enabling
detailed analyses of the effects of this technology. That
information is collected and stored in such a way that the
privacy of the farmers is protected.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture already is collecting data at
the individual farm level, but that information is only made
available to researchers at the scale of entire states. In this
forum piece, the authors maintain that such information needs to
be made available at the county and township level in order to
be useful in analyzing the impacts of biotech crops.
Lead author on this paper is Michelle Marvier of Santa Clara
University. The other authors, in addition to Gepts, are Peter
Kareiva of Santa Clara University and The Nature Conservancy,
Norman Elstrand of UC Riverside, Yves Carriere and Bruce
Tabashnik of the University of Arizona, Emma Rosi-Marshall of
Loyola University Chicago, and L. LaReesa Wolfenbarger of the
University of Nebraska at Omaha. |
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