Report Says Gene Flow From GM Crops Not Likely to Harm Environment
The University of California – Davis posted the following article to their Web site earlier. The article highlights a new report released by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). The research found that gene flow from genetically modified crop plants to their wild relatives will have little overall impact on human health or the environment.
C.S. Prakash
Report Says Gene Flow From GM Crops Not Likely to Harm Environment
The University of California – Davis
December 12, 2007
Gene flow from genetically modified crop plants to their wild relatives will have little overall impact on human health or the environment, predicts a team of researchers in a report released today by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.
Gene flow -- the movement of genes from one plant population to another -- has always occurred naturally but has drawn particular attention during the past 10 years, as genetically modified crop plants have moved into commercial production.
"Regulatory requirements and market standards that are specific to crops developed using biotechnology have resulted in much closer monitoring of gene flow than has been done in the past," said plant scientist Kent Bradford, a co-author of the report and director of UC Davis' Seed Biotechnology Center.
"After analyzing a wide range of crop-trait-location combinations, it was determined that relatively few of these combinations present the potential for gene flow to adversely affect the environment or human health," Bradford said. "Gene flow within a given crop can result in economic impacts for specific markets but these can be managed through proven strategies that make it possible for genetically modified crops and nonbiotech crops to co-exist."
