Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The major consumers of agricultural products are there-
fore city dwellers who are remote from agricultural
production but obviously have a large influence on
the types of food that is desirable. In addition, these
non-agriculturists have a tremendous influence on the
way that agricultural products are grown and processed,
and plant breeders would be foolish not to consider
end-users' likes and dislikes when designing our future
crops.
Despite an overall shortfall in world food supply,
many developed countries have an over abundance of
agricultural food products available and consumers have
become used to spending a lower proportion of their
total earnings on food than ever before. In addition,
consumers have become highly interested in the way
that food products are grown and processed. Many
consumers are interested in eating '
healthy
' food, often
grown without agro-chemicals and without subsequent
chemical colourings or preservatives. Obviously breed-
ing for cultivars that are resistant to diseases, which
can be grown without application of pesticides fits the
needs of these consumers. However, many consumers
want what they call '
more natural
' food, and this has in
recent years had a large impact on agriculture and inter-
country trade in agricultural commodities, particularly
with the advent of large-scale commercialization of
genetically modified (engineered) organisms (GMO's).
The discovery of recombinant DNA techniques that
allow the transfer and expression of a gene from one
species, or organism, into another was a breakthrough
in modern plant breeding and offers some enormous
advances in crop development. However, the first GMO
crops to be commercialized have not been well accepted
by many consumers. The reasons for this are numer-
ous but are related to '
plant breeders playing God
',
and a general mistrust among consumers regarding the
health and safety of these
novel
products. In addition
there are concerns amongst many groups that there
might be environmental risks associated with GMO
crops and that transgenes will
escape
into the ecosys-
tem as volunteers or by inter crossing with related
weeds. Other issues obviously are involved in this bar-
rier of acceptance including, free trade agreements,
and monopolies of transformation technology by a few
companies world-wide.
Nonetheless, how many plant breeders, 10 to
12 years ago, had the insight to foresee such resis-
tance in acceptance of products, that many consider
being 'a significant advantage over proceeding cultivars'?
Almost all of the first GMO crops have genetic advan-
tages that are unseen by the final consumer. These crop
products look and taste the same as traditional crops, in
most cases require as many agro-chemicals in produc-
tion, and finally, they are no cheaper for the end-user to
buy! Perhaps, breeders of the first GMO releases should
have given more attention to the end-users needs and
released the first GMO crops that had
consumer advan-
tages
rather than grower advantages. It would have been
interesting to see what difference this might have made
on the first commercialization of these crops. However,
this is not possible, and including recombinant DNA
technologies as tools in cultivar development is one issue
that many breeders and breeding programmes are at
present giving serious consideration. The whole GMO
issue is, however, a good example of where cultivars
were developed and became completely unacceptable
based not on their genetic potential, agronomic adapt-
ability, or end-use quality, but a general perception of
unacceptability amongst the consumer.
Consumers, farmers or housewives, also have a
tremendous impact on all aspects of everyday life, as
they are usually involved in democratically electing
politicians that govern the nations of the world.
Many people would consider it impossible to try and
predict what is in the mind of a politician. Politicians
and political policy will, however, continue to have a
large determining feature in shaping agriculture. For
example, there may be a very cheap and 'safe' chemi-
cal available that controls a certain disease in your crop
of interest. With this in mind the breeding objectives
may not include selection or screening for biological
resistance to this disease. Several years into the breeding
scheme, it may be decided that the use of this chemical
is harmful to the environment and government pol-
icy responds by withdrawing the use of the chemical
and suddenly the need for resistance to this disease in
breeding lines is vital. As an example, it is likely that
the majority of organophosphate based insecticides will
not be labelled for application to many of the crops
that today depend on them for successful production.
It has further been suggested that over 80% of all agro-
chemicals used in the United States will not be labelled
for use in agriculture.
Many soil fumigants are highly toxic, volatile chem-
icals that have adverse depletion effects on our atmo-
sphere. As a result many governments world-wide have
