Genetically modified foods: Time for science to speak out

Some people say biotechnology — applied genetic engineering — has started an age of science on a par with the industrial revolution, the development of the transistor and the splitting of the atom.

But if one of its major contributions to society so far — genetically-modified (GM) food — is any indication, biotechnology will need to improve its PR or it may become as popular as nuclear power.

GM food has become a major consumer and "green" issue for Europe. Lately we have seen boycotts and protesters trampling test fields of GM crops in the UK and Europe. This is in contrast to North America where there has been an orderly development of the products of gene technology for 10 years.

However, concern is growing in Australia. Public pressure has prompted the health ministers of Australia and New Zealand to set standards on the labelling of GM food products. At least two local councils have banned the use of GM food at their child care centres.

But many scientists say the environmentalists and the biotechnologists should always have been on the same side. After all, biotechnology has been striving to improve production efficiency for growers, provide more nutritious food and benefit the environment through reduced use of pesticides.

They say that the issues have been clouded with emotion and political hype and that it's time that science came to the fore to put the public's mind at ease.

Foremost among the public advocates of gene technology in WA is Ian Edwards, who has come to the view that science and facts alone will not win the day for proponents of GM foods.

"Anti-science groups have used the media to provide some totally fictitious stories and have cited some dubious or incomplete experiments to draw outlandish conclusions," says Dr Edwards, who is head of WA firm Grain Biotech Australia.

"Every (gene technology) scientist has a profound responsibility to share and bring science to the public arena.

"You can't fight the case with just science, even though it's compelling and logical. Consumers are often guided by their emotions. We can only counter by building trust over time with education."

Dr Edwards is a representative on the Federal Government's Biotechnology Consultative Group and has worked in grain development for 33 years, including many years at the front end of gene technology for the world's biggest seed producer Pioneer HiBred, in the US. Recently he helped make a 30-minute documentary on GM food for Perth's Channel 31.

He is a confident advocate of the potential benefits of GM crops and and has plenty to say about where Australia is going wrong in its discussion and regulation of gene technology in foods.

He says it is already the most transparent and regulated area of food growing and processing. He says nowadays if anything is "genetically-modified" it is going to be regulated.

"That's the insanity. We have a system that regulates the process rather than the product."

Dr Edwards makes a stark example in the case of canola here in WA. Without regulation, a canola hybrid has been used for some time that was produced using mutation-induced resistance to withstand the powerful herbicide Atrazine. Yet a GM canola that was designed to resist the much safer chemical glyphosate is currently under heavy regulation.

"And to cap it all, there is no DNA in canola oil, anyway!" says Dr Edwards.

He advocates a regime of strong, dependable testing and regulation of food products and believes GM food — all food, for that matter — should be labelled where it is substantially different from regular food or contains potential allergens. Our Food Act already has these provisions.

"Consumers want to know if GM food is safe for them and their families — 'When we go to the supermarket, are we in any danger?' they want to know," says Dr Edwards.

He says the difference between the Europeans' fear of GM food and the Americans' support for it could be related directly to the level of confidence each has in their food safety regimes. The Europeans are still smarting from the mad cow scare in the UK, while in the US, GM food is regulated by three authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration.

"It's called TRUST. In North America there's trust in their authorities, it's as simple as that."

The developments and knowledge in gene technology are continuing at such a pace, that the current state of the art will be seen as "horse-and-buggy" in a decade, says Dr Edwards.

In the not-too-distant future, when we have a broader knowledge base, more consumer-orientated products on the market and experience with the benefits of gene technology, the public will have become familiar with this area of science and the debate of the late 1990s will be behind us.

"Until then, some important PR and educational work needs to accompany our science."

Australian consumers already have been buying foods containing GM food products made overseas. To date the foods have not been labelled or tested in Australia (they have been tested in the US).

Six GM food products have been granted approval to be sold in Australia — soybean, canola, corn, potato, sugarbeet and cottonseed.

They are found in oils, fried foods, confectionery, snacks and other processed food.

So far only one GM crop — a pest-resistant cotton — has been grown in Australia. In a joint programme between CSIRO and seed companies, the US seed giant Monsanto sold its genetically-engineered Bt cotton to Australian farmers. Cotton-growing is a huge consumer of chemical pesticides.

Bt cotton is so named because it has been modified with a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which naturally produces a toxin that kills major caterpillar pests and is biodegradable. Bt is in Dipel and other such biopesticides that are regarded as environmentally-friendly and can be used by "organic" farmers.

Results for the Australian Bt cotton programme showed that in 1996-7 there was a 52% decrease in the use of sprays by the farmers.

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