Public Left in Dark Over Non-GE options
Money Wasted; Public Left in Dark Over Non-GE options
to Feed the World
Last year traditional and non
GM plant breeding methods achieved spectacular advances.
The breakthrough developments
produced plants with higher
nutritional values, tolerance to salt and droughts,
improved performance and yield
production. These traditionally grown non GE- crops are
currently available and offer the best options for food
security.
Public funding is being wasted on GE
projects that may proceed for years with no outcome.
Meanwhile farmers and the public hear little about
these successes as PR money continues to promote
GE.
"The facts indicate public money is being
wasted in New Zealand funding GE research at the cost of
other practical solutions already available," says Jon
Carapiet from GE Free NZ in food and
environment.
In the last year there has been a
marked increase in the rhetoric around the need for genetic
engineering (GE) as the best solution to world hunger in the
future. This appears to be part of a ten-year multi-million
dollar publicity campaign announced some years ago by the
biotechnology industry.
'GM Watch' reports
non-GM solutions to challenges used to promote GE
include:
- Non GE plants that have high Vitamin A
levels
- Plants able to withstand drought or are salt
tolerant
- Effective pest and weed control methods
-
Plants that out perform GE in yields
By desperately
promoting GM seeds proponents have ignored developments of
the World’s seed savers and breeders who are propagating
the desired traits through non-GM traditional selection
methods.
In New Zealand Koanga Gardens has Heritage
and traditional plants and fruit trees that are resistant to
certain pests and diseases.
In Zambia in the region
of Mwanawasa mixed farming and conservation farming has
resulted in bumper harvests for the past three years in
non-GM maize.
The University of Philippines has
developed a new non-GM maize variety that is able to survive
a drought for 29 days and the Indian indigenous rice is
better than GM-rice at dealing with weather
stress.
The Gates Foundation is giving millions to
research and breeding of a non GM orange sweet potato that
has high levels of beta-carotene, an essential building
block of vitamin A, which helps to prevent
blindness.
In Kenya the CIMMYT (International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Centre), researchers using marker
assisted breeding technology have found maize plants
resistant to the grain borer in the Centre's germplasm bank,
the maize seed was originally sourced from the
Caribbean.
"Globally the tide has turned on GMO
technology in food animals and plants. It is time that New
Zealand’s CRI’s stopped GE experiments and move toward
MAB (marker assisted breeding) trait selection and
traditional breeding methods," says Claire Bleakley,
president of GE Free NZ in food and
environment.
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