Eat your genes: how genetically modified food is entering our diet

Introduction

Brief history of genetic improvement in agriculture

Artificial selection ; Laws of inheritance ; Green Revolution ; Plant breeding & genetic engineering ; Scale of transgenic plant releases to the environment ; Biotechnology : transgenic bacteria & fungi ; Genetic modifications to animals & fish

What is genetic engineering?

DNA ; Protein synthesis ; Jumping genes ; Enzymes : the genetic engineer's toolkit ; Methods of gene transfer to crop plants ; Viral vectors & gene regulation ; Bacterial vectors : the Agrobacterium method ; Gene guns ; Gene silencing ; Plant tissue culture ; Marker genes ; Gene libraries

Milking it : increasing yields & the pharming of proteins

Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) ; Pharming of transgenic animals ; Dolly the sheep & animal cloning

Herbicide-resistant crops

Advantages for weed control ; Achieving herbicide resistance ; Monsanto's Roundup Ready TM crops ; Environmental considerations

Insect-resistant crops & a modified insect baculovirus

Bacillus thuringiensis toxin ; Ciba-Geigy's B.t. maize ; Protease inhibitors & lectins ; Pyramiding genes ; Benefits for insect control ; Resistance management ; Baculovirus : engineering a quicker kill

Designer food & engineered plants

Modifications for food processing & taste ; Oilseed composition ; Protein content ; Viral resistance ; Fungal resistance ; Nematode resistance ; Photosynthesis & nitrogen fixation ; Tolerance to high salinity & other poor soil conditions ; Tolerance to drought conditions ; Tolerance to frost : ice minus bacteria & antifreeze proteins ; Drugs & vaccines ; Engineering cotton : blue jeans & plastic plants

Ecological risks

Risk assessment ; Risks posed by transgenic microorganisms ; Risks posed by virus-resistant crops ; Risk of invasion & adverse effects on other organisms ; Risk of transgene spread

Risks to human health

Allergens ; Antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms

Some ethical & moral issues

Ethically sensitive genes ; Animal welfare ; Is DNA life?

Lucrative art of patenting

Patenting plants ; Species-wide patents ; Interfirm cooperation agreements ; Gene-licensing agreements ; Decline of independent seed companies ; GATT and the MAIs : free trade & global rights for multinationals ; Intellectual property rights & genetic resources from the Third World

Regulation of genetically modified organisms & food products

Regulatory framework in the USA ; Regulatory framework in the UK

Marketing approval for genetically modified food in Europe

Decision-making in the European Community ; Monsanto's Roundup Ready TM soybeans ; Ciba-Geigy's B.t. maize ; New wave of crops

Consuming question of labelling

Lessons from irradiated foods ; Case against mandatory labelling : the food is no different ; Case for mandatory labelling : the consumer's right to choose ; Europe decides ; Negative labelling & organic food

Impacts on the Third World

Transgenic crops & the world's hungry ; Transgenic crops : chemical dependency or sustainable agriculture? ; Economic impacts

Prospects for genetically modified food

Who benefits? ; Perceived risks & benefits ; Battle for hearts & minds.