Crop Biotechnology

1. Crop Biotechnology Robert Streiffer University of Wisconsin-Madison rstreiffer@wisc.edu

2. How much worldwide? • GE crops accounted for slightly more than 22% of the worldwide acreage of land under cultivation. (22% > twice the size of the UK). • Six countries (out of approximately 190) account for 99% of the worldwide acreage of GE crops. • U.S.: 63% (cotton, corn, soybeans, canola) • Argentina: 21% (cotton, corn, soybeans) • Canada: 6% (canola, corn, soybeans) • Brazil: 4% (soybeans) • China: 4% (cotton) • South Africa: 1% (cotton, corn, soybeans)

3. Three Main Applications • Roundup Ready Soybeans • Bt Corn • Bt Cotton • (Roundup Ready Wheat was nearing commercialization until Monsanto ceased development.)

4. U. S. Acreage Long line is soybeans, top short line is cotton, bottom short line is corn.

5. Roundup Ready Soybeans • Roundup is a broad spectrum herbicide whose active ingredient is glyphosate. • Roundup is produced by Monsanto, although the patent on it recently expired. Applying glyphosate to a non-resistant plant interrupts the ability of an enzyme (EPSP synthase) to catalyze the production of amino acids, causing the plant to suffer from amino acid starvation and cell death. Glyphosate has minimal effect on human or animal health and degrades quickly in the environment.

6. Roundup Ready Soybeans • RR soybeans were made roundup ready by the introduction of a resistance gene from a strain of Agrobacterium using particle bombardment. This gene produces a slightly different form of the enzyme which is not interrupted by glyphosate. • Rationale: Simplifies weed control program. Roundup is a highly effective herbicide and gives farmers more flexibility in timing herbicide treatments.

7. Bt Corn • Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a common soil bacterium which produces a crystalline toxin, primarily effective against Lepidoptera (moth and butterfly species). When the toxin is eaten by a susceptible insect, the insect’s digestive system breaks down the proteins into smaller polypeptides, which then become active and bind with molecules in the midgut of the insect, where they cause pores to develop which upset the osmosis between the gut and the rest of the insect. The insect stops feeding, and dies within a few days. • Organic farmers use spray formulations of Bt, which is the only organic pesticide. Compared to most pesticides, which are neurotoxins and extremely harmful to anything with a central nervous system, Bt is comparatively specific and safe.

8. Bt Corn • Rationale: The European Corn Borer is a major corn pest in the U. S., but synthetic insecticides and spray Bt are not very effective against it due to the fact that the Corn Borer lives underground and burrows into the corn where the insecticides don’t reach. Annual losses to the ECB were sometimes as high as 300 million bushels per year. Bt Corn produces Bt toxin in every one of its cells continuously, and is quite effective in reducing yield losses.

9. Bt Cotton • Bt toxin is also effective against tobacco budworm, cotton bollworm, and pink bollworm, three major cotton pests. • Cotton is the crop which receives the heaviest pesticide applications, and those posts are ones that farmers were spraying for.

10. A Taxonomy of the Ethical Issues • Consumer Issues • Environmental Issues • Socioeconomic Issues

11. Consumer Issues • Unintended increase in antinutrients or decrease in nutrients • Unintended introduction of allergens • Do not presently have a reliable test for whether or not a novel protein is an likely to be an allergen • 90% of known food allergies are due to specific proteins in 8 foods: peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, soybeans, shell fish, fish, and wheat • Pioneer Hi-Bred International developed a line of soybeans that higher efficiency and nutritional content for animal feed by moving a gene from the Brazil nut into the soybean. The soybean did produce an allergic reaction in people who were allergic to Brazil nuts. Pioneer shut down the project before it ever reached the market. • Unintended introduction of toxins

12. Consumer Issues – The Pusztai Affair • August 1998: Arpad Pusztai, a well-established researcher at the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland, discussed preliminary data during a television interview • Said that the data suggested that rats fed 2 kinds of potatoes genetically engineered to produce snowdrop lectin (a potential pesticide) exhibited stunted growth and suppressed immune function compared to controls fed non-GM potatoes with or without added snowdrop lectin.

13. Consumer Issues – The Pusztai Affair • He says that two days after the interview was aired, “When I got to my laboratory I found the computer sealed, the desks locked and all my papers taken away.” (Rampton and Stauber 2001) • He was threatened with loss of pension if he made any public statements about the research. • June 1999: The UK Royal Society concluded that “Because of the poor experimental design, it is simply not possible to be sure about the causes of the small effects obtained in the study.”

