This essay is
based on
excerpts of our book
"Life Counts" - Cataloguing
Life of Earth
Science book of
the Year 2000
Awarded with a
"Distinctive Merit" by the
famous New York
Art Directors Club
in its 2001 contest
The Future of Life
(Part 1 2 3 4 5)
Bio-options
Organic farmers have a bumper sticker: "Live like you'll die tomorrow, and farm like you'll live forever". Organic farming in Europe and North America shows that agriculture is compatible with greater respect for nature and is not necessarily practiced at the expense of biodiversity. Giving up pesticides and preserving natural habitats, such as hedgerows and meadows, gives more plants and animals a chance than does conventional agriculture with its often completely cleared fields. Particularly in regions where sufficient agricultural land is available (and even left partly fallow), organic farming has emerged as a meaningful alternative to conventional agriculture. In addition, a growing number of consumers are willing and able to pay for more expensive organically grown bioproducts.
The biggest handicap of organic agriculture is definitely its need for space. Unless every last tree is cut down, it will not be possible to feed the growing world population using organic farming methods as they are practiced today. At present, weeds, pests, and plant diseases cause about one-third of the global harvest to be lost. Without the use of chemicals, this proportion would be significantly higher and the food supply for the world's population would no longer be guaranteed.
On the other hand, these chemicals are a source of many problems with water, soil, and biodiversity. By using new methods and technologies, conventional agriculture also has the potential to operate more efficiently and with greater care for the environment. For example, the international Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported on new ways of raising rice by watering at intervals, thus reducing water use by 25 percent. Such advances are urgently needed in Southeast Asia, India, and China. Rice is cultivated by 90 percent of Asian farmers, but rice has required twice as much water as other kinds of grains.
Great hopes have also been pinned on breeding new plant varieties. In its bulletin "Population Change, Resources, and the Environment," the Population Reference Bureau analyzed the outlook for future development. "The currently used varieties can also be further optimized using conventional methods. Within the next twenty years, however, biotechnology might provide fundamentally new ways of increasing yields." Rice is particularly well-suited to gene research, and it has been studied by researchers around the world (along with the "model plant" Arabidopsis thaliana - thale cress). The knowledge thereby gained can also become the basis for developing new varieties. Currently, corn, rape, soybeans, cotton, barley, and tomatoes are the objects of breeding programs based on genetic engineering.
In such "engineering," an isolated gene with known properties is added to the genetic makeup of a life-form. "The transferred gene can come from the wild form of the plant, or from other plants, bacteria, or fungi," explains Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, a German Nobel Prize winner. "However, this doesn't always work. For instance, in most cases we don't know which gene makes a plant resistant to frost or a given fungus. We know more about genes taken from bacteria or fungi, because they are easier to investigate than plants." Attempts are now being made to transfer an already-known resistance-gene from bacteria to plants - with differing degrees of success. This kind of extremely expensive research is in its infancy and still has to show what it can really do. Scientist hope that this kind of plant development can:
- Help preserve water supplies. Worldwide, agriculture is the greatest
consumer of water. New plants are supposed to produce the same yields
with less water.
- Produce higher yields from dry and saline soils. The wild form's tolerance
of drought and salinity is to be transferred to cultivated plants. This
could improve yields in disadvantaged regions.
- Breed resistance to pests into plants and thereby reduce the use of
toxic sprays while ensuring good yields.
- Improve the nutritional value of plants in order to provide better nutrition
for consumers.
- Take the pressure off still untouched natural areas by increasing yields
on already available agricultural land. This would indirectly help maintain
biodiversity.
It is interesting to note that those involved in biotechnology argue
just as ecologically as do their opponents. They seem to have a common
goal, but the best way to achieve it is a subject of fierce debate. The
critics of "green" genetic engineering draw attention to the
following considerations:
- Genetically altered plants could spread uncontrollably or transfer certain
characteristics to wild plants through interbreeding.
- The possible negative effects of this kind of breeding on human health,
insects, and other small life-forms have not been sufficiently studied.
- In the future, small farmers in developing countries may no longer have
access to the best seed, because it will be too expensive for them.
- The diversity of varieties could be further reduced as a result of concentration
on a few widely planted varieties.
In time, it will be possible to evaluate on a broader scientific basis the opportunities and risks involved in genetically altered plants. If science and society arrive at a positive view of such plants, it is possible that organic farming and biotechnology will be mutually complementary, converging or even merging with each other. Jeffrey A. McNeely, Chief Scientist of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), hopes that "a new generation of plants will be designed to produce their own nutrients and their own compounds to protect themselves against pests, thus radically reducing the need for pesticides and fertilizers. Instead of depending on chemistry, with its poisonous side effects, Golden Age agriculture will depend on biology, a science of renewal and recycling." And he adds, "Because more can be produced on less land, more territory is available for other species."
However, we must not expect miracles, in the short run. Scientists at the Population Reference Bureau point out that "currently, only two percent of the worldwide biotechnology research is being conducted in less-developed countries." In addition, the seed industry's research is still oriented toward the needs of agriculture in the prosperous, temperate zones. New research and technologies are often justified by reference to the fact that people are starving. Because farmers in large areas of Africa cannot afford any fertilizer, new plants that absorbed more phosphate from the soil would be extreme-ly helpful to them. The seeds of these plants must be reasonably priced and produce new seed that can be replanted (and not become infertile, so that farmers are forced to buy new seed every year). The development of such plants offers biotechnology firms a great oppor-tunity to show how serious they really are about fighting hunger.
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