By Jims Vincent T. Capuno
If the world wants to mitigate the effects of climate change brought about by global warming, it has to increase its areas for planting genetically modified (GM) crops. Such was the idea of Dr. Wayne Parrot, a crop science expert from the University of Georgia .
“The ill effects of global warming is being reversed by the increasing area for genetically modified crops which have been contributing to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emission,” said in a statement released by Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).
Global warming is believed to be caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, methane from landfills and feedlots, and the nitrogen compound, nitrous oxide, from burning fossil fuels and fertilizers.
Crop science experts expressed full confidence in the contribution of GM crops in countering predicted increasing global temperature. For instance, GM herbicide resistant crops enable farmers’ omission of tilling of the soil. “This prohibits emission of carbon dioxide to the environment and enhances moisture in the soil,” the statement said.
Carbon dioxide makes up only .035 percent of the atmosphere (including moisture). It plays a major role in controlling the earth’s surface temperature. However, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has considerably increased over the past years.
Prevention of emission of carbon dioxide also comes largely from non-razing of more forest lands for agricultural use. As forests are cut down, experts point out, there are fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
According to Dr. Parrott, global farmers have been able to triple cereal production from 650 million metric tons (MT) in 1950 to 1.9 billion MT in 2000. “This is without the need for more agricultural land due to higher yield from emerging farm technologies,” he claims.
Despite the three times increase in production, land use over the 50-year period was about constant at 660 million hectares as of 2000. Farm technology spared the use of a vast tract of land which could amount to at least one billion hectares.
“Land not used for agriculture was 1.1 billion hectares. Since you save on land, you have more land for other uses,” said Parrott in a BAR-sponsored biotechnology forum. BAR is a line agency of the Department of Agriculture.
GM crops are modified through genetic engineering. “(Genetic engineering),” explains Dr. Saturnina C. Halos, chairwoman of the Biotechnology Technical Advisory Team of the Department of Agriculture, “is a procedure that produces a genetically modified organism. “It comprises a set of techniques that transfers desired genes by splicing the genes to a DNA vector and forcing the entry of the vectors with the genes into cells and the stable integration of the genes into the genetic machinery of the host cell.”
Aside from mitigating the effects of global warming, GM crops have several other advantages over traditional crops. Take the case of Bt corn. Bt comes from Bacillus thuringiensis, a common soil microorganism that has been used for decades as bacterial suspension spray to control insects in vegetables. It is naturally present in the Philippine soil and had been in use for years without any harmful effects.
By using Bt corn, which is resistant to the pest Asiatic corn borer, a farmer may raise his yield from the conventional five MT per hectare to seven to eight MT per hectare.
The Bt corn’s contribution in curtailing carbon dioxide emission: elimination of pesticide spray as it has built-in pest resistance. As a result, the use of fuel for spraying is consequently wipes out.
London-based PG Economics estimated that decreased pesticide and fuel use from GM spared carbon dioxide emission by a total of 17.7 billion kilograms. This comes from the elimination of herbicide and insecticide use over the 17.1 percent of total agricultural area now planted to GM crops.
The GM crop Roundup Ready, a corn resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the United States, enables farmers to obtain high yield from corn without needing to spend for labor cost for weeding.
But the most important thing is that the herbicide-resistant trait in the gene inserted in the corn, farmers no longer till the soil. This restores moisture and stores up carbon dioxide in the soil.
“GM officially started in 1996,” Dr. Parrot recalled. “Now we have 15.4 million farmers in 29 countries planting GM. If organic farmers will use GM, it will make their life easier because in the end organic and GM farming have the same goal of environmental sustainability.”
If GM was not used by 14 million farmers for from 1996 to 2009, PG Economics reported that farmers would have needed to plant on 3.8 million hectares more for soybeans, 5.6 million hectares more for corn, 2.6 million hectares more for cotton and 0.3 million hectares more for canola.
“This total area requirement is equivalent to about seven percent of the arable land in the United States , or 24 percent of the arable land in Brazil ,” reported PG Economics.
In Asia, the Philippines is at the forefront in GM planting. “Philippineshas been a leader in the region,” Dr. Parrot said. “You have sensible, logical regulations that were put in place early. You have half a million hectares of GM corn this year, and no other country in the region has that.”
Aside from corn, four GM crops are currently being tested in the country: the papaya ring spot virus, fruit and shoot borer-resistant eggplant, multiple virus-resistant tomato, and the beta-carotene-rich golden rice.
Golden rice, the result of a research investment of more than US$100 million over 10 years, is reportedly intended to address the problem of vitamin A deficiency, which is a major form of malnutrition in developing countries. The new rice contains three genes transplanted from daffodils and bacteria that allow rice plants to produce kernels containing beta-carotene, a compound that is converted to vitamin A in the human body.
In Davao City , people are more aware of the fruit and shoot borer-resistant eggplant since it has been trial tested at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao . The plants were uprooted due to some misunderstanding from people doing the study and some government officials.
The eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) has been cited as the most destructive insect pest. Scientifically, it is called Leucinodes orbonalis, a moth specie prevalent in Asia and Africa . The moths’ larvae feed on eggplant shoots and fruits until maturity.
“The EFSB can cause as much as 50-75 percent loss of fruits,” says Dr. Emil Q. Javier, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology. “The worm of the insect bore tunnels in the fruit, rendering them unfit for consumption.”
Unfortunately, there is no known genetic resistance to EFSB in cultivated and wild eggplants. “The insects are concealed in the shoots and fruits and are difficult to reach,” Dr. Javier explains. “Thus in order to protect their crops, farmers spray their plants almost every other day with insecticides.”
Dr. Serge Francisco, who wrote Projected Impacts of Agricultural Biotechnologies for Fruits and Vegetables in the Philippines and Indonesia, said eggplant growers spray as much as 42 times per production period using approximately more than 65 liters of chemicals per hectare.
Dr. Parrot believed countries which are not planting GM crops “are no longer food-secure.” Ninety-two percent of globally-traded soybean is now GM. This high saturation level is true also in GM corn which has achieved an 80 percent global trade level and in cotton, canola, and sugarbeet at 90 percent each.
Definitely a more important benefit of GM crops is on human health. By planting GM crops, farmers’ unprotected spraying of pesticide will become “a thing of the past.”
Cancer-causing aflatoxin from corn mold and other toxins are eliminated with GM corn. “After insects damage corn, fungus follows which has an effect of causing cancer, birth defects, and it depresses the immune system,” Dr. Parrott said.
But GM crops are saved from fungi infestation, he claimed.
Another good thing about GM crops: They even cause a flourishing of biological diversity. The presence of beneficial insects have extensively been documented in farms planted to GM. On the other hand, pesticide-sprayed farms can never be found with beneficial insects as sprays are non-targeted to pests alone but kill all types of insects.
There is a misperception that “gene flow” from GM crops causes harm on conventional crops. “Gene flow is the most misunderstood of all,” Dr. Parrot declares. “People ask, will the genetically engineered plant cross with other plants? The question to ask is, ‘Will there be negative consequence?’ It doesn’t mean just because there’s gene flow, there’s negative consequence.”Dr. Parrot cites the corn production of different varieties near San andres, Xeoul in Guatemala . “They have been crossing for centuries, but there’s no damage,” he says. “Crossing is not automatically destructive.”
