will be introgressing the transgenes from
this event into a carefully chosen 30
popular southeastern Asian rice var-
ieties. Deregulation can then be
based on the single event, not on
30 different varieties. Considering the
40,000 lives Golden Rice could save in
India per year, regulation is, through
the delay it is causing, responsible
for the death and misery of hundreds
of thousands of poor people. And
did regulation prevent any harm?
Judging from all regulatory review
and from all data from all “bio-safety
research,” my answer is: “most
probably not.”Where is plant biotechnology going
in future?The answer depends entirely
upon what our society does with
GMO-regulation. If this unjustified and
excessive procedure is maintained,
plant genetic engineering will have
no future, and hundreds of millions of
lives will be lost, which could be saved
by applying this technology to food
security problems. Plant molecular
biology is, so far, an extremely success-
ful scientific discipline, but much of its
motivation and funding came from its
potential application, not only in the
private sector, but much so in the
public sector, e.g. as contribution to
the solution of humanitarian problems.
With this potential being cut off, finan-
cial support for basic research will prob-
ably dry out.
I propose here my recommendations
needed for humanity to maximally
benefit from plant biotechnology:†De-demonize GMO’s and inform the
public that these are perfectly normalplants. There is not a single crop plant
which has not been extensively “geneti-
cally modified” by traditional
interventions.
†Reform GMO-regulation such that it
evaluates traits, not GM-technology,
and takes decisions on balancing benefits
versus risks. Because of the time and
financial requirements of present regu-
lation, no public institution can not
afford to take a single transgenic event
to the marketplace.
†Establish public funding schemes for
product development and deregulation.
Humanitarian problems are problems of
the public sector and should not be
expected to be solved by the private
sector.
†Encourage establishment of public-
private partnerships for the solution of
humanitarian problems. The private
sector has the necessary experience for
solutions of practical problems.
†Establish a reward system for those in
academia who sacrifice their academic
career by contributing to solutions of
humanitarian problems. Academia
receives much of its funding because
the public believes that it is helping to
solve humanitarian problems.
†Change the paradigm “highest priority to
biosafety”. It leads to millions of deaths
and there are other topics deserving
higher priority such as food security
and poverty alleviation.
†Prosecute those institutions who use their
political and financial power to block
green biotechnology in an international
court. They are responsible for a crime
against humanity.REFERENCES
Alba R et al (2004): ESTs, cDNA microarrays, and gene expression profiling: Tools for dissecting
plant physiology and development.Plant J 39 :697–714.
Barton KA, Whiteley HR, Yang N-S (1987):Bacillus thuringiensisd-endotoxin expressed in transgenic
Nicotiana tabacumprovides resistance to lepidopteran insects.Plant Physiol 85 :1103–1109.
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