Hope Not Hype - Third World Network

32 Hope Not Hype
The Assessment text
Global Summary for Decision Makers
(p. 7)
The IAASTD definition of biotechnology
is based on that in the Convention on
Biological Diversity and the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety. It is a broad term
embracing the manipulation of living
organisms and spans the large range of
activities from conventional techniques for
fermentation and plant and animal
breeding to recent innovations in tissue
culture, irradiation, genomics and markerassisted
breeding (MAB) or marker
assisted selection (MAS) to augment
natural breeding. Some of the latest
biotechnologies, called “modern
biotechnology”, include the use of in vitro
modified DNA or RNA and the fusion of
cells from different taxonomic families,
techniques that overcome natural
physiological reproductive or
recombination barriers.
(From Global Summary for Decision
Makers by IAASTD, ed. Copyright © 2009
IAASTD. Reproduced by permission of
Island Press, Washington, D.C.)
Executive Summary of the Synthesis
Report (p. 8)
As above, but also: Currently the most
contentious issue is the use of recombinant
DNA techniques to produce transgenes
that are inserted into genomes. Even newer
techniques of modern biotechnology
manipulate heritable material without
changing DNA.
(From Agriculture at a Crossroads: The
Synthesis Report by IAASTD, ed.
Copyright © 2009 IAASTD. Reproduced
by permission of Island Press,
Washington, D.C.)
Biotechnology is of course more than
modern biotechnology. The Convention on
Biological Diversity defines biotechnology
as:
[A]ny technological application that uses
biological systems, living organisms, or
derivatives thereof, to make or modify
products or processes for a specific use.
Biotechnology, in the form of traditional
fermentation techniques, has been used for
decades to make bread, cheese or beer. It
has also been the basis of traditional
animal and plant breeding techniques,
such as hybridization and the selection of
plants and animals with specific
characteristics to create, for example,
crops which produce higher yields of
grain.
That very broad definition recognizes
that agricultural science and technology
takes many forms that derive from the
scientific method. It is a definition that is
used by governments and is consistent with
usage such as the content of Nature
Biotechnology, a journal named for its focus
on research in biotechnology (Heinemann,
2008).
Biotechnology can be seen as a series
of techniques that describe a continuum
from conventional to modern. Combined,
the two international agreements have
created a kind of “digital switch” for
regulating GMOs. The switch is thrown
when one goes from manipulating heritable
(e.g., seeds, propagules) but not genetic
(e.g., DNA) material to genetic material
being removed from its physiological or
natural context and then returned or passedon
(Figure 1.1).
The distinction between
biotechnology and modern biotechnology is
worth preserving, even if some say that the