Genetic tinkering with crops could improve food yields by up to 25 percent in the developing world, helping to feed a population expected to increase by 3 billion in the next three decades, a new report finds.
Although concerns have been raised about the safety of such plants, a panel of experts that includes some notable skeptics said the need to feed a swelling world population with a shrinking supply of agricultural land makes it essential that bioengineering of crops be considered."Transgenic crops are not in principle more injurious to the environment than traditionally bred crops," concluded a panel led by Nobel-prize winning physicist Henry Kendall.
Kendall also chairs the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has raised red flags in the past about some gene transfer practices and ethics.
The technology involves slipping one or more desirable genes into the cells of crop plants. Those cells are then regenerated to produce new plants with the desired attributes. When the plants reproduce, their offspring carry the extra gene.
Genes have been inserted into major food crops, including rice, corn, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, cassava and others to make them resistant to insects and diseases without the use of chemicals, or to make them better able to survive drought, cold, heat or other hostile environments.
Plants also can be altered to increase their food content - to make potatoes starchier or rice have more protein.
Although population experts haggle about how many people the world will have and be able to support in the next century, even conservative estimates forecast billions more mouths to feed, most of them in parts of Asia and Africa that already find it difficult or impossible to supply food needs consistently.
Without food security, nations and regions face starvation and social disruptions that can spill out to impact world economics and politics.
So, the challenge "requires a dramatic transformation of rural economies and intensified agriculture," said Ismail Serageldin, World Bank vice president for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development and head of an international group that supports agricultural research. He commissioned the report, which was released Thursday.
"All possible tools that can help promote sustainable agriculture for food security must be marshaled, and biotechnology, safely deployed, could be a tremendous help in that fight."
The scientists also noted in the report that while thousands of experiments and new products already have been undertaken with genetically engineered plants, most have been designed to improve crop production in the United States, Canada and other developed nations; only a few have been aimed at tackling plant diseases and other problems of impoverished nations.
Among the concerns raised about genetically altered foods is that in seeking to change one aspect of a plant, geneticists may unwittingly make other changes - using a gene from a plant like peanuts, to which many people are allergic, to add a desirable trait to soybeans, for instance.
Microbiologist John Fagan argues that even if scientists thoroughly test a gene-altered plant in the lab for adverse consequences, "when those altered DNA molecules are introduced into a living organism in the field, the full range of their effects cannot be predicted or known before commercialization."
Other critics note that by cloning crops to have identical properties, plants may be left less resistant to some diseases. And vegetarians are fearful their diet will become contaminated if animal genes are inserted into plants.
The report takes account of such concerns, and suggests that each technology be carefully weighed to consider whether it will enhance or detract from ecologically sound crop production.
"We must not dismiss the fears and concerns of people about the possible risks of new technologies," said Serageldin. "But we must not allow diatribes to shackle progress, either."