Although rich Westerners can afford to oppose GM crops, as our food is
already cheap and plentiful, I think it is dangerous to oppose all
applications of this technology. There are many applications of new GM
technology, and although current uses of the technology can be
questioned, there are many technologies where, for example, patterns of
expression of plant genes will be altered.
This is not in principle different to the outcome of the processes of
traditional plant breeding, and the risks in this are likely to be very
low.
In the next 50 years, there will be 3 billion more to feed, mostly in
the cities of developing countries. If present economic disparities are
not to widen, the food for these new people should be grown in the
developing countries. This increased food production will require many
approaches, and GM will probably be one useful technology. Well-fed
Westerners have no right to deny others possibilities to improve their
lot. I hope we won’t, and I hope that GM crops will be used to increase
stress tolerance or disease resistance where this is needed.
In the Stress Laboratory, we are trying to employ molecular and
cellular processes to try to increase the tolerance of crops to
stresses such as saline soils. This could help to improve food
production in developing countries, and we think it is important for
any advances to have the chance of being applied in places where they
might have some benefit. Hence this page, where we have tried to
provide some information about GM technologies and their applications.
The first part provides some essays written by Mark Tester, in which a
balanced view of the new GM technology is attempted. There follows
links to a range of websites that cover GM issues in various ways. Best
of luck!
Tester, M. (2002) Some GM facts (book review). Science 298, 1341-1342 - [summary] - [full text]
Tester, M. (2001) Depolarising the GM debate. New Phytologist 149, 9-16 -
[full text]
Essay: Tester, M. The dangerously polarised debate on genetic modification - [text]
Essay: Tester, M. Genetic modification (a short essay) - [text]
Essay: Tester, M. GM futures (just 100 words) - [text]
'Some of you may have seen the flurry of activity in the press about my criticisms of a BBC drama 'Fields of Gold' e.g.
To read my thoughts on this business, now it has quietened down a little, download the 1000 word essay below...'
Mark Tester.
Essay: Tester, M. GM and the media - [text]
The links below are from a broad cross-section of sources giving
accounts of the issues behind GM foods (ranked roughly from the most
anti- to the most pro- GM)
Greenpeace - www.greenpeace.org.uk/
Friends of the Earth - www.foe.co.uk/
Genewatch - www.genewatch.org/
Union of concerned Scientists - www.ucsusa.org/
Archived story from bbc online - also check SCI/TECH section for later articles
The Nuffield Foundation
American Phytopathology Society - www.scisoc.org/
EFB - http://130.161.244.100/efb/TGPPB/Home.htm
GM ISSUES - www.gmissues.org/frames.htm
NAL - www.nal.usda.gov/bic/
Site of Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environmnet (DETR)
National Farmers Union - www.nfu.org/
Agrevo - www.agrevo.com/
Monsanto - www.monsanto.com/
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