In print
Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare?
The Brave New World of Bad Science and Big Business
by Dr Mae-Wan Ho
published by Gateway Books, The Hollies, Wellow, Bath BA2 8QJ, UK
288pp, price £9.95, PBK, ISBN 1 85860 051 0
£13.95 HBK ISBN 1 85860 052 9
The title and sub-title give
the game away. Dr Mae-Wan Ho dismisses the dream and shakes the reader
wide awake to recognize the nightmare, as she describes it, of genetic
engineering.
She argues the case for an immediate moratorium on further releases
and marketing of genetically engineered products, pending an
independent public enquiry into the hazards and risk of biotechnology
as well as into the social and moral implications.
Dr Ho is a British biologist, gaining her PhD in biochemistry at Hong Kong University, subsequently becoming a Research Fellow at the University of San Diego where she was awarded a Fellowship of the National Genetics Foundation, USA. She went on to become a Senior Research Fellow at the University of London before joining the Open University in the UK in 1976.
Is it too late to put the genetic genie back into the bottle now that biotechnology has long been out of the laboratory and down on the farm, into the supermarkets and on to our plates? Dr Ho argues that it is not, even if the biotechnology industry would have us believe that is so. She highlights the "perils among the promises" of genetically modified foods and demonstrates how empty some of those promises have been. She fears for the increased marginalization of small farmers as a result of restricted practices associated with seed certification and of the risks presented by the substitution of traditional technology and produce for transgenic crops which are, she argues, by their nature at high risk of failure. Why? Because "agricultural biotechnology is misguided by wilful ignorance of genetics." There is a widepsread misperception, perpetrated to promote the case for biotechnology, which is that one gene alone controls one character trait and that transferring that one gene results in the transfer of the corresponding trait to the genetically modified organism. This can then pass on indefinitely to future generations. In this way the process of genetic modification is presented as a precise and simple operation.
Classical geneticists and plant breeders have known for years that this simplistic assumption is invalid. Unfortunately, says Dr Ho, "Most molecular geneticists, apart from being absorbed into industry, also lack training in classical genetics, and suffer from a severe molecular myopia that prevents them from appreciating the implications and broader perspective of the findings in their own discipline." No gene ever functions in isolation and, "There will almost always be unexpected and unintended side-effects from the gene or genes transferred into an organism" says Dr Ho. This alone is argument enough for shattering the dream that science is good, just because it is science.
Dr Ho is a popular public lecturer and this, her latest book, reveals why. She pulls no punches and, if she feels accusations are justified, she makes them. The book is written in a style that is courteous to the reader. Explanations are succinct and clear to a non-geneticist and although the reader is expected, and indeed is able, to follow the scientific argument, after the more complicated chapters the salient points, as Dr Ho sees them, are re-emphasized. In conclusion then, Dr Ho is convinced that "the large scale release of transgenic organisms is much worse than nuclear weapons or radioactive nuclear wastes, as genes can replicate indefinitely, spread and recombine. There may yet be time to stop the dreams turning into nightmares if we act now, before the critical genetic melt-down is reached." If readers occasionally think a statement may be rather too sweeping and that no doubt other geneticists have an equally convincing and opposing argument, those readers must go elsewhere to find it.
Land resources: on the edge of the Malthusian precipe?
edited by D.J.Greenland, P.J.Gregory and P.H.Nye, December 1997
published by CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8DE, UK
email: s.bell@cabi.org
192pp, price £40.00 (US$75.00) HBK, ISBN 0 85199 235 8
Recent demographic evidence suggests that during the next twenty to twenty-five years, the global human population will increase by about two billion, to a total of eight billion. These predictions are generally accepted, but there are conflicting views about our ability to use the earth's resources to support this unprecedented population increase and the longer-term effects on sustainability. Some believe that we have reached a point beyond which this will not be possible due to constraints on land use and productivity (as suggested by Malthus in 1798). Others believe that scientific and technical advances, particularly in food production, will be able to keep pace.
A meeting was held at the Royal Society in London in December 1996 which brought together leading scientists, concerned with natural resource management, to make a critical assessment of the production potential of the available land. This book is a product of the meeting and describes, in detail, current pressure on land and water resources, the effects of climate on productivity, the need for crop improvement, better management of water, soil and nutrients, economic factors and environmental limitations.
This book will be of particular interest to practitioners and students of agronomy, forestry, soil science and ecology concerned with natural resource management, also economists, policy makers and environmentalist with an interest in global issues.
Taking a stand: cultivating a new relationship with the world's
forests
by Janet N.Abramovitz, 1998
published by Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036-1904, USA
Email: worldwatch@worldwatch.org
84pp, PBK, ISBN 1 878071 42 4
For millennia, humanity has left its mark on the world's forests. During this century, however, the destruction of these forests has accelerated now threatens the planet's ecological and economic health. Between 1980 and 1995 alone at least 200 million hectares of forests vanished - an area larger than Mexico. The deteriorating health and quality of much of the remaining forests weaken their ability to support the range of species and services they once did, thus rendering them vulnerable to further decline. As forests are cut, much more is lost than just timber - a host of non-wood products and such critical services as watershed protection, habitat, and climate regulation vanish as well.
In the face of these threats the author reveals steps that can be taken to preserve the remaining forests' long-term health and provide economic benefits. She identifies significant opportunities, beginning with reducing waste production by consumers and producers and expanding recycling. The field of sustainable forestry is developing rapidly as practitioners learn to manage forests both for timber and the other services people need. Guided by a credible certification system, consumers can express their preferences for products from well-managed forests. Changes in tax and subsidy policies and cooperation through international mechanisms like the Climate Change and Biodiversity Conventions offer still more ways to move toward a new relationship with the world's forests.
Alternative strategies for smallholder seed supply
edited by D.D.Rohrbach, Z.Bishaw, and A.J.G. van Gastel, 1997
published by ICRISAT, Patancheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India
email: ICRISAT@cgnet.com
281pp, PBK, ISBN 92 9066 380 4
Non-availability of seed is
the single biggest constraint to smallholder agriculture in large
parts of the developing world.
This publication reports a 5-day conference that sought to define
seed-supply problems in Africa and West Asia; discusses the current
and potential roles of the private and public sectors, NGOs,
international research institutes, co-operatives and farmers'
groups; and analyzes the working of various seed supply channels,
including farmer-to-farmer exchange.
The major objective was to develop strategies to strengthen both formal and informal seed distribution channels, particularly for food-security crops where private sector interest is limited. Almost half the conference was devoted to identifying and prioritizing policy and institutional constraints, and on the basis of these discussions, developing action plans to improve seed availability in each of three regions - Southern and Eastern Africa, Western and Central Africa, and West Asia and North Africa. These proceedings contain the papers presented at the conference, and the recommendations and action plans developed through the discussions.
Surveys of economic and cultural aspects of the various fish
exploitation schemes helped to point out the necessity for
understanding the dynamics of fish communities. These surveys also
demonstrated that seasonal, small-scale fisheries had a significant
impact on the micro-economy of the house-holds involved, especially in
periods of severe shortage of income from other sources.
An
estimated doubling in cereal production from 1993 to 1996 meant that
in 1996 the country was self-sufficient in food for the first time in
20 years.
