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University of Guelph, Department of Plant Agriculture, Crop Science Building, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1 Canada
(irajcan{at}uoguelph.ca)
Nina V. Fedoroff and Nancy Marie Brown. Joseph Henry Press, Washington, DC. 2004. Hardcover, 352 pp., $24.95. ISBN 0-309-09205-1.
Since their creation, genetically modified (GM) plants and foods have been a matter of controversy and public debate worldwide. In the maze of information and misinformation that has been presented over the years, a person or consumer could find it difficult to distinguish between facts on the one hand and perceptions, assumptions, or politics on the other. Despite the fact that GM plants have met with strong resistance, an argument is made in this book that resistance to change is nothing new; it was initially experienced in response to the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other products of the Green Revolution. This book attempts, and is by and large successful, to educate a person willing to learn about the scientific aspects of developing GM plants. In the preface, the authors acknowledge the issue of significant and seemingly unstoppable increase in world population and the associated predicted danger of world hunger. This is followed by an attempt to explain how GM plants can help alleviate or deal with this danger. It is somewhat less clear how the authors came up with the premise of "plant breeders... running out of breeding room" against evidence of continuing annual yield increments in major field crops such as corn and soybean. The book comprises 15 chapters along with notes that help the reader find out more about the sources used throughout the text.
The first chapter offers a detailed account of the case of "Golden Rice" and its creator, Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus. It shows how an essentially well-meaning and creative idea could be turned upside down by its critics. A parallel is drawn between the critics of genetic engineering as "being a manmade process," which is "very violent," and a similar response to the German botanist Julius von Sachs' growing crops of hydroponically as early as 1860. A case is also made that mutation breeding has gone on, mostly unchecked, in many crops, contributing to improved agricultural production in many regions of the world. In Chapter 2, conveniently named "The Wild and the Sown," it becomes clear that crops as we know them are a result of human interventions through domestication over thousands of years. The narrative in this chapter is truly astounding. The fear of "change" per se is discussed through the example of potato's introduction to Europe, which was stifled for 250 yr by European gardeners who refused to grow it, calling it "savage-looking." A point is made in Chapter 3 that Luther Burbank, one of the most famous formally untrained plant breeders, made hybridizations among species and even genera that could be viewed as "tinkering with nature" more readily than any GM technique. Nevertheless, Burbank's work resulted in a range of highly successful varieties such as Burbank potato (i.e., Idaho potato), white blackberries, etc., which were accepted almost without challenge.
A discussion of genes and gene products, which includes a description of the role of Barbara McClintock's breakthrough discovery of transposons in maize and their impact on plant evolution, is well written and exciting to read. A number of GM experiments, reactions to them, and their implications are also discussed at length in the book. Among them are such high profile cases such as Dr. Arpad Pusztai's rat feeding experiment, which is criticized as experimentally weak in measuring the effect of the gene introduced into potato. Despite the obvious imperfections of Pusztai's experiments, the view is neglected that it may not really matter if it was the gene, tissue culture, or somaclonal variation that caused the negative effect on rats. The point is that some integral step (any step) in the development of these GM potatoes caused a negative effect. The credibility of arguments presented in the book would be enhanced had opposing sides been consulted more freely and equitably.
A chapter entitled "Pollen Has Always Flown" (Ch. 11) deals with the issue of Mexican maize landraces being "contaminated" with transgenic (Bt) corn pollen in a way that looks more like a rebuttal to the critics than an analysis of all sides of the question. Some of the arguments presented are questionable such as the authors' definition of "introgression" as being only the case of "backcrossing the gene or trait into a genotype." Many breeders will agree that pollen has indeed always flown in nature with alleles being introgressed or exchanged among genotypes of cross-pollinated plants, most often without the need to perform a single backcross.
The great potential of GM technology is tirelessly and thoroughly presented throughout this book. An argument is made that more advances are to come, including addressing of some of the key biochemical processes such as photosynthesis, nitrogen metabolism, and others, which could improve the livelihood of humans and safeguard against future famines. It is obvious that this book was carefully written by a renowned and very competent plant scientist helped by a science writer. As such, it is educational and thorough (sometimes too thorough), but interesting and easy to read. The book would benefit from more references and interactions with scientists opposed to GM foods, especially those in Europe, to get a slightly more balanced view as the authors often make it very clear that they favor GM plants. The vast majority of the text, however, is accurate, convenient and educational for those wanting to learn more about the genetic basis of biotechnology as well as the recognition of an omnipresent human intervention in plants' systems throughout modern history. This book is a rare, comprehensive, and successful effort at using scientific concepts in a historical perspective to address the very current and ongoing debate on GM plants and foods. As such, the book is a must have for those on either side of the debate.
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