Facilitating market access for GE crops developed through public sector research

Abstract

Crops modified by recombinant DNA techniques have been an unqualified success from scientific, environmental, and economic perspectives. Generally known as GE (genetically engineered), GM (genetically modified), or GMOs (genetically modified organisms), such crops have been adopted by farmers at a historically unprecedented rate. The farm income benefit attributable to GE crops from 1996 to 2008 was US $52 billion, half in the developed and half in the developing world. The environmental and health impacts have all been positive, including substantial reductions in the use of pesticides and herbicides, as well as a significant reduction in mycotoxin contamination of maize. GE crops have caused neither environment damage nor either animal or human health problems. However, bringing a new GE variety to farmers is far more complex and costly than releasing a new variety created by older methodologies because unique regulatory requirements are imposed on crops modified by molecular methods, creating major barriers to their development and introduction. The lower profitability of fruit and vegetable than commodity crops discourages investment by seed companies, while universities and other public sector research organizations that have traditionally produced new varieties of such crops are excluded by both the financial and technical requirements of regulatory compliance.