Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
important gains to the nutritional ei ciency
of feedstuf s.
Under some circumstances, however, the
burden of the costs associated with the
segregation of crops can be overstepped.
h is is the case when farmers produce their
own feedstuf s on-farm, such as silage crops
or cereals mixed for swine or poultry. h en,
the benei ts of the GM modii cation of feed
crops are delivered directly to the i nal user,
avoiding many costs. h is is also the purpose
of the implementation of integrated supply
chains: when crop products are too
specialized, farmers lose l exibility and can-
not control market outputs. h en, it makes
sense for them to enter an integrated
scheme, usually organized locally, in order to
reduce transaction costs. Some niche
markets might also constitute a possible
output, when premiums exceed segregation
costs. h e case of the feedstuf s used by
aquaculture might be illustrative of this: as
the price of i sh oil has increased dramatically
in the last decade, due to the booming
demand for farmed i sh, any land-based and
renewable resource substitute - such as GM
omega-3 seed oil - might be proi table. In
general, more research on the economic
proi tability of GM crops for animal
nutrition is thus desirable to better assess
their potential market and economic
impacts.
3
The USDA Field Tests of GM Crops for the USA
aspx)
, the GMO Register for experimental
releases of the EU (
http://gmoinfo.jrc.ec.europa.
eu/gmp_browse.aspx)
and the Japanese
Biosafety Clearing House (
http://www.bch.
4
This was performed through the European
Patent Offi ce webpage:
http://www.epo.org/.
Abhary, M., Siritunga, D., Stevens, G., Taylor, N.J.
and Fauquet, C.M. (2011) Transgenic
biofortifi cation of the starchy staple cassava
(
Manihot esculenta
) generates a novel sink for
protein.
PLoS ONE
6, e16256.
Amir, R. and Tabe, L. (2006) Molecular approaches
to improving plant methionine content. In:
Pawan, K.J., Jaiwal, K. and Rana, P.S. (eds)
Plant Genetic Engineering: Metabolic Engineer-
ing and Molecular Farming II
. Studium Press
LLC, Houston, Texas, pp. 1-26.
Avraham, T., Badani, H., Galili, S. and Amir, R.
(2005) Enhanced levels of methionine and
cysteine in transgenic alfalfa (
Medicago sativa
L.) plants over-expressing the Arabidopsis
cystathionine γ-synthase gene.
Plant Bio-
technology Journal
3, 71-79.
Bagga, S., Potenza, C., Ross, J., Martin, M.,
Leustek, T. and Sengupta-Gopalan, C. (2005) A
transgene for high methionine protein is
posttranscriptionally regulated by methionine.
In
Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology -
Plant
41, 731-741.
Barneix, A.J. (2007) Physiology and biochemistry
of source-regulated protein accumulation in the
wheat grain.
Journal of Plant Physiology
164,
581-590.
Barrière, Y., Guillaumie, S., Pichon, M. and Emile,
J.C. (2009) Breeding for silage quality traits in
cereals. In: Carena, M.J. (ed.)
Cereals -
Handbook of Plant Breeding
. Springer, New
York, pp. 367-394.
Bicar, E., Woodman-Clikeman, W., Sangtong, V.,
Peterson, J., Yang, S., Lee, M.,
et al
. (2008)
Transgenic maize endosperm containing a milk
protein has improved amino acid balance.
Transgenic Research
17, 59-71.
Bilyeu, K.D., Zeng, P., Coello, P., Zhang, Z.J.,
Krishnan, H.B., Bailey, A.,
et al
. (2008)
Quantitative conversion of phytate to inorganic
phosphorus in soybean seeds expressing a
bacterial phytase.
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477.
h e authors are very grateful to Claudia
Parisi and Mauro Vigani for their helpful
comments in the preparation of this chapter.
1
The three US regulatory agencies - the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), the Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - have
a unifi ed website that features a complete
database of GM crop reviews:
http://
2
This refers to the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA) Register of Questions:
http://register
