A report by environmental group Greenpeace claims that the scientific aspiration to introduce genetically engineered trees poses a greater threat to ecosystems than annual crops such as maize and sugar, both of which already have engineered strains cultivated throughout the world, as trees are long-living, foundational elements to many biodiverse ecosystems. Trees are also not domesticated species, and therefore mate more easily with other wild relatives, which would also increase the risk that man made genes would cross over into native populations.
The briefing's authors, Janet Cotter and Jan van Aken, claim that introducing genetically engineered tree species in this way would "pose long-term environmental threats to biodiversity-rich ecosystems that are difficult, if not impossible, to foresee and assess."
Greenpeace acknowledges that proponents of genetically engineered trees themselves recognize the potential threat that this technology could bring to ecosystems, but the environmental group claims that their biocontainment strategies, that is strategies designed to limit the amount of altered material entering natural food chains and so on, will not work.
A primary concern raised by the briefing is that the debate over Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) will be reopened with the onus placed on these dubious technologies potential to preserve ecosystems through biocontainment of GE trees. GURTs include the controversial 'Terminator' technologies. Such technologies restrict the dissemination of engineered biological material by causing second generation seeds to be sterile. The technology is currently not marketed, although Monsanto, the leading investor this field, is still funding research into seed sterility, which potentials means that the patent holder's announcement not to market these 'terminator' or 'suicide' seeds was a cynical public relations exercise, and that the corporation will release a seed resembling these technologies once public attention has shifted from them. The Greenpeace briefing, entitled 'Genetically engineered trees: why biocontainment won't work' states that 'the Terminator debate should be terminated once and forever, as these technologies are a threat to farmer's rights and food security.'
Greenpeace is calling for a recognition in the ineffectiveness of biocontainment methods and a total ban on the environmental release of genetically engineered trees, a ban which would include field trials.
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This post was written by Matthew Gammie on June 11, 2008