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AUS – BIOTECH’S CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
4 October 2005. CSIRO Media Release
Biotechnology: big opportunity, big challenge
The use of new scientific technologies to increase livestock productivity is providing answers to some of the world's major social dilemmas, according to the Assistant Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Agriculture Department, Professor Louise Fresco.
Speaking at CSIRO's 'Horizons in Livestock Sciences 2005 Conference' continuing today on Queensland's Gold Coast, Professor Fresco said that while there are enormous opportunities for modern technology, there are challenges as well. She distinguished between GMOs and biotechnology in science which also includes tissue culture, gene sequencing and marker-assisted breeding.
Biotechnology may help to produce high-yielding breeds, but it is possible that loss of genetic diversity may occur. While encouraging selection for high yield, countries should simultaneously have policies in place for genetic conservation.
“Science has a moral mandate to guide modern technology to minimise negative impacts while maximising potential benefits,” she said.
“So far there is little global evidence that GMO crops may cross with wild relatives and induce long-term ecological changes. However, the absence of evidence is not proof of the contrary and monitoring will be needed.”
The already strict labelling requirements on internationally-traded livestock products may expand to include information about the GM status of the food these animals eat – currently, an impossible requirement for most exporters.
Consumers have expressed concern about the direct physiological affects of eating animals that have been fed on currently available GM feed and while recent trials suggest that these concerns are unfounded, long-term monitoring for positive and negative nutritional effects will be essential.
“The question should always be: For what purpose will biotechnology be used?” Professor Fresco said.
“In Australia there is a tendency to try to reduce risk to zero but this is not always possible. We need a sense of the order of magnitude of relative risk in order to be making decisions about trade-offs between different options.
“The reductions in pesticide use achieved through biotechnology have positive implications for environmental and human health. Rather than generalising, we should look at specific applications of biotechnology: what crop or animal; what genes are targeted; and for what application?
“Perhaps some may think that Australia does not need biotechnology, but many other countries have already taken the step and they cannot be denied the right to do so.”
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