Genetically Improved Crops - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 91

manipulate plant metabolism during the coming decades should enable plant researchers
to modify crop traits to respond to the diversity of needs, from minimizing environmental
impact to optimizing productivity and quality output.
Yet this potential is subject to constraints discussed in the previous section.
Nontechnical limitations include the following: (1) intellectual property restrictions,
which may limit translation of public research if not managed judiciously; (2) liability
concerns over use, abuse, or misuse of constructs; (3) prohibitive and asymmetric bio-
safety regimes; and (4) public acceptance. The latter two in many ways are the most dif-
ficult to overcome, as they have little basis in rational process and thus—like much of
politics—are difficult to redress. The two are interrelated: biosafety is a function of how
the public perceives risk, reflecting in part how positions are presented by the opposing
political factions (see Chassy, this volume). Emotion and fear often trump reasoned and
judicious scientific rationale for risk analysis. Indeed, the actual commercialization of
biotech products may have little to do with technical limitations and more to do with
these external constraints. As a noted case in point, the flagship of improved nutritional
varieties, namely, beta carotene-enhanced golden rice, despite being under consider-
ation since the late 1990s still awaits appearance in the fields of farmers.
In the final analysis resources are finite, and true sustainability can come only from
the development of resource-enhancing technologies. Yet many who profess sustain-
ability as a political objective are, on occasion, the very ones who oppose the develop-
ment and application of those tools that can help to ensure sustainability. The only sure
way to confirm food security and protect the planet's resources is to refuse to settle into
the complacency of maintaining the status quo and to engage in continual, constructive
change based on scientific know-how.
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