A Welfare Analysis on GM Crop Market Structures and Existing Regulations

Since their introduction in 1994, genetically modified (GM) crops have become a major sector of the agricultural industry in developing and developed countries. Despite this, many economic concerns have arisen regarding how governments regulate GM crops. These concerns have caused countries to ban GM crop usage, which has proven to be detrimental for national and international economies. This paper outlines the economic advantages of GM crop production and usage and surveys the current inefficiencies in the regulation of GM crops through a review on existing literature. It notes the increased farming efficiency, cost effectiveness, and rise in income for developing countries resulting from GM crop production and usage. It then considers why many of the listed potential benefits are unrealized, particularly due to the excessive market power given to GM seed producers, high barriers of entry into the GM market due to biosafety procedures, utility patents, and international trade asymmetries. Finally, the discussion section of the paper poses potential solutions by describing methods to efficiently regulate GM crops and suggesting possible areas of further research. The objective of this paper is to inform readers with minimal economic understanding of the potential economic benefits of GM crops and aid them in recognizing the optimal ways to regulate them.

Development and Adoption of Genetically Engineered Plants for Virus Resistance: Advances, Opportunities and Challenges

Plant viruses cause yield losses to crops of agronomic and economic significance and are a challenge to the achievement of global food security. Although conventional plant breeding has played an important role in managing plant viral diseases, it will unlikely meet the challenges posed by the frequent emergence of novel and more virulent viral species or viral strains. Hence there is an urgent need to seek alternative strategies of virus control that can be more readily deployed to contain viral diseases. The discovery in the late 1980s that viral genes can be introduced into plants to engineer resistance to the cognate virus provided a new avenue for virus disease control. Subsequent advances in genomics and biotechnology have led to the refinement and expansion of genetic engineering (GE) strategies in crop improvement. Importantly, many of the drawbacks of conventional breeding, such as long lead times, inability or difficulty to cross fertilize, loss of desirable plant traits, are overcome by GE. Unfortunately, public skepticism towards genetically modified (GM) crops and other factors have dampened the early promise of GE efforts. These concerns are principally about the possible negative effects of transgenes to humans and animals, as well as to the environment. However, with regards to engineering for virus resistance, these risks are overstated given that most virus resistance engineering strategies involve transfer of viral genes or genomic segments to plants. These viral genomes are found in infected plant cells and have not been associated with any adverse effects in humans or animals. Thus, integrating antiviral genes of virus origin into plant genomes is hardly unnatural as suggested by GM crop skeptics. Moreover, advances in deep sequencing have resulted in the sequencing of large numbers of plant genomes and the revelation of widespread endogenization of viral genomes into plant genomes. This has raised the possibility that viral genome endogenization is part of an antiviral defense mechanism deployed by the plant during its evolutionary past. Thus, GM crops engineered for viral resistance would likely be acceptable to the public if regulatory policies were product-based (the North America regulatory model), as opposed to process-based. This review discusses some of the benefits to be gained from adopting GE for virus resistance, as well as the challenges that must be overcome to leverage this technology. Furthermore, regulatory policies impacting virus-resistant GM crops and some success cases of virus-resistant GM crops approved so far for cultivation are discussed.

Authorizing GM Crop Varieties: Policy Implications for Seed Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Considering an expanding research and development pipeline of and growing practical experiences with genetically modified (GM) crops, governments in Sub-Sahara Africa have in recent years authorized various GM crop events for general, unconfined environmental release, and in a few cases, subsequent commercial variety registration and cultivation. These decisions are consistent with more business-oriented agricultural development policies aimed at turning agriculture into a leading driver of economic growth and wealth creation. Such policy reforms are also motivated by continent-wide initiatives described in this review paper, which emphasize seed sector reform, agricultural productivity growth, intra-regional trade, and agri-business development. While such policy developments spur a more proactive approach to introducing agricultural biotechnology, it becomes apparent that authorizing GM crops for general environmental release and commercial seed registration requires the harmonization of government policies in various sectors relevant to seed systems, most notably those affecting plant breeding research, testing, and variety release. Critical areas for such policy reforms and harmonization were analyzed in this paper, with associated recommendations.

