Issue date: 4/20/05 Section: Aggielife

Gracie Arenas - The Battalion

Imagine an idyllic scene where a butterfly flutters across a field only to be violently consumed by a growing stalk of wheat.

According to Christopher Leaver, department head of plant sciences at the University of Oxford, this nightmare is indicative of challenges facing proponents of genetically modified crops.

On April 5, Leaver presented a lecture entitled "Plant Biotechnology - GM Crops in Context" as the final lecture of the 2004-05 season of the Texas A&M University Distinguished Lecture Series.

In exploring the scientific, social and political issues surrounding GM crops, Leaver described what will have to be a multifaceted approach for addressing the impending agricultural challenges.

"Today, we could feed everyone on this planet thanks to plant breeding, modern agriculture, the agrichemical industry and so on," Leaver said. "At the present time, making sure everyone has enough to eat is more about politics than science."

This will not always be the case. Leaver said demand will grow as the human population increases from six billion to an expected nine billion by 2050. Without major changes, supply could decrease because current agricultural practices are unsustainable due to their destructive environmental impact.

"We have to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture, which combines the best of conventional plant breeding, which has been very successful, with the newer biotechnologies," Leaver said.

GM crops will play a central role in this strategy.

All living things have a unique DNA sequence, divided into individual genes. Each gene codes for a particular protein, and the form of that protein contributes to a particular trait in the individual. This code-reading machinery follows the same rules in virtually all life forms, so a specific gene will produce the same protein in plants, as in bacteria.

In the early 1980s, scientists began directly altering the genetic code of plants installing advantageous traits.

In his lecture, Leaver offered a wide range of possibilities for genetic modification, including increasing crop yield, improving nutritional value, providing resistance to disease and even addressing the impending decline in fossil fuel production.

Keerti Rathore, associate professor of soil and crop sciences at A&M, said that despite the possibilities, only two types of GM crops are widely grown: those resistant to herbicides and those that produce insecticides.

Continued...

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