Agriculture: a Path of Experiment and Change

Agriculture: a path of experiment and change

Richard B. Flavell

Agriculture is one of the prerequisites for organisms. In the past, the rate of genetic At present, US farmers are buying geneti- sustaining populations and economies. improvement has been limited by the num- cally engineered soybean, corn, and cotton Central to life-saving advances in agricultur- ber of favorable mutant genes available and seeds because they provide better product al production have been the improvements in the ability to create, find and propagate the quality and profitability for their farms. The the properties of plants by breeding and improved variant strain. So will it be in the governments of poorer nations have repeat- selection. future. edly said that their farmers would try equiva- Only very few plants have ever been What is different now, however, is that lent products immediately if they were avail- adopted into agriculture. Most would make more genes than ever before—from plants and able at affordable prices in appropriate crop hopeless crops. Of some 250,000-300,000 from other sources—are available to breeders strains. We see all too frequently the results of known plant species, only a few hundred are because of “genomics.” Organizations world- crop failures due to drought, insects, or other used in agriculture to any degree. Just a wide are deciphering DNA sequences of every pests in countries where food security is poor. handful of those most suited to human needs gene in many species including key crop And we must recognize, too, that in the feed most of the world’s population. species. The pace of discovery is accelerating at poorest countries most small farmers are The plants that early farmers chose had an extraordinary rate because of substantial women. Time spent weeding crops by hand, already accumulated mutant variants of international public and private sector invest- because herbicide-tolerant crops and safe thousands of genes by the forces of natural ments. This is creating a library of genetic herbicides are not available, is time not spent selection. The first farmers changed which information and knowledge of where to find caring for and educating children or other plant types were propagated because they the original genes. In a few years, we will know more productive activities. When we consider imposed human needs on the selection how genes vary within and between species, using, or not using, a technology, we must process. One of the most important natural what they do, and what characteristics they consider all the implications before coming to

http://biotech.nature.com • mutations in grass crops like wheat, for confer on the plant. For those crops that cost-benefit conclusions. The biggest disser- instance, enabled the grain to be threshed out receive the greatest research effort, plant vice Europeans could do for the world is to of the ear. Farmers could now harvest the improvement will become more efficient. In persuade it that the use of novel genes in agri- grain in bulk by reaping and threshing. The order to serve a particular human need, we will culture is inherently misguided. seed that the early farmers kept, the seed they know which genes in a crop to select, which to It has become fashionable not to marvel at selected and planted the next year, contained discard, and which to change. scientific discovery or technological advances this mutant gene. All the grain crops we grow But of even greater significance (and con- but to take both for granted or even reject today have mutations that give this same troversy) are the advances that enable genes them. The millennium bug may yet turn out kind of useful characteristic. made in the laboratory to be added to most to be a benefit to humanity if it serves to

1999 Nature America Inc. Farmers and, subsequently, plant breeders of plant species that mankind uses in agricul- remind us of our dependency on technology.

© accelerated the concentration of particular ture and forestry. In virtually every crop The annual cycle of productive agriculture valuable genes by crossing plants and select- species where genetic engineering has been upon which we all rely is a fragile phenome- ing among the progeny for improved charac- attempted to create genetically modified non born of human endeavor, adaptability, teristics. All farmers and consumers, includ- plants, it has succeeded. and understanding. In trying to deal with a ing organic lovers, depend on crops that have These advances in genomics and genetic changing world, individuals and govern- accumulated multiple useful mutations in modification have created almost unlimited ments—even those who do not see subsis- this way. Frequently, as with wheat and opportunities to improve crop productivity tence at first hand—should remember that. oilseed rape, for instance, early crop improve- and nutritional value, to convert noncrops to I would not expect everyone to rejoice at ment involved interspecies hybrids. crops, and to diversify crops so that they can the scientific discoveries within crop The quest for new plant types has been grow in inhospitable places, withstand climate genomics. I would not expect to quell the driven almost entirely by consumer demand: changes and meet industrial needs. Some peo- carping at the perceived inadequacies of the for most of human history and prehistory, ple argue that broadening the genetic compe- earliest products of plant biotechnology. I the consumers of agricultural products were tencies of plants by genetic engineering is would not expect everyone to accept willing- the same farmers who grew them. It is only in inherently wrong and should not be adopted. I ly the views of experts regarding the levels of the last few centuries in certain parts of the would say that this view is based in poor risks associated with the use of genetically world that farming (and consuming) have understanding of evolution and plant breed- modified crops or to accept that these risks become separate specialized occupations. ing to date, on an underestimation of what will be small compared to those of not using Manipulating the genetic constitution of benefits the technical approach can bring and the tools available to help sustain popula- plants and then selecting characteristics that on a gross overestimation of risks that are tions, environments and economies. How- suited human needs was the only way avail- inevitably associated with any such products. ever, I would hope that debates and decisions able to humankind and nature for improving This attitude seems at the least unresponsive will be based not on ignorance but on knowl- (to consumer demands) and insensitive (to edge, not on bigotry but on rationality, and Richard B. Flavell is at Ceres, 3007 Malibu the needs created by global population expan- not solely on selfish local values but on a con- Canyon Road, Malibu, CA 90265, USA sion, environmental conservation, and the sideration of those who live in other societies ([email protected]). desire for greater human equality). and beyond our time. ///

NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY VOL 17 SUPPLEMENT 1999 http://biotech.nature.com BV 7