Comparing international approaches to food safety regulation of GM and Novel Foods

The global area of genetically modified (GM) crop production has considerably increased over the past two decades, with GM crops now cultivated in about 28 countries, accounting for over 10% of the world’s arable land. A 'novel food' is any food or substance that has not been used for human consumption to a significant degree within the EU before 15 May 1997. Since then, there has been over 90 novel foods authorisations approved for use by the EU. Novel foods and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are subject to a large variation in regulatory approaches around the world, for which many countries have specifically developed their own regulatory frameworks to control the placement of such products on their markets.

Investigating the status of transgenic crops in Iran in terms of cultivation, consumption, laws and rights in comparison with the world

Recently, there has been a development in transgenic technologies in many countries to meet nutritional needs of increasing worlds҆ population. However, there are some concerns about possible risks in the field of growing genetically modified (GM) food, such as threats of biodiversity and food allergies making their use a challenge. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the economic effects and political scopes of GM foods in production sector and policies made by different countries in the world and Iran. Moreover, essential (practical and legal) solutions and guidelines were provided for production and consumption of GM foods, which are useful for governmental entities, Iranian politicians, and consumers' rights. The latest situation of transgenic crops in the countries with which Iran has the highest exchange of agricultural products (including Turkey, Pakistan, and the European Union (EU)) was also studied. Although, Iran has been one of leading Asian countries not only in the field of transfer of technical knowledge of genetic engineering, but also in development of the specialized knowledge of biosafety, and despite production of several transgenic plant lines by Iranian researchers, unfortunately no GM crop has obtained release and cultivation license except for GM rice that its growing process was banned after change of government. According to findings of this study, in Iran, growing and production process of GM crops does not follow the global trend owing to scientific and legal infrastructures.

Characterisation of Bt maize IE09S034 in decomposition and response of soil bacterial communities

Returning straw to the soil is an effective way to improve the soil quality. As genetically modified (GM) crops experience expanded growing scales, returning straw to the soil could also be necessary. However, the impact of GM crop straws on soil safety remains unclear. The environment (including soil types, humidity and temperature) can result in a significant difference in the diversity of soil bacterial communities. Here, we compared the impacts of the straw from Bt maize IE09S034 (IE) and near-isogenic non-Bt maize Zong31 (CK) on soil bacterial community and microbial metabolic activity in three different environments. Sampling was carried out following 6–10 months of decomposition (May, June, July, and August) in three localities in Chinese cities (Changchun, Jinan, and Beijing). Our results showed that Bt maize residues posed no direct impact on soil bacterial communities in contrast to the environment and decomposed time. The microbial functional diversity and metabolic activity showed no significant difference between IE and CK. The results could be a reference for further assessing the effect of Bt maize residues on the soil that promotes the commercialisation of Bt maize IE09S034.

Mass spectrometric analysis of digesta does not improve the allergenicity assessment of GM crops

An investigation of the potential allergenicity of newly expressed proteins in genetically modified (GM) crops comprises part of the assessment of GM crop safety. However, allergenicity is not completely predictable from a definitive assay result or set of protein characteristics, and scientific opinions regarding the data that should be used to assess allergenicity are continuously evolving. Early studies supported a correlation between the stability of a protein exposed to digestive enzymes such as pepsin and the protein’s status as a potential allergen, but over time the conclusions of these earlier studies were not confirmed. Nonetheless, many regulatory authorities, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), continue to require digestibility analyses as a component of GM crop risk assessments. Moreover, EFSA has recently investigated the use of mass spectrometry (MS), to make digestion assays more predictive of allergy risk, because it can detect and identify small undigested peptides. However, the utility of MS is questionable in this context, since known allergenic peptides are unlikely to exist in protein candidates intended for commercial development. These protein candidates are pre-screened by the same bioinformatics processes that are normally used to identify MS targets. Therefore, MS is not a standalone allergen identification method and also cannot be used to predict previously unknown allergenic epitopes. Thus, the suggested application of MS for analysis of digesta does not improve the poor predictive power of digestion assays in identifying allergenic risk.

