1.Biotech is not just GM
2.Non-GM biotech is the future

"New cutting-edge technologies have made gene splicing and transgenic crops obsolete and a serious impediment to scientific progress." (item 2)

"Gene transformation is highly mutagenic. This leads to multi-organ toxicity affecting liver, kidney, gut, blood biochemistry and immune system. Acute signs of ageing and decreased fertility in animals fed with GM crops have also been reported." (item 1)
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1.Biotech is not just GM
Down to Earth, Septemeber 15 2009
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090915&filename=inv&sec_id=14&sid=1

Michael Antoniou teaches Molecular Genetics at King's College, London. In his spare time, he likes to help non-profits with information on the science of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Savvy Soumya Misra met him at a workshop in Delhi recently where he was vocal against GMOs. Edited excerpts

Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment and forests, recently said GM crop (Bt cotton) is acceptable but GM food (Bt brinjal) is not

This is the first time I have heard somebody make this distinction. People who draw this distinction see cotton as a non-food product but they forget cotton seeds are used for oil, animals eat the stub after harvest and farmers are always in contact with cotton. There is evidence that these farmers have suffered allergic reactions; this needs an official follow-up though. Both environmental and health implications have to be taken into account.

Hazards of GMOs

Gene transformation is highly mutagenic. This leads to multi-organ toxicity affecting liver, kidney, gut, blood biochemistry and immune system. Acute signs of ageing and decreased fertility in animals fed with GM crops have also been reported.

The problem with herbicide-tolerant GM crop is it destroys not just weeds but biodiversity in general.
    
Intense use of herbicide makes weeds resistant. In such cases, new herbicides are used””more damage to the environment, in other words. The other problem is the Bt crop, which produces the insecticide Bt toxin. Companies promote that insecticides need not be sprayed on Bt crops. This is wrong. Protection from Bt toxin in Bt crops is insufficient to fully protect them. One insect can be destroyed but another resistant to Bt toxin can then come in.

So, you face the risk of Bt toxin as well as insecticides.

Processed GM v GM crop

The argument that no adverse effects have been recorded among Americans is completely unscientific (the US uses GM corn in its processed form such as chips, sweeteners). Animal feeding studies have been done on whole corn, not in its processed form. So, it is impossible to say if consumption of processed GM food has had any adverse impacts. Besides, consumers are not monitored. It might help to do a scrutiny of the American population in a controlled epidemiological manner.

How safe is Bt brinjal?

Bt toxin in animal studies has shown to cause allergic reactions and disrupt intestinal functions. If you cook Bt brinjal, the Bt toxin may break down and its toxicity may reduce. But the point is the main toxic effect that comes from GM food is not from the new gene but from the effects of the gene transformation process.

Recalling approved crops

Approval can be withdrawn. But if it is already in the field you are stuck with it. You can try and remove it from the food chain but this is going to be very difficult because of cross pollination between GM and non-GM crops. It will take many generations of cropping before the environment contamination level is reduced.

On biotechnology

GM is just one aspect of biotechnology. A more powerful use would be increasing gene maps of major food crops. Once a gene marker map is in place it can be used in breeding programmes. The plants can then be crossed. Gene marker assisted selection can be used to take offspring from the cross, map their genes and identify the plants that have by chance combined all the genes required. This has been successful in India to produce a highland drought tolerant variety of rice. Because this is a non-GM procedure, there are no safety considerations and the normal gene order is not disturbed.

Gene mapping can also be done to identify genes of high yield or better nutrients.
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2.Non-GM biotechnology is the future    
http://www.bangmfood.org/quotes/24-quotes/32-non-gm-biotechnology-is-the-future

"New cutting-edge technologies have made gene splicing and transgenic crops obsolete and a serious impediment to scientific progress." - Jeremy Rifkin, This crop revolution may succeed where GM failed, The Guardian, 26 October 2006

"From a scientific perspective, the public argument about genetically-modified organisms, I think, will soon be a thing of the past. The science has moved on and we're now in the genomics era." - Prof Bob Goodman, former head of research and development at Calgene, creators of the Flavr Savr tomato, the world's first GM food, Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 18 February 2001, quoted in Terry Devitt, Genomics portends next revolution in agriculture, University of Wisconsin-Madison News, 19 February 2001

"The quiet revolution is happening in gene mapping, helping us understand crops better. That is up and running and could have a far greater impact on agriculture [than GM]." - Prof John Snape, head of the department of crop genetics, John Innes Centre, Gene mapping the friendly face of GM technology, Professor John Snape, Farmers Weekly, 1 March 2002, p. 54

