by Dan R. Anderson, Ph.D.,CPCU - Wisconsin School of Business ...

Biotechnology Risk Management: The Case of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
a single application of Roundup, which
p reviously would have been lethal to the cro p .
This reduced the need to employ more toxic
and long-lasting herbicides and also re d u c e d
soil-damaging tillage. GM soybeans became so
popular with farmers that by 1999 more than
one-half of the soybean crop were genetically
m odified. (Paarlberg, 2000)
Other Examples
T h e re are a number of other GMO examples
that have been widely discussed. The Flavr- S a v r
tomato has a gene that was altered to slow the
aging process and extend shelf life. Another
GM tomato involved inserting an antifre e z e
gene from a fish (flounder) into tomatoes to
make them frost resistant. (Denison, 1999)
F u t u re health benefits could be gained fro m
c h o l e s t e rol-lowering cheese, allerg e n - f re e
peanuts, and immunity-boosting bananas
as a substitute to syringe injected vaccines.
(Jacobs, 2000; and Pollack, 2/6/2000)
Again the possibilities and potential benefits
seem virtually unlimited.
Marketing to Farmers in Developing
C o u n t r i e s
Because of the large and often rapidly
i n c reasing populations in developing countries,
GM crops hold the potential for considerable
benefits. It is estimated that 800 million people
in the world are chronically malnourished and
this number is increasing rapidly. (Stipp, “The
Voice . . . ,” 2000) Increasing yields and builtin
resistance to drought, pests, and poor soils
could increase food production and re d u c e
chemical use. Potential benefits could also
include the insertion of vaccines into foods
and the development of more nutritious food .
A frequently cited example is golden rice, a
GM rice to include vitamin supplements to
fight blindness.
Golden Rice
Golden rice is a GM strain of rice that
includes bacterial and daff odil genes that allows
it to make beta-carotene that the body convert s
to vitamin A. Vitamin A has the potential
benefit of preventing night blindness and deaths
caused by vitamin A deficiencies. Golden rice
was developed by public sector scientists in
Switzerland and Germany and will be given fre e
to poor farmers in developing countries.
(Pollack, 2/4/2001)
Lack of Adequate Resourc e s
While the potential benefits of GM crops for
developing countries is appealing, critics charg e
that food production is not the problem; rather
it is poverty and lack of adequate re s o u rces to
p u rchase food that leads to famine and
malnourishment. The world today prod u c e s
m o re food per inhabitant than ever before .
Enough is available to provide 4.3 pounds to
e v e ry person every day: 2.5 pounds of grain,
beans and nuts, about a pound of meat, milk
and eggs, and another pound of fruits and
vegetables. (Rosset, 1999)
The problems are distribution systems and
lack of financing to move food to regions
needing it. Farmers in developing countries
often would not be able to afford GM
products made in developed countries.
In addition, markets in developed countries
have been targeted first for GM products
because of the need to recoup the high costs
of GMO development.
Lack of resources also dilutes the benefits
of GM crops like golden rice. Critics contend
there are multiple nutritional deficiencies that
will impede the effectiveness of vitamin A
enhancing golden rice, and will also produce
other nutritional problems. (Pollack and
Yoon, 2001)
It has also been questioned whether the
p rofits generated by marketing GM crops to
developing countries are sufficient to maintain
c o m m e rcial development. Finally others have
c o u n t e red that GM crops should be avoided
a l t o g e t h e r, and emphasis should be put on local,
sustainable, cultural-compatible agricultural
development as is captured in the statement
b e l o w :
We do not believe that such companies or gene
technologies will help our farmers to produce the
food that is needed in the 21st century. On the
contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the
local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural
systems that our farmers have developed for
millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity
to feed ourselves. (Statement of 24 African delegates
to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, June 1998)
Risks of GMOs
There are definitely risks in the
development of GMOs. Some specific risks
have been documented and will be discussed
below. As the set of future potential benefits
greatly exceeds the documented benefits of
GMOs, so too does the set of future potential
risks greatly exceed the documented risks of
GMOs. With both benefits and risks we are
working in the realm of the potential and the
unknown. Huge uncertainty and
unpredictability are present, which of course
218 CPCU JOURNAL
“While the
potential
benefits
of GM
crops for
developing
countries
is appealing,
critics
charge
that food
production
is not the
problem . . .”