Transgenic plants - the fear and the necessity

In Europe, the opposition to genetically modified agricultural products goes beyond the limits of logic. Sapihia recently arrived in Israel as well. We will try to understand here what the commotion is about * Published in Galileo, Gal. 60, August 2003

The article was published in Issue 60, August 2003 of the Galileo journal. All rights reserved to Galileo and the article is presented here courtesy of the journal.

"Caution - this product is genetically modified". This address and below it an illustration of a red warning triangle, with a carrot and a syringe inside, appeared on stickers that four young people with a "punkist" appearance affixed to food products at the Ko Op supermarket in Dizengoff Center on July 7, 2003. This is what the newspaper Ma'ariv reported the next day. who quoted the Atim news agency. The four, three young men and a young woman, were caught "red handed" by the supermarket workers near one of the shelves, while they were vigorously attaching stickers to Cornflakes and Bamba packages.
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"This is already the second or third time that we have discovered stickers of this type affixed to food packages," the supermarket workers said, "last time, about two months ago, they were affixed to meat products. We heard about the phenomenon in other supermarkets as well. This time we caught the stickers in the act and confiscated several additional rolls of stickers that they didn't have time to use. After we peeled off the stickers, we discovered that the packaging had been damaged," they said.
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During their interrogation by the police, the young men did not elaborate on their motives and did not associate themselves with any organization. One of the young men said that they only wanted to "warn the public about the products". At the end of the investigation, they were released on bail.
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This topic is currently used as a reason for an economic war between Europe and the USA. The Europeans applied the nickname "Frankensteins" to the Americans, followers of changes in plants and food products by genetic means. The Americans in response call the Europeans "Lodes" - after a labor leader from Nottingham, England, Ned Lode, who in 1811 organized a campaign to dismantle machines designed to save manual labor, in a futile attempt to prevent the introduction of machines in the early days of the industrial revolution. ,

The current controversy involves business owners, farmers, scientists, philosophers and politicians, alongside activists of green organizations with rich experience in media struggle, and representatives of religious organizations who see genetically modified food crops as "interference in the act of creation" and disruption of the sacred balance in nature. Dissident groups in Europe are now holding very loud protest actions.
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The Europeans are not even ready to accept an explanation that beyond the genetically modified agricultural crops - corn, potatoes, soybeans, sugar beets and, to a lesser extent, tomatoes - to make them resistant to pests, bacteria, parasitic fungi and viruses - the production of European agriculture as a whole will immediately increase by 7.8 million tons per year, it will consume less insecticide chemicals and environmental pollutants and its revenues will increase by 1.22 billion dollars.
The debate is not theoretical. Human life depends on it, and there is no exaggeration in this description. Under pressure from the European Union, countries in Africa refuse to accept donations of corn and soybeans from the United States, and in some countries even prohibited the distribution of products that have already arrived at the ports to the hungry. In early June 2003, the first conference in Israel that dealt with genetically modified food products was held at Kibbutz Nir Etzion in Carmel - Pros and Cons. One of the lecturers at the conference was Prof. Yedidia Gafni, director of the genetics department at the Field Crops Institute in the Agricultural Research Administration at Beit Dagan (Volcanic Institute). In an interview with "Galileo" he says that there will be no escape from genetic modification of agricultural products. Without genetic engineering there would not be enough food for everyone. "Today six billion people crowd the earth, in twenty years their number will reach ten billion. The cities occupy agricultural areas, and instead of having more areas for agriculture, they actually decrease
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"The possibility of genetically modifying any organism is a remarkable victory for man - it is about breaking the species barrier in nature. A species is a group of animals or plants that can interbreed and have fertile offspring. Until now it was possible to try and improve plants or animals through hybridization. All dog breeds known to us were cultivated and developed through controlled breeding. The breeders made sure to hybridize the desired creature (pigeons in the case of Darwin, peas in the case of Gregory Mendel, A.B.).
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This is how we got cows whose milk yield is enough for an entire herd of calves instead of one calf that the cow gave birth to, chickens that lay unfertilized eggs in commercial quantities, varieties of rice that made it possible to feed more and more residents in Southeast Asia, and much more.
But there was a limit to the possibilities. The big dream of the cotton growers is to grow blue cotton to make pants without the need to dye the fabric; Yedidia Gafni himself is involved in the development of a seedless tomato - which will be a hit with food manufacturers - especially ketchup manufacturers. In Israel, flowers with a longer shelf life have also been developed through genetic engineering.
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At the heart of the controversy are developments such as the "golden rice", which was developed specifically in Europe by a Swiss scientist, Ingo Potrykus, and his German colleague, Peter Beyer. In genetic engineering, a gene was inserted into the rice that produces pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene) - a vitamin essential for development and growth and building the eye pigment. The scientists are offering the patent for the "golden rice" for free to the governments of Southeast Asia, the world's largest market for rice. 2.5 billion people there consume rice every day, but this basic food lacks beta-carotene and for this reason the sight of millions of children is problematic, to the point of danger of blindness. The "golden rice" can save them. Instead of praise for the innovative development, the two received cold and even hostile treatment from loud opposition pressure groups, mainly in Europe, who claim that this is an ineffective and dangerous experiment.
Part of a conspiracy by global corporations without restraints. Already today plants are given resistance through genes that have been introduced into them by means of bacteria. A certain toxin produced by a gene inserted into the plant is used as an insecticide. The research peak deals with the introduction of genes from humans into plants. In particular, this is a gene that produces insulin. This is how the world of plants is harnessed for the benefit of man.
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Plants are easier to carry out genetic manipulations because a plant can be cloned relatively easily from a single cell. If a gene from another organism is inserted into this cell, during division the gene passes to all the cells of the developing plant, and thus a plant is created that excels in additional features that were artificially implanted into it. In animals it is a little more complicated because it has to be done in the fertilized egg and even then the success rate is relatively low.

