210 CHAPTER 8
All farming disturbs and changes nature, so it is difficult to agree on exactly what level of disturbance can be considered acceptable. For example, plant- ing a GM variety of beet or rapeseed can help farmers control weeds in the field (compared to conventional beet or rapeseed), and as a result there may be fewer insects in the farm field (using the weeds for food and shelter) and fewer weed seeds for some farmland birds to eat. Some might see this as a damaging disturbance of nature. Yet by most conventional definitions of biosafety, the GM crops currently on the market have not disturbed nature (beyond farm fields) any more than conventional crops do. A 2003 study conducted by sci- entists from New Zealand and the Netherlands published in The Plant Journal examined data collected worldwide up to that time, and the authors concluded from this data that the GM crops approved so far had been no more likely to worsen weed problems than are conventional crops, no more invasive or per- sistent, and no more likely to lead to gene transfer. There was no evidence that GM crops had transferred to other organisms (including weeds) new advan- tages, such as resistance to pests or diseases or tolerance to environmental stress (Connor, Glare, and Nap 2003). Later in 2003 the International Council for Science examined the find-
ings of roughly 50 different scientific studies that had been published in 2002–03 and concluded, “there is no evidence of any deleterious environ- mental effects having occurred from the trait/species combinations currently available” (International Council for Science 2003, 3). In May 2004 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a 106-page report summarizing evidence that “to date, no verifiable untoward toxic or nutri- tionally deleterious effects resulting from the consumption of foods derived from genetically modified foods have been discovered anywhere in the world” (FAO 2004). On the matter of environmental safety, this FAO report found the environmental effects of the GM crops approved so far—including such effects as gene transfer to other crops and wild relatives, weediness, and unintended adverse effects on non-target species (such as butterflies)—had been similar to those that already existed from conventional agricultural crops. Finally, in 2007 a study done for the journal Advances in Biochemical Engineering / Biotechnology surveyed 10 years of research published in peer- reviewed scientific journals, scientific books, reports from regions with extensive GM cultivation, and reports from international governmental orga- nizations and found that the data available so far provide no scientific evidence that the cultivation of the presently commercialized GM crops has caused environmental harm (Sanvido, Romeis, and Bigler 2007).
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