Biotechnology and Genetic Diversity

Proponents, on the other hand, say the productivity gains of genetically enhanced crops allow more food to grow on existing farmland, which preserves natural areas from being plowed under to feed a growing population. This, supporters say, promotes genetic diversity. Researchers increasingly say the question is no longer whether a genetically enhanced gene, or transgene, will "escape." Pollen flow between plants is a natural phenomenon that has been occurring for thousands of years. Indeed, a 1999 study found that 12 of the world's 13 most important food crops hybridized with at least one of their wild relatives. As Klaus Ammann, director of the botanical garden at the University of Bern in Switzerland puts it, "I can assure you that pollen did not learn to fly with the transgenes." So release of genetically enhanced genes is as likely to occur as with conventional varieties. But the better question to be asked is what could happen when specific genetically enhanced genes do enter the natural environment, says John Burke, a biology professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. "Our work … indicates a clear need to assess the relative risks and benefits of genetic modification on a case-by-case basis," he wrote in a paper titled, "Assessing the Risks of Transgene Escape: A Case Study in Sunflowers." While there is much to study, most experts have concluded that the process of genetic engineering does not pose any unique risks to the environment. "So far, most scientific inquiry into the subject has failed to support the notion that there is something about the genetic engineering process itself that intensifies any threats from gene flow," states an August 2003 report titled "Have Transgenes, Will Travel," issued by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. A panel of experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences reached a similar conclusion. "The genetic engineering process, per se, presents no new categories of risk" to the environment compared to conventional breeding, said the August 2002 report titled, "The Environmental Effects of Transgenic Plants." Source: "here":[ http://www.whybiotech.com/index.asp?id=1814].

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