"Perhaps the greatest potential of biotechnologies does not come from GMOs but from genetic markers, genomics and proteomics which can complement conventional breeding strategies and enhance their efficiency." - Louise Fresco, assistant director of agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations EU Discussion Forum, Towards Sustainable Agriculture for Developing Countries: Options from Life Sciences and Biotechnologies, Brussels, 30 31 January 2003

"Many agbiotech methods have nothing to do with gene transfer ('genetic engineering') but are more akin to the kinds of DNA fingerprinting that are now in such common use in forensic science and medical diagnostics. Even today, by far the most effective use of agbiotech, and one with which I have been involved in Southeast Asia, is MAS, or marker-assisted selection. Here, molecular markers and other high-tech tools are used to speed up and widen the scope of crop breeding around the world but no GM methods are involved." - Denis J Murphy, Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Glamorgan, Wales, "Agricultural Biotechnology: Monster, Marvel, or just Misunderstood?" Public Service Review - Devolved Government, November 2006

"Biotechnology rather than genetic modification is the key to improving wheat varieties, says Monsanto. Although GM techniques may develop some traits, most will stem from conventional breeding backed by sophisticated biotech tools.

"Biotech to aid conventional wheat breeding is already attracting 10 to 20 times more effort than the [GM] genetic transformation of the crop, says US-based Tom Crosbie, Monsanto's global head of plant breeding.

"'[GM] Genetic transformation is just one particular wrench in the biotechnology toolbox. We have lots of other [non-GM] tools to accelerate the development of new wheat varieties,’ he says.... 'Genetic transformation can only be used to introduce one segment of novel genetic material to a variety at a time, but biotech tools can be used to enhance a host of existing traits. It's a numbers game and ultimately non-transformation biotech offers the greatest potential.'" - Charles Abel, Wheat future is in bio-tech not GM breeder, Farmer's Weekly, 25 February 2000

"Our thinking needs to be focussed downstream at our markets, innovatively and laterally...[to] give us a worthwhile competitive advantage.... The possibilities are as endless as they are exciting and they are achievable with existing technologies. Within the wheat plant we have a vast reservoir of genes. We also have the advanced analytical equipment necessary to pinpoint the molecular characteristics we need. And the marker-assisted systems to reliably build these characteristics into high output varieties through conventional plant breeding." - Jeff Cox, general manager for Monsanto Northern Europe, Farmers Weekly, 30 August 2002

"The new frontier is called genomics and the new agricultural technology is called marker-assisted selection (MAS). The new technology offers a sophisticated method to greatly accelerate classical breeding. A growing number of scientists believe MAS which is already being introduced into the market will eventually replace GM food. Moreover, environmental organisations that oppose GM crops are guardedly supportive of MAS technology.

"While MAS is emerging as a promising new agricultural technology with broad application, the limits of transgenic technology are becoming increasingly apparent. Most of the transgenic crops introduced into the fields express only two traits, resistance to pests and compatibility with herbicides, and rely on the expression of a single gene hardly the sweeping agricultural revolution touted by the life-science companies at the beginning of the GM era.

"Not surprisingly, MAS technology is being looked at with increasing interest within the European Union, where public opposition to GM food has remained resolute. In a recent speech, Stavros Dimas, the EU's environment commissioner, noted that ‘MAS technology is attracting considerable attention’ and said that the EU ‘should not ignore the use of “upgraded” conventional varieties as an alternative to GM crops’.

"If properly used as part of a much larger systemic and holistic approach to sustainable agricultural development, MAS technology could be the right technology at the right time in history." - Jeremy Rifkin, This crop revolution may succeed where GM failed, The Guardian, 26 October 2006

"Scientists, faced with the major challenge of boosting productivity of staple crops for ensuring world’s food and nutritional security, are now looking at effectively deploying biotechnological tools to develop crops which would not be transgenics or genetically modified (GM) ones. Transgenics or GM crops, they say, have generated much controversy across the globe. It has to pass through rigorous regulatory process before commercial release and hence it’s time consuming. Rather the better option would be to deploy biotechnological tools like marker-aided selection....

"Scientists are exploring the possibilities of deploying modern biotech tools for developing high yielding crops with high nutrition content," director general of the International Rice Research Institute Robert S. Zeigler says. "We have effective biotechnological tools at our disposal such as improved rice crops which would not be transgenic crops. Development of transgenic crop is only one of the many options." - Ashok B. Sharma, Hiking rice yield, biotechnology to the rescue, Indian Express, 26 October 2006