1 / 10

Can we manage GM contamination of food and seed?

This article explores the challenges and implications of managing GM contamination in food and seed. It discusses the sources of contamination, including gene flow and contaminated seed, and suggests management strategies such as separation distances and post-harvest cleaning. The potential use of biological control methods, such as terminator technology and chloroplast transformation, is also discussed. The article concludes that managing contamination is extremely complex and calls for strict liability and policing to address the inevitable levels of contamination.

mpulliam
Download Presentation

Can we manage GM contamination of food and seed?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Can we manage GM contamination of food and seed? Sue Mayer GeneWatch UK www.genewatch.org

  2. Outline • How contamination arises • Management: • Gene flow to neighbouring crops • Other sources of contamination • Implications • Terminator and other proposals for biological containment

  3. Sources of contamination • Gene flow from GM to non-GM crop • Volunteer weeds from previous crops - GM seed persists • Mixing during or after harvesting • Contaminated seed planted

  4. Gene flow crop-crop • Initial decline vs distance then very long tail • Wind or insect transport • insects found to be more important than previously though for oilseed rape • Landscape and prevailing wind direction affects movement • Size of pollen source • Characteristics of crop

  5. GM Crop GM Crop Organic GM Crop Non-GM crop

  6. Non-GM Crop Non-GM Crop Organic GM Crop GM crop

  7. Managing gene flow • Separation distances • will need to be context specific • no absolute cut-off distance • Pollen barriers - crops/hedges etc - untested • Management of volunteers - oilseed rape seed can persist for 10 years • Dependent on seed purity • Communication with neighbours

  8. Post-harvest management • Cleaning equipment between crops • Record keeping • Quality control and testing - assumes know what to test for and burden on non-GM farmer/producer • Critically dependent on human practices

  9. Biological control a solution? • Genetic modification being proposed to reduce contamination from pollen or seed including: • Terminator technology + chloroplast transformation • all experimental • Terminator - sterile seed, pollen flow continues • Chloroplast transformation - difficult; low rates escape to wild/crop possible

  10. Conclusions • Extremely complex may not be practicable • Policing needed • Strict liability needed • Contamination inevitable at some level

More Related