14. Consumer Issues – The Pusztai Affair • August 1999: Pusztai’s response in the Lancet: “… not all the facts were in the possession of the Royal Society. Thus, it is difficult to understand how they could deduce that the GM-potato experiments were "badly designed and poorly carried out" from an internal report by Pusztai that contained no such details. The Royal Society had never considered, or even asked for, a copy of the original research proposal of 1995. This omission was further compounded by the Royal Society's unwillingness to take up Pusztai's offer of full cooperation. Moreover, as crucial details of the histological findings were never divulged to them, it is more than perplexing that the Royal Society's unnamed experts were so emphatic in their condemnation of the GM-potato experiments.”

15. Consumer Issues – The Pusztai Affair • October 1999: Pusztai’s article was published in The Lancet, subject to 6 peer reviewers, twice the usual number. 4 recommended publication, 1 thought it had problems but recommended publication anyway, and 1 recommended rejection.

16. Environmental Issues • Engineered crop may become a weed and disrupt neighboring ecosystems • Gene may move from into a relative, increase its weediness, and disrupt neighboring ecosystems • Corn, soybeans, and cotton have no relatives in the U.S. • Canola, wheat, and sunflowers do have relatives in the U.S. (Allison Snow found that wild sunflowers modified with the Bt gene produced fifty-five percent more seeds than unmodified wild sunflowers. Pioneer and Dow exercised their patent rights and prevented her from doing follow-up research. • Hard to predict how a gene transfer would affect fitness of relatives.

17. Environmental Impact • Increased Negative Impact of Herbicide Use • Rat LD50 value (indicator of acute mammalian toxicity) • Environmental indicator is the sum of LD50 doses per acre for all herbicides applied Source: Gerald Nelson

18. Herbicide Use with RR Soybeans • Slight reduction in yield with RR soybeans (2%) • Dramatic decrease in toxic doses of herbicide Source: Gerald Nelson

19. Bt Corn • The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy estimates that Bt corn saved 66 million bushels of corn in 1999, the yield of about 500,000 acres. • The use of Bt corn does not significantly reduce synthetic pesticide use (because farmers weren’t spraying for the ECB); rather, it supplements it.

20. Environmental Issues – The Chapela Affair • September 2001: David Quist and Ignatio Chapela published in Nature that transgenic DNA had moved into maize landraces in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. • “This region is part of the Mesoamerican center of origin for maize (Zea mays L.), and the genetic diversity that is maintained in open-pollinated landraces recognized as an important genetic resource of great cultural value. The presence of transgenes in landraces was significant because transgenic maize has never been approved for cultivation in Mexico.” (Snow et al. 2005)

21. Environmental Issues – The Chapela Affair • Chapela was an outspoken opponent of a five-year deal struck in 1998 that gave biotech giant Novartis privileged access to UC plant research in exchange for $25 million. • Despite a positive vote from his department, a unanimous ratification by an ad hoc tenure committee, and recommendation by the chair and college Dean, the campus Budget Committee denied tenure in June 2003. • A Michigan State University review concluded that there was “little doubt” that the Novartis deal had played a role in the tenure decision. • Chapela was later granted tenure when a new chancellor arrived at Berkeley.

22. Environmental Issues – The Chapela Affair • Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America (2004): “Transgenes have entered some landraces of maize in Mexico. This finding was confirmed by scientific studies sponsored by the Mexican government. However, no peer-reviewed summaries of this work have been published and information released to the public has been vague. In any event, there is no doubt that transgenes will spread in Mexican maize, and that they are present now.” • Snow et al. (2005) conclude: “No transgenic sequences were detected with highly sensitive PCR-based markers, appropriate positive and negative controls, and duplicate samples for DNA extraction. We conclude that transgenic maize seeds were absent or extremely rare in the sampled fields.”

23. Bt Cotton • The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy estimates that Bt cotton has reduced synthetic insecticide use by 2.7 million pounds, and resulted in 15 million fewer pesticide applications. Pesticide-related hospital visits for farm workers on farms that grow Bt cotton are substantially reduced in number.

24. Environmental Issues • Effects on non-target organisms • Direct: John Losey at Cornell reported that pollen from Bt corn kills monarch butterfly larvae. The main food source for the larvae is milkweed plants on the edge of corn fields. • Indirect: in some areas, more effective elimination of weeds in Roundup Ready fields has reduced ecological biodiversity in the surrounding area

25. Socioeconomic Issues • Increases in yield can makes prices drop, not always a good thing. • Pests will become resistant to Bt, thus undermining its usefulness. (According to Scott (2005), industry pressed for as small a refuge as possible, while scientists argued that 10% was necessary to avoid resistance; resulting in a 4% refuge.) • GE crops contaminate organic farmers fields. • Contamination can also jeopardize markets. • StarLink (2000): In 2000, the USDA agreed to spend $20 million to buy up contaminated corn • Prodigene and pharmaceutical production (2002) • Roundup Ready Wheat was going to be commercialized in 2005. An Iowa State agricultural economist predicted that “American spring wheat producers could lose 30 to 50 percent of their export market” and that the price of U.S. wheat could drop by as much as 33%.” Monsanto finally gave up developing RR Wheat.