Many genes make you smart
A Scottish and Australia survey of the DNA of 3,511 unrelated adults found that variations in the DNA account for around half of the variation in intelligence.
Australian Life Scientist: 10 August 2011
A gene: invention or discovery
The gene patent war is hotting up again with the US courts recently deeming the patent owned by Myriad Genetics for two breast cancer genes are valid – again
What does all this mean? What are the implications for Australia? I for one, am not even going to try to explain, but The Conversation has found three people with different perspectives to give their thoughts.
Luigi Palombi
David John Brennan
Phillip Soos
Previous TechNyou gene patent stories
TnY – Without patents people will die
GM food: a dinner discussion. A Ugandan perspective
This week, 10 August, Technyou and partners are holding a public forum on what the role of GM crops should be in helping achieve global food security.
I have just received a response to the questions we are posing for the forum from Onek Keneth in Uganda that I thought I should post here.
He (and his sister) appear involved in agricultural production systems and their position in Uganda gives a different perspective to how many in our well-fed western society may see the issues.
There does appear one contradiction, that hopefully Onek might be able to clarify for me.
He says:
The use of organic farming methods, integrated pest management and mixed cropping would be a more appropriate solution than the use of GM technology.
But then says: The sustainable agriculture can be achieved most effectively when different approaches are combined appropriately. This includes organic and contemporary plant breeding as well as GM techniques. It is unlikely that organic farming alone can cope with agricultural challenges in our country and other important strategies in agricultural practice should not be neglected.
I am going to email Onek and see if he has a moment to clarify whether he thinks GM crops can play a role – ie by integrating specific and relevant crops into a more agro-ecological farming system, or whether they should never be considered under any circumstances? An example of the former might be a virus resistant cassava or nutrient-enriched banana incorporated into a poly-culture food production system grown with agro–ecological principles suitable to the region and cultural practices.
Also, Onek is coming at it from a Ugandan perspective and he notes there are cultural values and traditions that may be compromised should modern industrial agriculture start being used in his country. But does he see a role for GM crops in more industrial ag systems in other countries?
I did attempt to just post a link to the document Onek sent me, but there appear to be computer issues, so here is the cut and paste version
Compiled by, Onek Keneth and Aciro Caroline (from Northern Uganda, East Africa)
GM Food: A Dinner Discussion. Should GM crops contribute to global food security?
10 August | 6pm for 6.30pm seating | The Pump house Hotel, 128 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy
We need to find a way to feed an extra 3 billion people by 2050 with predicted greater constraints on availability of farmable land, water, fuel and fertilizers. Should gene technologies play a role? In what circumstances would these technologies used in food production be acceptable?
1- SHOULD GM TECHNOLOGIES HAVE A ROLE IN HELPING ACHIEVE GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY?
No, reasons are:
According to our country,
The local customs and practices are concerns that the introduction of GM crops will destroy traditional agricultural practices. One example is the practice of many farmers in our country of saving seed between harvests, rather than buying new seed each year. It is suggested that the introduction of GM crops will force farmers to buy seed. There are also concerns that in some situations, GM herbicide tolerant crops could lead to a reduction in the demand for labor for weeding on farms.
We recommend that it is important to ensure that local traditions are respected and that farmers are involved in decision making. The use of GM crops will not necessarily spread Western farming practices and genetic modification can be used to improve traditional crops. However, there may be cases where one type of GM crop, such as a GM herbicide tolerant crop, is less useful for a specific kind of farmer in a particular country. There are also likely to be problems if a single company dominated the seed market. It is desirable that, as far as possible, farmers have a genuine choice. To provide this, it is important to encourage research, through public sector support, into crops (whether GM or not) that can be retained by farmers with minimal loss of yield.
Uganda has been found suitable for testing genetically modified (GM) maize under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project. This initiative is to develop drought tolerant maize for smallholder farmers to solve food insecurity.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, nine million Ugandans are facing hunger, with many feeding on one meal a day.
This is caused by the poor purchasing power of the population exacerbated by poverty, effects of climate change, the global economic crisis, inefficient markets and weak institutions.
Uganda has the potential to produce food for its entire population and have surplus for export, if the agricultural sector is made a priority. The proponents of this initiative sell a convincing message that GM crops are the answer to food insecurity and have the potential to boost food production.
