Ecological Monitoring of Genetically Modified Crops A Workshop Summary (2001) / Chapter Skim
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The Rationale for Ecological Monitoring
The Rationale for Ecological Monitoring
Pages 4-10
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From page 4... ...
"Mycologists raced to see who could first identify the fungus that was on the potato leaves," Paul Waggoner, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, told the workshop audience, "and within a year one had published a drawing and a Latin inscription in the very first volume of the new journal of the Horticultural Society." In the 20th century, Waggoner said, monitors have spotted such pests and pestilences as Dutch elm disease, the gypsy moth, the corn borer, the boll weevil, Medfly, the Japanese beetle, and the Southern corn leaf blight. Those are examples of a type of ad hoc monitoring.
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From page 5... ...
One example is the possibility that Bt toxin in the drifting pollen of transgenic corn is killing monarch caterpillars. That is a case of what researchers refer to as "effects on nontarget organisms." Of course, chemical pesticides might also kill nontarget organisms and can drift from farmers' fields, but the development of plants that produce toxic pollen is a new phenomenon in agriculture.
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From page 6... ...
And the viral resistance offers a large enough competitive advantage, Wilson noted, that one line of Texas gourd could displace others, and this would lead to a loss of genetic diversity in the gourd. That is worrisome, he said, because when a problem appears in the domesticated crop a major blight, for instanceplant breeders must be able to fall back on the broader gene pool of the undomesticated relatives for help in breeding plants that are resistant to the problem.
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From page 7... ...
Thus, the potential consequences of planting transgenic crops are in four major categories: the development of pesticide resistance in crop pests, the transformation of crops into invasive weeds, harm to nontarget organisms, and gene flow from crops into related plants, viruses, or other organisms. If monitoring is to be done, those are the major things to look for.
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Might it cause a loss of genetic diversity in the companion weed? If so, would that matter, and how much?
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The ecological monitoring of genetically modified crops is more than a scientific issue, noted William Hallman, of Rutgers Univer
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We take this seriously." Thus, according to Hallman, even if genetically modified crops pose no greater threat to the environment than conventional crops, there remains a reason to treat the transgenic crops differently. The public sees them as something different and potentially more dangerous and rigorous monitoring can help to reassure members of the public that scientists are being careful to safeguard them.
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