The first GM crop in Bangladesh – Bt Eggplant

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) commonly called Brinjal is the most popular vegetable in Bangladesh. It is extensively cultivated around homesteads and in commercial fields throughout the year. It is estimated that nearly 67 percent of the eggplant crop yield in Bangladesh is lost due to the damage caused by Leucinodes orbonalis also known as eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB). EFSB is reportedly the most serious pest of eggplant. To overcome this EFSB problem Bt eggplant project has been initiated in 2004. The Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII) is a USAID-supported project that has funded the development of Bt eggplant in Bangladesh under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) received the Event EE-1 eggplant in Mahyco and backcrossed into nine popular eggplant varieties of Bangladesh selected based on the regional consumer preference. The efficacy of cry1Ac gene in providing effective resistance to the target pest was also assessed in terms of productively (fruit yield increase) which was studied in 9 Bt eggplant lines for a period of 7 years from 2008 to 2015. To launch the best 4 varieties, BARI applied to the National Technical Committee on Crop Biotechnology (NTCCB). For release of GM crop variety, first of all follow the recommendation of NTCCB, then submitted to the National Technical Committee on Crop Biotechnology (NTCCB) Core Committee and then to the National Committee on Biosafety (NCB). The Bangladesh government approved four varieties namely, BARI Bt Begun-1 (Uttara), BARI Bt Begun-2 (Kazla), BARI Bt Begun-3 (Nayantara) and BARI Bt Begun-4 (BARI Begun-6 or ISD006) on 30 October 2013 and these got momentum countrywide. On 22 January 2014, Bt seedlings were distributed among 20 farmers in four districts of Bangladesh as the first genetically modified (GM) crops. After the government of Bangladesh approved the cultivation of Bt eggplant in 2013, its popularity is increasing day by day and the socio-economic condition of the farmers is also improving. Bt eggplant started its journey in 2014 with only 20 farmers, in seven years it has grown to about 27012 farmers and from 8 acres to about 5,000 acres. This advancement of Bt eggplant has also faced opposition from different quarters at different times. Today, the progress of Bt eggplant continues by overcoming all obstacles. Field days, trainings, various publications, documentary making, use of mass and social media, observations, workshops, stewardship activities are acting as important regulators of this progress.

Global Regulation of Genetically Modified Crops Amid the Gene Edited Crop Boom – A Review

Products derived from agricultural biotechnology is fast becoming one of the biggest agricultural trade commodities globally, clothing us, feeding our livestock, and fueling our eco-friendly cars. This exponential growth occurs despite asynchronous regulatory schemes around the world, ranging from moratoriums and prohibitions on genetically modified (GM) organisms, to regulations that treat both conventional and biotech novel plant products under the same regulatory framework. Given the enormous surface area being cultivated, there is no longer a question of acceptance or outright need for biotech crop varieties. Recent recognition of the researchers for the development of a genome editing technique using CRISPR/Cas9 by the Nobel Prize committee is another step closer to developing and cultivating new varieties of agricultural crops. By employing precise, efficient, yet affordable genome editing techniques, new genome edited crops are entering country regulatory schemes for commercialization. Countries which currently dominate in cultivating and exporting GM crops are quickly recognizing different types of gene-edited products by comparing the products to conventionally bred varieties. This nuanced legislative development, first implemented in Argentina, and soon followed by many, shows considerable shifts in the landscape of agricultural biotechnology products. The evolution of the law on gene edited crops demonstrates that the law is not static and must adjust to the mores of society, informed by the experiences of 25 years of cultivation and regulation of GM crops. The crux of this review is a consolidation of the global legislative landscape on GM crops, as it stands, building on earlier works by specifically addressing how gene edited crops will fit into the existing frameworks. This work is the first of its kind to synthesize the applicable regulatory documents across the globe, with a focus on GM crop cultivation, and provides links to original legislation on GM and gene edited crops.