Frankenfood

GM Foods:GM Foods:Beyond the mediaBeyond the media

GM foods solve world hunger

www.technyou.edu.au

DNA and genes

• All living things share at least some genes.

• This is how related you are to....

• A chimpanzee: 96%

• A mouse: 80%

• A fruit fly: 66%

• A cabbage: about 40%

Number of genes between humans differ between 0.1-.05%

GM crops approved for human consumption in Australia

• Cotton (linters, oil)

• Corn

• Soy

• Sugarbeet

• Potato (potato starch)

• Canola (oil)

GT techniques

• Agrobacterium

• Biolistics

• Electroporation

• Biomarker technology

Cellulosemicrofibril

Hemicellulose

Lignin

5-6% increase in digestibility = 27% increase in milk production.

Research by Molecular Plant Breeding CRC

Digestibility Analysis of Transgenic plant

54

56

58

60

62

64

66

68

70

CK CK2 CK3 CCRhp1 CCRhp2 CCRhp3

IVV

DM

D(%

)

TransgenicControl

Research by Molecular Plant Breeding CRC

Active voices versus majority voices

= The majority of the public are in the middle= The majority of the public are in the middle

0

5

10

15

20

25

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Support for GM foods and cropsLowLow HighHigh

GM food crops: trends over time

Significant increase in awareness and positive perceptions of GM food crops since 2005.

7685

64

83

71

5448

73

2315

30

13

23

4247

24

16 4 6 5 5 3

0

20

40

60

80

100

2005 2007 2005 2007 2005 2007 2005 2007

Awareness Useful Risky Acceptable

%

Don't know

No

Yes

Base: rotated questions CATI 2005 (n=537) 2007 (n=266)

Agree/disagree, acceptable/unacceptable

• GM rice with increased nutrition (eg. iron, Vitamin A)

• Pest resistant cotton (contain bacterial genes)• GM pasture, wheat, etc with drought tolerance• GM rice with human genes

The big questions

• What are the risk/benefits (scientific and social)?• How can the risks be managed? • How acceptable or not are these risks when

compared with the potential benefits?• What is safe?• What is natural?• What is long-term?