Queensland, Australia
January 23, 2008
Australian states should not ban
commercial production of genetically modified (GM) plants and
food as the risks are alarmist and exaggerated, according to a
new study.
The
University of Queensland PhD study found the benefits of GM
plants and food outweighed the risks, finding no compelling
evidence of harm to humans from GM plants.
GM plants have been trialled in most states with South
Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia the only states to ban
GM plants. South Australia and Tasmania are reviewing their
moratoriums.
The study author, ethicist
Dr Lucy Carter, spent three-and-a-half years examining
arguments and evidence for and against the development and use
of GM plants and food in Australia and in the developing world.
Dr Carter said there was no evidence to justify continuing
moratoriums on commercial GM planting so long as thorough risk
assessments were done.
Opponents say GM products are unnatural, potentially harmful to
humans and capable of environmental injury and creating
'superweeds'.
She said the risks of GM plants transferring allergenic proteins
to novel foods or creating superweeds were very low.
"If you take a GM plant and a conventional plant, you can't
easily create a hybrid that is both strong enough to withstand
natural environmental conditions as well as survive all
eradication attempts unless you're in the lab," Dr Carter said.
"It's just too difficult."
Asked if it was too early to tell if GM plants were safe, Dr
Carter said research that included risk assessments showed no
reason for alarm.
Food products that contain more than one percent of a GM
ingredient must be labelled and most people have already eaten
GM food in some supermarket junk food.
"I think the risks and benefits are overstated by both sides of
the debate," she said.
"Opponents tend to inflate the risks while proponents at times
overstate the benefits.
"My research has shown that there are enormous benefits to
investment in GM plants.
"To proceed with care is the most prudent decision regulatory
authorities can make at this stage."
She said GM plants were often made drought, pest and virus
resistant and could theoretically produce enough food to feed
Third World countries although some infrastructure obstacles
remained.
GM golden rice had enough beta keratin to help prevent blindness
caused by Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world.
In order to protect plant patents, most GM plants have in-built
seed sterilisation or obsolescence, which means future
generations of seed will not grow.
GM plants are different to conventionally-propagated plants from
nurseries in that they have had new genes added from an
unrelated plant or animal.
"Scientists have isolated genes from cold-water fish such as
salmon and inserted them into tomatoes in order to prevent
damage to crops in frost-prone environments," Dr Carter said.
Dr Carter, 33, from Brighton, studied under a joint scholarship
between
UQ's School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
and
UQ's Centre for Integrative Legume Research.
Dr Carter has previously studied the ethics of human gene
therapy and stem cell research.
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