Few subjects in farming have caused as much controversy over the last 20 years as that of GM crops.
The issues here are many and varied. Those in favour and against GM crops can adopt exceptionally hostile positions towards
each other's arguments. Close friends and farmer-neighbours have even taken each other to court over the subject.
So, what's the history and what is driving the ill-feeling?
The origins
As scientists gained an ever-more detailed understanding of the makeup of nature's genetic code and its markers, they also
developed techniques to manipulate genetic structures in order to achieve specific objectives.
Almost from day one, the subject became intensely emotive for many people with scientists being accused of massive meddling
with the fundamental building blocks of nature and "trying to play God."
The first genetic manipulation in crops goes back to the mid-1980s and it proved to be almost immediately hugely
controversial. That hasn't really changed up to the present time though oddly, genetic manipulation in order to produce
medical treatment has gone over the same period from being equally controversial to today becoming rather more accepted and
generally speaking, a quiet background issue.
The difference between the two positions is probably attributable to the fact that during this very same period, the links
between what we eat and our overall health have become more and more understood. As a result, almost anything that resulted
in what was perceived to be, rightly or wrongly, fundamental change in our foodstuffs was going to be controversial.
Other food-chain related disasters, such as the BSE/vCJD crisis in Europe, didn't help those concerns either.
The specific concerns
Some objections to GM crops are based on views that can perhaps best be described as being religious or philosophical. There
is such a wide range of massively varying objections from those domains that it isn't really possible to discuss them in any
detail.
Most other concerns in the scientific and public domains can be seen to come under one of the following headings:
• A reduction in genetic bio-diversity
• Unknown effects on human health
• Possible wider-scale and a unforeseeable effects on the biosphere
• Increasing large multi-national corporate control and manipulation of the human food supply chain.
Reaction from supporters of GM crops
Occasionally, supporters of GM crops have dismissed many if not all of the above concerns as ill-informed scaremongering.
Many will point out that there is a significant tendency on the part of humanity to resist change and the 'arrival of the
new.'
They also suggest, with some justification that many aspects of 21st century life we now take for granted were, at the time
of their inception, very controversial and vociferously campaigned against. Examples might include In Vitro Fertilisation
(IVF) and even the railway engine.
However, some caution may be required before too casually dismissing much of the consumer's and some sections of the farming
community's concerns in these areas. Whatever the respective rights and wrongs of the above perceptions, it is clear that
there exists a deep-seated and very widespread public demand for more debate and information on these important subjects.
For the farming industry and agricultural scientists to ignore those concerns whilst concentrating on the routine day-to-day
stuff of agriculture, machinery and so on, may be very risky from a commercial and PR viewpoint.
It would seem prudent for the industry to lead a sensible public debate with appropriate scientific evidence if the worries
over genetically modified crops are, in some market segments, not to become a potentially damaging tidal wave of consumer
resistance.
Michelle W. is an author and provider of a wide range of agriculture and farm machinery like kubota mowers, zero turn mowers,
utility vehicles, hey equipments. Also deals in used kubota ride on mowers in Goulburn.
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