The U.K. biotech industry has threatened to switch genetically modified crop trials to other parts of Europe if the government cannot protect trial sites from destruction by activists. That's because British eco-activists are doing all they can to deny new biotechnology to the rest of the world, where the need and benefits are great. These activists are treading on very thin ethical ice. Not only do they use emotion, fear and intimidation to deny European farmers the freedom to adopt competitive agricultural practices, they are exporting their paranoia to those developing countries most in need of the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops. This is a "let them eat cake" attitude of the highest order.

"You must not disenfranchise us from GM technology," cried a senior Malaysian agriculture official at a recent meeting on Science, Technology and Social Responsibility at the Royal Society in London. In a report of the same meeting, Prof. Dick Flavell, former director of the John Innes Institute in the U.K., wrote that the greatest disservice Europe could do to the developing world would be to export unsubstantiated fears and obstructive attitudes to GM methods and new crop varieties.

Perhaps the irony has not yet set in. Lord Peter Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace U.K. since 1989, and his followers, have taken it upon themselves to destroy carefully planned, regulated and monitored biotechnology research plots in England, stating: "It is up to organizations like Greenpeace to act on the public's behalf." Such actions, however indirectly, influence the policies and agricultural practices in parts of the world where subsistence farming dominates. The small-holder farmer in India, who sees his crop destroyed by disease or insects, may not appreciate such beneficence from the food-secure aristocracy.

The Greenpeace case against biotechnology simply does not hold up to scrutiny. Today, it is true that the biggest beneficiary of biotechnology is high-production agriculture. Insect-protected crops and herbicide-tolerant crops help farmers get better yields while lowering their input costs.

Growers in the United States, Canada, Australia and South America, who have access to the technology, are adopting it at a rapid pace because it makes them better farmers and reverses their heavy chemical dependency which has grown over the past 50 years.

The direct benefit goes to the farmers, but environmental benefits also accrue through less use of chemical insecticides and herbicides. It is far more effective to treat weeds when they are in leaf than before a crop is planted. Therefore, crops that tolerate a weedkiller while they are growing need fewer chemical treatments (one or two rather than four to six), most often resulting in less herbicide used. Crops with built-in insect protection also reduce reliance on chemical sprays, which do not distinguish between harmful pests and beneficial insects and which drift on the wind. Other benefits of these technologies include better soil management to control erosion, less use of fuel and less land put into production at the expense of wildlife.

Built-in protection against devastating crop viruses may be the most important single achievement to benefit small-scale farmers around the world. In Africa, farmers living on very small plots of land grow enough sweet potatoes, a main dietary staple, to feed their families and maybe sell a few pounds. But when viruses attack their crops, they literally are at risk of starvation. Many times, they have no access to the chemicals that could protect against virus-carrying pests. But potatoes with a built-in virus protection gene (often not available in any natural collection of breeding stock varieties) allow these people to plant seed and harvest as usual.

The Hawaiian papaya industry was destroyed 30 years ago by a virtually uncontrollable virus. It has now been rescued by inserting a single gene for virus-resistance into a commercial variety of papaya. The only thing that can stop the resurgence of this key industry and the preservation of papaya fruit is the unsubstantiated anti-technology propaganda that has spread to the islands from the European media. Other benefits lie ahead:

- Cornell University researchers have added genes from two wild rice relatives to the best Chinese rice hybrids and are getting 20% to 40% higher yields. Imagine the importance of such a yield increase to the Chinese population. Imagine its importance 20 or 30 years from now when another billion or so people are added to the world's population, largely in developing countries.

- The International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines is redesigning the rice plant to achieve 30% higher yields by diverting growth and food stores to the grain. The result is shorter stalks and larger grains (thus less rice straw waste, which is burned in many regions).

- Aluminum is the most abundant metal on Earth and is highly toxic to plant roots, especially under acidic soil conditions. Over one-third of the world's arable land is acidic and is therefore susceptible to aluminum toxicity. In these regions, production losses of up to 80% occur in maize, soyabean, cotton and field bean. In Mexico, researchers have added a single gene which results in slightly higher levels of secretion of citric acid from the roots which, in turn, allows plants to grow on this toxic soil by precipitating the aluminum as a salt. Acidic soils are most often found in tropical regions, where the solution to the consequent low yields has been to cut down yet more tropical forest for temporary agriculture.

- Cassava, a fleshy root crop, is an important food for more than 400 million people, mostly in the developing world. However, it also contains highly toxic cyanogenic glycosides, which are associated with diseases such as goiter and konzo (paralysis of the legs) when not properly processed. When firewood is in short supply, cooking is inadequate. A Danish research team is working to create GM cassava strains that can be eaten, even where processing systems are rudimentary, without fear of such diseases.

These are only some of the hundreds of potential benefits of biotechnology that already exist, or will exist very soon if research and development are allowed to go forward. Science-based companies, universities and research institutions have been working for almost two decades to develop products with value and utility. What they learn through research today will bring us closer to benefits for a broader range of people tomorrow.

The regulatory controls and precautionary risk assessments applied to GM plants since 1983 are without precedent. There have been over 25,000 closely monitored experimental field trials involving billions of individual plants. During all this time, no predicted or unpredicted hazard has emerged. In the future, if the self-appointed crusaders against scientific experiments, discovery, understanding and facts will allow it, many more benefits will come. The possibility exists to create food high in vitamin E, which is effective in delaying the aging process. Vaccines, more nutritious foods, stronger fiber, faster-growing trees that preserve forest, plants that grow in arid soils or withstand frost - all are realistic possibilities. Every research plot that is ripped up and destroyed in Europe delays the arrival of these and other benefits.

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