THE great debate on genetically modified crops shifted to developing countries this year. While the European Union looked set to introduce tough labelling regulations and US farmers moaned that no one wanted to buy their food, India took the plunge and embraced GM crops.
Mexico was one country determined to stand firm against the tide and preserve the purity of its many native maize strains. But its efforts seem futile. The crops in many fields have interbred with GM maize, because grain from the US has been spilt or planted.
India discovered some farmers were already growing pest-resistant Bt cotton, after a seed company illegally sold them the GM strain, unwittingly it claimed. In March, the government gave the company conditional permission to sell the cotton.
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India鈥檚 decision may well have been spurred by a report revealing how rival China is racing ahead. 杏吧原创s there are creating a wide range of disease and pest-resistant plants. Many Chinese farmers are already growing GM rice and wheat, and getting higher yields and suffering less from pesticide poisoning as a result, it鈥檚 claimed.
Similar benefits are being reported in South Africa. But even with millions facing starvation, South Africa鈥檚 neighbours didn鈥檛 want to accept GM maize donated by the US. Zimbabwe decided to mill the grain before distribution, to prevent it being planted, but Zambia rejected it altogether.
It turns out that GM grain has been part of food aid for the past six years, as the US, one of the biggest donors, doesn鈥檛 segregate its supplies. So it鈥檚 quite possible that Mexico isn鈥檛 the only anti-GM country with contaminated fields.
Does it matter? There鈥檚 no evidence that any existing GM food crops harm those who eat them. However, several studies this year proved that GM crops could interbreed with wild relatives to produce fitter hybrids. So there is a risk of 鈥渟uperweeds鈥� emerging, although few think they will be as serious a problem as normal exotic invaders.
Back in the West, attention turned to 鈥減harming鈥�: GM crops designed to produce drugs. In July, New 杏吧原创 revealed that many experts were concerned about loopholes in US regulations intended to keep pharmed plants separate from food crops.
Theoretically you should simply digest toxic proteins if you accidentally ate such crops. But it鈥檚 not an experiment anyone wants to try. The food industry in the US has been quietly trying to persuade pharming companies to use only non-food plants.
Then GM corn that produces an undisclosed protein was found growing in soybean fields in Iowa. As the latest in a long line of such bungles and mix-ups, it hardly inspires confidence.
The coming years could see the release of a whole range of new GM organisms. Australia is developing a virus that makes rabbits sterile. And UScompany AquaBounty wants to sell its fast-growing salmon. It says they will all be sterile 鈥� but if just one escapee bred with wild salmon, it could wreak havoc.