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[SANET-MG] public relations paradoxes
April 6, 2004
Prof. Joe Cummins
?Public relations paradoxes in crop biotechnology?
A common approach to promoting crop genetic modification (GM) through public
relations has been the repeated claim that crop genetic modification is a
simple extension of traditional crop breeding and selection that has been done
for over ten thousand years. The main flaw in that kind of public relations is
that all of the current modified crops were developed using illegitimate
recombination to insert transgenes into the crop genome while all of the
traditional crops were produced using selection following homologous
recombination. GM crops are , strictly speaking, bastards.
The paradox is further extended in dealing with the main crop modifications ,
herbicide tolerance and insect resistance, in both kinds of modification
bacterial transgenes are used to modify the crops. In order to make the
bacterial genes function at high level in the crops their DNA sequences are
extensively altered and even the protein amino acid building block sequences
are changed to enhance production of the proteins in crops. The synthetic
genes used in crops have as little as sixty percent DNA homology with the
bacterial genes from which they originated. That low level of DNA homology in
active proteins would take millennia to achieve by natural selection and
evolution.
Certainly bacterial genes should be returned to bacteria by the process of
DNA transformation (uptake and incorporation of genes by bacteria) in soil,
gastro intestinal tract or sewer However the synthetic copies of bacterial
genes are not found to significantly transform bacteria in soil, intestines
or sewers. That outcome is not surprising because bacterial gene
transformation depends on homologous recombination. There must be extensive
homology for bacterial genes to be transformed by DNA (that is probably the
reason that bacteria do not turn into cows, pigs or chickens in our guts).Crop
genetic engineers brag that the synthetic copies of bacterial genes not only
work better in crops but also provide a natural barrier to the spread of
transgenes. To top out the melody of public relations paradoxes cooperatives
North American regulators deem that the cheaply produced genes and proteins
from bacteria can be employed in the safety tests (both mammalian toxicity
and environmental safety) as surrogates for the synthetic genes and products
and even scientific journal editors participate in the subterfuge.
Since its very beginning science has depended on the dictum ?full and truthful
reporting?. Crop genetic engineering seems to have replaced ?full and truthful
reporting? with ?in public relations anything that sells ?.
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