Genetically Engineered Crops

This essay uses a modified version of the Social-Ecological Systems framework to elucidate and interpret the complex political, ecological and social systems that comprise the use of genetic engineering in food production in the United States. Building from an understanding that actor support and participation is critical to the success of any system of resource governance, the essay first performs an analysis of the action situation of GE plants and foods, using California Proposition 37 as a case study. Then, the essay assesses the results of an exploratory questionnaire distributed to actor-consumers in Northfield, MN and East Aurora, NY, to determine how actor-consumers in the United States form their opinions of, and act toward, GEOs. The work evaluates how carefully the governance structures and discourse around GE crops and foods reflect actor-consumer attitudes and knowledge. Although public discourse preceding the vote on mandatory labeling initiatives like Proposition 37 can be polarized, this analysis finds that actor-consumer opinions on GEOs in the U.S. are moderate, and that they differ with demographic changes in gender, scientific knowledge, perceived information, trust in the federal government and religiosity. The analysis finds that actor-consumer views and knowledge are inadequately integrated into GE governance, even in action situations where actor-consumers are given the democratic opportunity to vote on specific governance protocols. The essay concludes that the failure to integrate actor-consumer understanding originates in a definition and boundary problem that obstructs the efficacy of local knowledge in the system.

Cardiac transplantation and available mechanical alternatives are the only possible solutions for end-stage cardiac disease. Unfortunately, because of the limited supply of human organs, xenotransplantation may be the ideal method to overcome this shortage. We have recently seen significant prolongation of heterotopic cardiac xenograft survival from 3 to 12 months and beyond. Hearts from genetically engineered piglets that were alpha 1-3 galactosidase transferase knockout and expressed the human complement regulatory gene, CD46 (groups A-C), and the human thrombomodulin gene (group D) were heterotropically transplanted in baboons treated with antithymocyte globulin, cobra venom factor, anti-CD20 antibody, and costimulation blockade (anti-CD154 antibody [clone 5C8]) in group A, anti-CD40 antibody (clone 3A8; 20 mg/kg) in group B, clone 2C10R4 (25 mg/kg) in group C, or clone 2C10R4 (50 mg/kg) in group D, along with conventional nonspecific immunosuppressive agents. Group A grafts (n =...

A vast literature has accumulated since crop varieties with transgenic resistance to insects and herbicide tolerance were released to farmers in 1996 and 1997. A comparatively minor segment of this literature consists of studies conducted by agricultural economists to measure the farm-level impact of transgenic crop varieties, the size and distribution of the economic benefits from adopting them, consumer attitudes toward GE products, and implications for international trade. This paper focuses only on the applied economics literature about the impact of transgenic crop varieties in non-industrialized agricultural systems, with an emphasis on methods. A number of studies have surveyed the findings for both industrialized and non-industrialized agriculture, at various points in time, but surveys of methods are less frequent and have typically examined only one overall question or approach. Clearly, the methods used in research influence the findings that are presented and what they m...

C.A. Wozniak and A. McHughen (eds.), Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology: The United States and Canada, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2156-2_1, © US Government 2012 Abstract The regulation of agricultural plant and microbial biotechnology products in the United States of America has a rich history that re fl ects the challenges the federal government has faced in the development of appropriate rules and standards needed to determine their safety to humans and the environment. Several factors – the insuf fi cient global food supply, loss or curtailment of the use of older chemistries to control pests due to risks and environmental persistence, the rising demand for safer food commodities, and the uncertainty surrounding the sustainability of agriculture in this and other countries – have added to these challenges. The chapter introduces the U.S. Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology (“Framework”), and the roles of its members: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USD...

The current debate over genetically engineered (GE) crops is framed as an evaluation of GE crops as a class. This paper is an attempt to reframe the debate by focusing on the question of what responsible research and innovation (RRI) in agricultural biotechnology would look like. With regard to the ethics of agricultural technology, the most important question that we should be asking is not whether a technology is genetically engineered, but whether it is responsibly designed. I discuss a report by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies to the European Commission in order to propose guidelines for RRI in agricultural technology, and I illustrate the possibility of RRI in agricultural biotechnology by discussing a public private partnership, the Water Efficient Maize for Africa Project. I conclude by examining the implications of this argument for debates over the ethics of agricultural technologies more generally.

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