Genetically modified food crops and their contribution to human nutrition and food quality

1. Genetically modified food crops and their contribution to human nutrition and food quality

2. Genetically modified food crops and their contribution to human nutrition and food quality Prof J Ralph Blanchfield, MBE Chair, External Affairs Institute of Food Science & Technology Vice President, European Food Law Association of the United Kingdom Food science, food technology and food law consultant E-mail: jralphb@easynet.co.uk Web: www.jralphb.co.uk

3. International Council for Science

5. UKFFoSTThe United Kingdom Federation for Food Science & TechnologyThe national federation of UK societies with interests in food science, food technology and food engineering

7. Institute of Food Science & Technology the UK-based professional qualifying body of food scientists and technologists –independent, democratic, not-for-profit, self-governing, self-funding

8. Institute of Food Science & Technology totally independent of government, of industry, and of any lobbying groups or special interest groups;

9. Institute of Food Science & Technology Collaborates in the public interest with government academia consumer bodies industry Retains complete independence

10. Institute of Food Science & Technology professional members elected on academic qualifications and relevant experience, and signed undertaking to comply with the Institute's ethical Code of Professional Conduct;

11. Institute of Food Science & TechnologyThe first of its four purposes is: to serve the public interest by furthering the application of science and technology to all aspects of the supply of safe, wholesome, nutritious and attractive food, nationally and internationally.

12. Institute of Food Science & Technology Root-and-branch only for the methodology of science Attitude to genetic modification?

13. Institute of Food Science & Technology IFST’s perspective on GM: Food scientists and technologists can support the responsible introduction of GM techniques provided that issues of product safety, environmental concerns, information and ethics are satisfactorily addressed.

14. Institute of Food Science & Technology IFST’s perspective on GM (cont): IFST considers that they are being, but need even more intensively to be so addressed, so that the benefits that this technology can confer may become available, not least to help feed the world's escalating population in the coming decades.

15. Institute of Food Science & Technology IFST’s perspective on GM (cont): Help to feed the world's escalating population in the coming decades? Is help needed?

16. Institute of Food Science & Technology Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug: "the first essential component of social justice is adequate food." (Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1970)

17. One tool in the armoury of tools to produce food • GM arises in many forms: • Natural mutation • Selective breeding • Within-species gene transfer • Trans-species gene transfer Genetic modification:

18. One tool in the armoury of tools to produce food • Within-species gene transfer Essentially similar to selective breeding but faster and better targeted • Desired change in a very few generations. • Greater precision in selecting characteristics. Genetic modification:

19. One tool in the armoury of tools to produce food • Trans-species gene transfer Can achieve results not achievable by “traditional” methods Genetic modification:

20. Reduced farming inputs: • Reduced tillage • Reduced use of pesticides, herbicides • Improved yields • Ability to grow crops in inhospitable environments • Improved nutrition attributes • Improved processing characteristics • Prevention of loss of species to endemic disease Genetic modification potential:

21. Reduced tillage Labour and cost reduction while avoiding soil deterioration / erosion Genetic modification potential:

22. Reduced use of pesticides, herbicides • GM maize with inbuilt herbicidal activity • GM soya that needs only or two applications of a single herbicide instead of cocktail of several herbicides during growing period Genetic modification potential:

23. Improved yields • Crop plant attributes • Reduced losses to pests and disease Genetic modification potential:

24. Ability to grow crops in inhospitable environments: • Drought • Saline soil • Aluminium-rich soil • Extremes of temperature Genetic modification potential:

25. Improved nutrition attributes • Yield and quality of macro-nutrients • Micro-nutrients • Enhancement of phytochemical components • Removal of allergens or toxic components Genetic modification potential:

26. Improved processing characteristics • ease of harvesting • resistance to damage in transporting • resistance to damage in handling • slower deterioration Genetic modification potential:

27. Prevention of loss of species to endemic disease Genetic modification potential: e.g. the Cavendish dessert banana which could be wiped out in ten years by two fungal diseases that have struck Africa, South America and Asia, but could be reprieved by GM development of a disease-resistant version

28. Reduced farming inputs: • Reduced tillage • Reduced use of pesticides, herbicides • Improved yields • Ability to grow crops in inhospitable environments • Improved nutrition attributes • Improved processing characteristics • Prevention of loss of species to endemic disease Genetic modification potential:

29. Can the first wave of GM provide these potentialities? Could Wright Bros 1903 Kitty Hawk have provided intercontinental passenger flight? Genetic modification potential:

30. Can these potentialities be effectively realised? Problems of new technologies Problems - real, speculative and imaginary Food safety, environment, ethics, information Genetic modification potential:

31. Genetic modification potential: We are not disinterested spectators standing on the sidelines and observing problems that may stand in the way. We have a duty to address and solve such problems. Science is society’s tool for doing that.

32. "As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it." • [Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Wisdom of the Sands (1948)] Institute of Food Science & Technology

33. Shakespeare’s perspective on GM: “Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety” [King Henry IV, Part 1] Institute of Food Science & Technology

34. IFST’s perspective on GM: Don’t throw out the baby with the bath-water; with help it just might become a healthy adult Institute of Food Science & Technology

35. Institute of Food Science & TechnologyThe first of its four purposes is: to serve the public interest by furthering the application of science and technology to all aspects of the supply of safe, wholesome, nutritious and attractive food, nationally and internationally. What are the other three?

36. Institute of Food Science & TechnologyThe other three purposes are: (2) to advance the standing of food science and technology, both as a subject and as a profession; (3) to assist members in their career and personal development within the profession; (4) to uphold professional standards of competence and integrity

37. Institute of Food Science & Technologywww.ifst.org