Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
possibility of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of recombinant DNA from
GM crop-derived foods to human gut microflora or the human or ani-
mal genome, as gene transfer between different organisms is quite com-
mon in nature and a driving force in evolution.
9
However, transfer from
food upon ingestion is a rare event and only consequential if the trait is
expressed and confers selective advantage.
In relation to the ethical concerns about “tampering with nature,”
10
three major ethical paradigms exist: consequentialism (acceptable out-
comes for most people), ethics of autonomy/consent (everybody should
have a choice), and ethics of virtue/tradition (based on traditions of the
community).
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In the consequentionalist ethics, the first generation of
GM technology is acceptable because it generally focuses on improv-
ing efficiency, if applied with enough foresight about possible adverse
consequences. It is unclear if the same holds for second-generation
GMO products, because they add new properties and thus goes beyond
efficiency.
In the ethics of autonomy/consent, each person should have the right
to avoid GMO products. The policy implication is the need to separate
GMO from non-GMO food and to label them accordingly and to create
rules for optimal traceability.
The ethics of virtue/tradition can take different forms, depending on
the tradition. In the “agrarian” tradition, agriculture is a “way of life”
and its adherents oppose GMOs as part of the broader resistance to
modern biotechnology-based agriculture. In the “nature-ism” tradition,
transspecies of genetic material can upset the operations of ecosystems,
with unknown consequences, and thus are ethically unacceptable. Con-
sequentionalist ethics dominated the early years of the GMO debate,
E. Boutrif, Plant Biotechnology and its International Regulation-FAO's Initiative, 74
Livestock Production Science
217-222 (2002).
9
H. A. Kuiper et al., Concluding Remarks, 42
Food and Chemical Toxicology
1195-1202
(2004).
10
L. Frewer et al., Societal Aspects of Genetically Modified Foods, 42
Food and Chemi-
cal Toxicology
1181-1193 (2004).
11
Burkhardt, J., 2001, The GMO debate: taking ethics seriously, http://www.
farmfoundation.org/news/articlefiles/120-burkhardt.pdf (accessed Aug 5, 2008).
