Riverside, California
April 25, 2008
More than one billion acres of biotech crops have been grown
in the United States, but their environmental impacts are
not fully known. In Arizona, however, maps of biotech cotton
fields are enabling detailed analyses of the effects of this
technology.
Now a team of scientists, including
UC Riverside’s
Norman Ellstrand, a professor of genetics in the
Department of
Botany and Plant Sciences and the director of the
Biotechnology Impacts Center, proposes that making
similar maps of the entire United States of biotech – or
genetically engineered – crops available to scientists will
permit much-needed studies of their environmental impacts.
Access to maps of biotech crops on a county and township
level, the team argues, will give researchers greater
ability to analyze the effects of biotech crops on wildlife,
water quality, and on pest and beneficial insects.
The effects of biotech crops is an issue that is often the
subject of debates. While some people claim that biotech
crops reduce insecticide use, tillage and the erosion of
topsoil, others insist that these crops hurt native species.
“If we had geographic information regarding where biotech
crops are grown, we could test a lot of the claims about
their impacts – both positive and negative,” Ellstrand said.
“To evaluate the benefits and other impacts of such crops,
we need to localize their distribution on a geographic scale
much smaller than the acreage in a state. But to prevent
harassment of those who grow these crops, the scale cannot
be as fine as an individual farm.”
The scientists publish their proposal as a Policy Forum in
the April 25 issue of Science. The article builds on
suggestions for monitoring and more transparency that were
recommendations of a 2002 National Research Council Report,
“Environmental Effects of Transgenic Plants,” written by a
12-member committee that included Ellstrand and
Alan McHughen, a biotechnologist and geneticist at UCR.
At the present time, the authors of the Science
Policy Forum write, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
collects data at the scale of individual farms, but the data
are only available to researchers at the scale of entire
states. The scientists argue that answering key questions
about the environmental impacts of genetically engineered
crops requires finer spatial resolution.
“In the case of California, the vast fraction of the state’s
genetically modified crop acreage is currently in herbicide
tolerant cotton,” Ellstrand said.
His coauthors on the Policy Forum are Michelle Marvier of
Santa Clara University, Calif., the first author of the
paper; Yves Carrière and Bruce Tabashnik of The University
of Arizona in Tucson; Paul Gepts of UC Davis; Peter Kareiva
of Santa Clara University and The Nature Conservancy; Emma
Rosi-Marshall of Loyola University, Chicago, Ill.; and L.
LaReesa Wolfenbarger of the University of Nebraska in Omaha.
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral
research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking
exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern
California, the state and communities around the world.
Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment of
about 17,000 is projected to grow to 21,000 students by
2010. The campus is planning a medical school and already
has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the
UCR Palm Desert Graduate Center. With an annual statewide
economic impact of nearly $1 billion, UCR is actively
shaping the region's future.
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