GM Crops, Organic Agriculture and Breeding for Sustainability

Salvatore Ceccarelli

doi:10.3390/su6074273

Abstract

The ongoing debate about the use of genetically-modified (GM) crops in agriculture has largely focused on food safety and genetic contamination issues. Given that the majority of GM crops have been produced to respond to the problem of crop yield reductions caused by diseases, insects and weeds, the paper argues that in those cases, the currently used GM crops are an unstable solution to the problem, because they represent such a strong selection pressure, that pests rapidly evolve resistance. Organic agriculture practices provide a more sustainable way of producing healthy food; however, the lower yields often associated with those practices, making the resultant healthy food more expensive, open the criticism that such practices will not be able to feed human populations. Evolutionary plant breeding offers the possibility of using the evolutionary potential of crops to our advantage by producing a continuous flow of varieties better adapted to organic systems, to climate change and to the ever changing spectrum of pests, without depending on chemical control.

Highlights

Foreign genes were successfully introduced into plants for the first time 30 years ago [1]
The arguments used by those are the absence of or modest yield increases [4,5], the evolution of pest resistance, the evolution of resistance to Bt maize by western corn rootworm [7] and the increase in non-target insects
The debate between the two groups has been very heated [9]. Those against GM crops, often referred to as genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), have focused the debate mainly on the safety of food derived from GM crops and on genetic contamination

Summary

Introduction

Foreign genes were successfully introduced into plants for the first time 30 years ago [1]. That revolution has arrived; their strongest argument is that crops engineered to carry useful traits grow on 170 million hectares in at least 28 countries. The debate between the two groups has been very heated [9] Those (mostly, but , activists) against GM crops, often referred to as genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), have focused the debate mainly on the safety of food derived from GM crops and on genetic contamination. Both are legitimate concerns, but weak arguments in the debate against GM crops. The second is a weak argument for the same reason as (1) above and because transgenic contamination is continuously occurring and its potential aspects have been discussed extensively by Ellstrand (2012) [12]

Biotechnologies

Unstable Solutions

Organic Agriculture

Evolutionary Plant Breeding

Findings

Conclusions