The Political Economy of Regulation of Biotechnology in Agriculture - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 695

www.gmwatch.org/iles/Letter_AWHayes_GES.pdf ). Potential human and animal
health risks are not discussed here. Rather, the focus is on potential economic risks, risks
that may preclude the ability of stakeholders to exercise their freedom of choice and
potential means to mitigate those risks.
Avenues by which GM seeds could become commingled with non-GM seeds on farm
and possible mitigation strategies are summarized in Figure 28.1 (Devos et al. 2007).
Seed Purity
Certified organic and non-GM seed producers are most concerned with preventing cross
pollination from GM crops that could compromise their ability to maintain seed purity
and the underlying biodiversity of their seed stocks. Fruition Seeds27 is a small company
in northern New York State. They grow and select organic seeds specifically adapted for
use in northern climates. I attended a “seed walk” on their farm recently that was held to
commemorate their formal entry into the organic seed industry. While they introduced
themselves, the farm's partners spoke about their personal reasons for undertaking this
enterprise. Among their aims are the preservation of diversity in heritage seed lines and
selecting and propagating seeds best adapted to the climate in the northeastern United
States, which for each of them is linked to the preservation of a sense of community. Each
partner expressed his/her deeply held belief in the sanctity of the overarching ecologi-
cal system in which their business was embedded, their recognition of the tendency of
conventional cropping systems to reduce genetic diversity by monocropping “elite” lines
of various crops, and their acknowledgment of the urgent need to preserve existing seed
diversity for sustaining human and ecosystem health into the future.
Like other organic seed producers, Fruition Seeds faces many challenges. High on the
list is seed purity . How can they keep their seed pure in the face of potential gene flow
from neighboring farms? They thresh and package their own seed, so they have not yet
had to contend with the inadvertent presence of GM seed in the rest of the supply chain
or traceability issues. They have made a conscious choice not to grow maize. They knew
they would be vulnerable to gene flow from neighboring farms and did not want to accept
the risk and the attendant testing that is now part and parcel of organic certification and
product identity. In the face of ever-increasing use of transgenic crops by the majority of
conventional farmers and the increasing number of crops that have now been engineered,
co-existence strategies are needed to protect Fruition Seeds and other providers of certi-
fied organic seed from the possibility of gene flow and ensure they are able to maintain the
genetic purity of their germplasm, which is fundamental to their economic survival.
Gene Flow to Neighboring Farms
Agriculture is an open system. As such, gene flow between compatible crop species and
their wild relatives is common and, between plants capable of hybridizing, inevitable