That. What are the green organizations in Europe afraid of?
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Prof. Gafni: "The concerns are justified, and we, the scientists, are also aware of them and find solutions for them. But the organizations also raise many irrational arguments, which are already dealt with in the field of psychology. One of the concerns is that allergens will be found in the food that were not there before, for example the introduction of peanut genes into other plants to make them rich, say in a certain protein. People who are allergic to peanuts may in good faith eat the plant that they are normally allowed to eat and may develop allergic reactions. This problem can be solved, because any food, regardless of genetic engineering, is tested for allergens before its development.
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Another concern is that the biological insecticides introduced into plants such as corn and soybeans may also harm insects that are not the target audience - for example the monarch butterflies which, according to those who oppose genetic engineering, have been harmed by these insecticides and their number is small. It has been scientifically proven that this claim has no basis, but it is repeated over and over again. One of the main concerns, which we also take seriously, is the possibility that the pollen of plants resistant to sprays against parasitic plants may reach the wild grasses and give them exactly the resistance we want to prevent from them and give to agricultural plants. Think about it and one of the ways is to make them infertile.
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These are all legitimate claims and as mentioned science has found, or at least is looking for, solutions. But it is impossible to deal with claims of Frankensteinism or demands to mark every plant that has undergone a genetic change without writing what the change is. Mark products that you want to warn against such as cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. If they demanded, for example, that we write about corn that it contains soy protein thanks to a gene inserted into it, that is legitimate. But at the recent conference in Nir Etzion, these factors demanded a blanket warning. We cannot agree to that."
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That. Aren't European farmers longing for better yielding plants?

Prof. Gafni: "If you ask the individual farmer, he will certainly not oppose a larger yield, but the farmers' organizations want to prevent the American seed companies from taking over European agriculture. Europe is not one piece either, but since there are strict countries such as Germany, which do not allow the introduction of any genetically modified product, it is difficult to enter even countries that allow this. The farmers are joining the protests because of this fear."
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However, Prof. Gafni emphasizes, Europeans as consumers lost trust in their governments after the outbreak of mad cow disease and the foot and mouth epidemic. The governments initially tried to shirk their responsibilities and continue with business as usual. ,

In the US this would not happen. The American mentality is very different from the European one. In America, new means better, and in Europe, not everything new is necessarily better. The green organizations, which were successful in previous struggles (against air pollution, against the burial of nuclear waste), joined the fight against genetically modified agricultural products. The governments also cooperate with the public because the politicians need popularity

That. And what is happening in Israel?

Prof. Gafni: "Many genetic engineering experiments are carried out in Israel, they are not grown commercially. Mainly because the main market for Israeli agricultural products is in Europe, where GM food is prohibited." Israeli farmers purchase seeds from local companies, which do not only produce for the small local market but for Europe, and the bans apply to them as well. On the packaging of the products from Israel there is a label 'GM-Free' (and in English: GM-Free).

In conclusion, Prof. Gafni says that the Europeans are delaying development, but in the long run they will not be able to stop it, because they too will suffer from food shortages. ,

* Avi Blizovsky is the editor of the Hidan website and a writer in Galileo since 1996