The many ways of GM contamination

Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in the food and environment programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is among the most frequently cited experts on agricultural biotechnology. There is a reason for this. Gurian-Sherman is objective and meticulous in his analysis that is enriched by a long and varied experience with US government institutions and later with public interest and environmental advocacy organizations such as Center for Food Safety and UCS. At the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gurian-Sherman was responsible for assessing human health and environmental risks from transgenic plants and microorganisms and developing biotechnology policy and at the Food and Drug Administration he was on its inaugural advisory food biotechnology subcommittee. In an interview to Latha Jishnu, the plant pathologist who has conducted post-doctoral research on rice and wheat molecular biology at the US Department of Agriculture laboratory in Albany, California, explains how biotech giant Monsanto's unapproved GM wheat could have contaminated a farmer's field in Oregon. Gurian-Sherman also explains why GM contamination is widespread across the world. Excerpts:

Published on:

17 Jun 2013, 7:03 am

We understand that Monsanto scrapped its trials in 2004. Why has it taken this long for the contamination to occur? Could you explain how it could have taken place?

The contamination is likely to have occurred at the time of the field trials, that is, before it concluded in 2004. It could have been carried along since then, either by the farmer if he or she saves seed every year, or more likely, was part of contaminated seed that the farmer bought from a seed company or some other possible, but less likely scenario. We cannot know which until widespread testing of our wheat supply is done, which could take weeks.

Could there be other instances of contamination which have not come to light or have been hushed up?

It is quite possible that this is not an isolated incident – for this or other genes in any number of crops that have gone through field trials over the past 26 years. This is for two reasons. First, the provisions for preventing contamination that USDA recommends, such as providing certain isolation distances from non-GMO crops, cannot ensure that contamination will not happen. This assessment is based both on the many incidents that have already occurred and been documented and on what we know about the biology of gene flow, the possibility of human error (accidental mixing of seed), and so on.

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