The Anthropology of Genetically Modified Crops

By late in the twentieth century, scientists had succeeded in manipulating organisms at the genetic level, mainly by gene transfer. The major impact of this technology has been seen in the spread of genetically modified (GM) crops, which has occurred with little controversy in some areas and with fierce controversy elsewhere. GM crops raise a very wide range of questions, and I address three areas of particular interest for anthropology and its allied fields. First are the politicaleconomic aspects of GM, which include patenting of life forms and new relationships among agriculture, industry, and the academy. Second is the wide diversity in response and resistance to the technology. Third is the much-debated question of GM crops for the developing world. This analysis is approached first by determining what controls research agendas and then by evaluating actual impacts of crops to date. 381 A nn u. R ev . A nt hr op ol . 2 01 0. 39 :3 81 -4 00 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by W as hi ng to n U ni ve rs ity L ib ra ry , D an fo rt h C am pu s on 0 9/ 24 /1 0. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. AN39CH23-Stone ARI 13 September 2010 22:32 GM: genetically modified HT: herbicide tolerant Bt: Bacillus thuringiensis ISAAA: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications GMO(s): genetically modified organism(s) INTRODUCTION The last half of the twentieth century saw a momentous series of developments in microbiology. By the time the structure of DNA was published in 1953, biologists knew that bacteria could exchange genes via small extrachromosomal rings called plasmids. By the early 1970s, biologists at Stanford University had learned to isolate some individual genes, cut them out with restriction enzymes, and recombine them on plasmids to move genes between bacteria (Halford 2003, Lurquin 2001). By 1983, biologists at both Monsanto Corp. and Washington University had succeeded in moving genes into plants, marking the beginning of transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops.1 Because the genetic code is uniform across life forms, genes could now be transferred across phyla and kingdoms; the first GM plants contained a bacterial gene. Although this technology has seen limited application in bacteria and animals, its major impact has been in crop plants.2 In 1988, China became the first country to grow a commercial GM crop: tobacco, modified to resist tobacco mosaic virus (Pray 1999). In the United States, the first GM crop was released in 1994: Calgene’s ill-fated “Flavr Savr” tomato, with a gene altered to delay rotting (Harvey 2004, Martineau 2001). The next two years saw arrivals of the two plant transformations that have overwhelmingly dominatedGM 1Like so many aspects of this technology, the terminology is contested.Genetic modification (GM) is used here because it is a neutral and accurate term for altering organisms at the genetic level; it is also widely used by advocates and opponents alike. The meaning is the same as genetic engineering, but that term implies a greater degree of control than exists at some key points in the process. The term transgenic is common but inaccurate for the cases in which genes have been altered in place rather than transferred. Recombinant DNA, the original descriptor for this technology, is still the most exact term, but it is unwieldy and out of common usage. Corporate media prefers the nickname biotech crops, but biotechnology encompasses a wide range of technologies of which GM is only one particularly controversial subcategory. Biotechnology here refers specifically to agricultural biotechnology. 2Many introductions to plant genetic modification have been published, ranging from brief (Stone 2002c) to moderately thorough (Halford 2003, Lurquin 2001) to more technical (Liang & Skinner 2004). plantings ever since: herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. Herbicide tolerance is usually from a gene for immunity to glyphosate weedkiller, allowing the farmer to spray weeds without harming the crop. Insect resistance is via a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium, which produces an insecticide, and these crops are often called Bt crops. Major industrial crops—soybean, maize, cotton, and canola—with oneor both traitswere adoptedby many farmers in the United States and Canada with little initial controversy. But by the late 1990s, the situation had become much more turbulent. The spread of GM crops had stumbled badly in western Europe, and opposition to GM crops and foods had emerged in many parts of the world. High-profile, highly evocative campaigns were launched both for and against GM crops. By 1999, debates turned increasingly to the developing world; new crops were cast as either an agricultural and public health savior or as an ominous threat. Even though GM crops were being developed almost entirely for large-scale industrial agriculture, and were being planted in miniscule amounts in developing countries, there was a surge of publicity on GM crops for the third-world poor: vitaminenhanced rice to “save a million kids a year,” high-protein sweet potato, virus-resistant cassava, and fungus-resistant banana (Moffat 1999, TIME Mag. 2000). The industry-supported ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications) began to issue reports emphasizing GM crop adoptions in developing countries. Opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) also favored the discursive terrain of the developing world, where they depicted GM crops as a danger to farmer sovereignty and the environment. The trajectory of controversy has been covered by journalists (Charles 2001, Lambrecht 2001, Pringle 2003) and social scientists ( Jasanoff 2005); the refocusing of the debate on the developing world has been examined in anthropology (Glover 2010; Stone 2002b, 2005b). The latest figures show that by 2009 GM crops had spread to 134 million ha (Table 1), 382 Stone A nn u. R ev . A nt hr op ol . 2 01 0. 39 :3 81 -4 00 . D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by W as hi ng to n U ni ve rs ity L ib ra ry , D an fo rt h C am pu s on 0 9/ 24 /1 0. F or p er so na l u se o nl y. AN39CH23-Stone ARI 13 September 2010 22:32 Table 1 GM crop plantings in 2009. Compiled from James 2010a,b