However, the GM crops create dependence and reliance on maize varieties every planting season.
This will eventually jeopardize the traditional practices of smallholder and peasant farmers sharing, saving and exchanging seeds. It will also require farmers to pay for costly fertilizers.
Secondly, while the WEMA project will supply seeds to smallholder farmers “royalty free” the fear is the predicament of these farmers if this subsidy is eventually withdrawn at the end of the project.
Ultimately the multinational companies that invest large sums of money and time developing these varieties must recoup their investment by making farmers wholly dependent on these “maize varieties.”
Thirdly, the fear is that our traditional varieties will eventually be eradicated by GM crops.
In 2008, the national bio-technology and bio-safety policy was passed to provide a guiding framework for the promotion of research and application of science and technology for national development. However, for this policy to be implemented the National biotechnology and bio-safety Bill must be enacted into law
It is critical that the Government expedites the process of enacting this law to clearly spell out institutional mandates for the effective application of bio-technology and to protect the interests of smallholder farmers in the country.
2- What sort of technologies and agricultural systems are required or acceptable to grow our food and ensure a secure food supply for the future and by what means are we prepared to achieve it?
In our country Uganda, Food insecurity can be addressed by increasing budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector, establishing irrigation schemes to reduce the dependence on the vagaries of nature, adding value to the existing agricultural products to increase shelf span and marketability.
The use of organic farming methods, integrated pest management and mixed cropping would be a more appropriate solution than the use of GM technology.
The sustainable agriculture can be achieved most effectively when different approaches are combined appropriately. This includes organic and contemporary plant breeding as well as GM techniques. It is unlikely that organic farming alone can cope with agricultural challenges in our country and other important strategies in agricultural practice should not be neglected.
3- How do we feed an extra three billion people with potential limits on land and resources?
-There should be fairer distribution of land, food and purchasing power (budget allocation to agriculture)
-Agro ecological farming to sustain the population should be encouraged
Compiled by, Onek Keneth and Aciro Caroline (from Northern Uganda, East Africa)
Currently Keneth is struggling to get scholarship to study for a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture (Crop) in the University of Melbourne’s school of Land and Environment for 2012
QUT approval for trial of GM banana
The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has issued a licence for a trial of genetically modified bananas for enhanced nutrition
OGTR DIR 109 3 August 2011
Public V private science: it is all about perception
By Jason Major
Technyou
Given the recent controversy over GM wheat and Greenpeace claims that CSIRO research is compromised because of its links to industry – indeed that would apply to a lot of university research in Australia nowadays – then this UK survey on public attitudes to science presents some interesting results. I wonder how well they extrapolate to Australia? I suspect quite well.
Public science good, private evil-ish
One of the key findings is that the public trust in scientists working in public institutions is high. In contrast trust in scientists working for private industry is low, though still way above politicians, which I would (almost) bet the farm on is similar in Australia.
Eoin Lettice who is the Communicate Science blog writes a nice summary of the report
I recall previous surveys in Australia that found the public trust in CSIRO up there with God. It would be interesting if that is still the case,. I am sure it is still high, but is it equal to its historical peak. The same could be asked of university scientists. If not what does this mean? As Eoin Lettice suggests does this mean any scientist funded by industry has to engage more? Will this make a difference? I certainly know that when I throw a scientist into the public fray and the public get a chance to chat with him or her, it makes a huge difference to the trust levels. Suddenly they are human, have families, care, think and drink beer.
How much difference someone like Monsanto or BP can make in the short-term by making a huge push in public engagement remains to be seen.
Breast cancer gene patent reinstated
Gene patents scrapped last year on the grounds that they were based on natural molecules were last week reinstated on the grounds that the molecules are, after all, unnatural.
New Scientist: 2 August 2011
Artificial nanoparticles influence the heart rate
Using an isolated rodent heart flushed scientists have shown that certain nanoparticles cause an increased heart rate, cardiac arrhythmia and modified ECG values.
Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM): 1 August 2011
The silver bullet men
An interesting opinion piece about science, our obsession with the technical fix and why women love to shop and boys have their toys.
Online Opinion by Chris Harris 2 August 2011
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.