Arguments against genetic engineering

Colonising the Seed: Genetic Engineering and Techno-Industrial Agriculture
By Gyorgy Scrinis
Published by Friends of the Earth, 1995
40pp., $5
Reviewed by Michael McNamara This compact publication presents a persuasive synthesis of the arguments against the incorporation of genetic manipulation techniques into crop production. Pioneered in the 1970s, "genetic engineering" makes possible the laboratory transfer of genetic material across species boundaries. Genetic characteristics or attributes of life forms (plants, animals, micro-organisms etc) can thereby be intermingled outside of the constraints operating within nature. Although Scrinis specifically sets out to deconstruct the technique's application to crop production, the counter-arguments he raises would be of interest to those concerned about genetic engineering's application to other forms of agriculture and human activity, e.g. human gene therapies and the development and use of other medicines. Scrinis' central thesis is that genetic engineering "represents a continuation — indeed an intensification — of the techno-industrial approach to agricultural production, and the social inequalities, concentrations of power/wealth, and the ecological inequalities it has produced". By contrast, the bio-technology industry and its supporters variously hold out that genetic engineering will enable the "engineering" of plants to our precise specifications; promote environmentally sustainable agriculture by reducing chemical and other external inputs; and through such flexibility and bounty offer ways of stabilising the world's human food production. Scrinis gives a context to such promises and cites the socio-environmental consequences of the Green Revolution's franchise in the "Third World" since the 1940s. He characterises this revolution as capital intensive, as highly dependent upon non-renewable external inputs such as artificial fertilisers and chemical pesticides and as promoting monoculture cropping systems. Scrinis argues that genetic-industrial agriculture is set to continue and intensify the abnormal characteristics of the Green Revolution. This will: further reduce biodiversity by replacing indigenous plant varieties with the uniform varieties developed by seed companies; enable the evolution of super pests; intensify unsustainable agricultural practices; and increase farmers' dependence on external inputs and the corporations that supply them. According to Scrinis, genetic engineering represents a distinct break with industrial cross-breeding methods because it involves "techno-scientific intervention into the micro-structures of living organisms", which will give rise to new types of biological and environmental problems and the possibility of new forms of social control. These problems and controls include: the spread of engineered traits to other domesticated and wild plants ("genetic pollution"); genetic uniformity within and between species; enabling corporations to design plants that respond to their brand of chemicals; and the ability to patent genes. The first chapter discusses the "dynamic" characteristics of "organic forms of agriculture" as practised in Third World countries and, to a lesser degree, by a small but growing number of organic farmers in First World countries. Scrinis believes that the development of sustainable agricultural practices depends upon the incorporation of organic-traditional strategies such as the use of organic farm inputs, the breeding of indigenous plant varieties via the continuous replanting of seeds, crop rotation and complementary and poly-culture planting methods. In the final chapter, Scrinis briefly sets out campaign strategies for opposing the introduction of genetically modified food. Colonising the Seed provides a useful synthesis of the arguments against genetic engineering. Pithy and foreboding in tone, the publication is well organised and draws compellingly on other commentators opposed to the impending invasion of genetic engineering's bio-products into our already heavily industrialised food chain. Although some may regard this publication as extreme and consign it to the doomsday genre, they should consider the experience with other "miracle" technologies. For example, the environmental impacts of the 70,000 or so chemicals in commercial production include polluted air, surface and ground water, manufacturing and transport accidents, abandoned hazardous waste dumps, an eroding ozone layer and the possibility of rapid global climate change. Although it may seem unfair to blame the fledging bio-technology industry, there is concern about its socio-environmental impacts given that it will be producing tens of thousands of modified organisms for commercial use within the next decade. Scrinis and Friends of the Earth's (FOE) conclusion is that environmentally we can't afford to shop in bio-technology's supermarket. Anyway, isn't there an organic fruit and veg shop across the road? FOE's Anti-genetic Engineering Collective welcomes inquiries about genetic engineering issues and is looking for more members. Interested people should contact Clive Rosewarne on (03) 419 8700.