GM food: a dinner discussion

By Jason Major

TechNyou

GM food: a dinner discussion

This will be a public forum to discuss the acceptability of using transgenic technologies to develop genetically modified crops that could play a role in food security.

TechNyou and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the University of Adelaide will host this forum in Melbourne on 10 August, as part of national Science Week. Twitter hashtag #GTmenu

Full event details and how to register for the event are on the event website 

Why have the event?

There is no doubt we are going to have problems finding ways to feed the predicted extra 3 billion people by 2050. It is well acknowledged by many national and international reports that the answer does not lie in simply growing more food. Poverty, lack of agricultural development and skills in developing nations, poor infrastructure and distribution to get food to and from communities – not helped by war and corruption, and food wastage lost by poor storage or simply because we in the Western world disgracefully send perfectly good food to landfill. And these are just some of the constraints. Sorting these issues will go a long way to helping ensure a secure food supply, but we have been attempting unsuccessfully to sort these problems for decades so the question needs to be asked whether we can sort them by 2050 and consequently have them help achieve food security.

Regardless one part of the solution is to grow more of the right foods more efficiently. How will we do this? It is likely that it will require a re-think on agriculture – everything from the nutrient cycle, plant and animal breeding, water use…the whole system, including how we consume food, at least for us in the relatively well-fed western world.

The transgenic technologies behind the development of genetically modified foods are one of many plant breeding technologies at the disposal of scientists to breed crops with novel traits that could contribute to food security – some examples of these are mentioned below.

In the big picture transgenic technologies are only likely to play a minor role, but it could be an important role. It is also one of the more controversial technologies. Its importance and controversy is why we want to have this discussion. Your thoughts, inputs and concerns will help direct research priorities in this area; it will be a chance to learn more about what drives scientists working in this field – what they are doing and why, and equally they can learn from you; it will also be an opportunity to gain insight into what your fellow members of the community think and why.

How will the event work?

You, the audience will be role playing. You will pretend you are part of a committee charged by the government to put together a report about the worth of developing genetically modified crops specifically for the purpose of helping with food security. This is a global issue so you will need to be thinking about it from a global perspective.

We have asked four eminent experts in their fields to be part of event. They will be there for you to tap into for information and help you in your role, as members of this committee, to help you make informed decisions. Your other committee (audience) members will also be there for this purpose.

Full details about the experts can be found on the event’s website – www.genetechmenu.com

Now this all sounds serious stuff, but we will make sure it will be fun as well and informative. Chris Krishna-Pillay, your host and moderator for the night will make sure of that. Expect chocolate frogs or some other delicacies totally unnecessary for life randomly thrown your way, should Chris deem your question or comment worthy.

What sort of crops are we talking about?

Here are some examples of crops that are part of Australian research programs. Worldwide, there are many other similar research programs working on a range of crops, often local and endemic to a region.

Nitrogen-use-efficient (NUE) crops.

These are crops that use nitrogen fertiliser more efficiently. Generation of nitrogen fertiliser is an energy-intensive process that, at the moment, relies on fossil fuels. Additionally, excess nitrogen not used by the plant gets into waterways creating environmental problems such as algal blooms. NUE crops will require less nitrogen to be applied to the soil, yet still maintain crop yields. More about NUE crops at ACPFG

Iron-fortified rice

Micro-nutrient deficiencies are one of the world’s biggest health problems, especially in the developing nations. Polished rice (or white rice) contains low levels of iron (and other micro-nutrients such as Vitamin A). Dr Alex Johnson from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Botany is working on boosting the iron content of rice in an attempt to help alleviate the problem of iron deficiency that affects 2 billion people worldwide. Nobody is suggesting that this iron-rich rice will solve the problem, but the question we need to explore is whether this is an appropriate tool to help with the problem. Are there better ways that would negate the need to do this research, if so what are they?

Alex receives a lot of his funding for this research from HarvestPlus

Digestible pasture grass

This isn’t a GM crop that many people would be aware of, or even relate to the issue of food security, but we eat meat and the livestock eat grass. This grass should make grass more digestible and nutritious for livestock which means less energy is used to extract the energy from the grass and more energy in the grass is available for the animal. Or in other words you get more meat and milk with less grass.

This research is being done through the Dairy Cooperative Research Centre. One of the ways they are trying to achieve this is by silencing one of the genes involved in the production of a type of lignin, which is the glue-like and indigestible part of plants.

There is still a fair bit of research to do, but early modeling has suggested that with an increase in digestibility of 5-6% they can get an increase in milk production of up to 25%

Salt/drought tolerant cereals

Australian Centre for Plant functional genomics are working on a whole range of crops better adapted to abiotic stresses

Disease-resistance

Loads of research groups worldwide are working on this problem with a range of crops and diseases. In Australia, CSIRO is doing work resistance to rust fungi.

Questions

So should these crops be developed?

To what extent can they help with food security?

Under what circumstances, if ever, should they be introduced?

What are the barriers to getting these GM crops developed – technical, ethical or social?

Big picture questions

What sort of agricultural or food production systems do we want to ensure food security in the next few decades?

What are the acceptable means by which we are prepared to achieve this?

What role, if any, should transgenic (Genetic Modification) technologies play?

Start the discussion early on event’s discussion board

If you are coming to the event you can pose questions or initiate a discussion on the event’s discussion board. There is no registration required, just follow the instruction on the page. Click on the “Discuss” tab on the home page. We will use as many of the questions as possible on the night as part of the discussion.

Don’t forget we will be tweeting live from the event.  You can follow what is happening with #GTmenu You can even pose a question via Twitter.