Community | August 27, 2009 | 5 comments

'Snorkel' rice being pushed as GM when it isn't

source: http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11447-non-gm-qsnorkel-rice-could-feed-mil...

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JanforGore
NOTE: Below's a very interesting comment by the molecular biologist Dr Michael Antoniou on the widely reported paper published last week in Nature (VOL.460 NO.7258) on so called "snorkel rice", involving genes that allow rice to survive in deepwater flooding by shooting up in height.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7258/edsumm/e090820-14.html

The paper was reported in both the science and popular media with headlines that were often dramatic, eg "Snorkel rice could feed millions" (BBC). Some of these reports mistakenly claimed that this was a GM rice.

One widely circulated popular science piece, for example, was headlined, "Genetically Engineered Rice Plants Grow 'Snorkels' To Survive Floods."
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/snorkel-genes-allow-rice-plants-su...
http://esciencenews.com/sources/popsci/2009/08/19/genetically.engineered.rice.pl...

Jon Hamilton, a correspondent for National Public Radio's science desk, had his report on "snorkel rice" billed as: "Scientists are racing to genetically engineer strains of rice that can prevent the deadly famines that come with drought and floods in Asia. One new strain causes part of the plant to elongate, acting as a snorkel."
http://www.npr.org/templates/rss/podlayer.php?id=2100615
http://www.wbur.org/news/npr/people/2100615

Such reports may have been behind comments claiming that "snorkel rice" provides, "A perfect example of the benefits of genetic modification of staple crops and why we need to fund research on them."
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/9cgv4/genetically_engineered_rice_grows...

And blog comments such as:

"But it's genetically modified food. We can't have that! Who cares if it feeds the world, it's still not organic and we all know organic foods keep us from getting sick. Or do we.."
http://steve-lewis.blogspot.com/2009/08/snorkel-rice-could-feed-millions.html

As Dr Antoniou's comments make clear, "snorkel rice" is very far from being a "perfect example of the benefits of genetic modification". In fact, the paper leads to the conclusion that non-GM biotechnological approaches, like marker assisted selection (MAS), can successfully deliver new crops with complex traits.

Of course, "snorkel rice" is not the first flood-resistant rice to be passed off as a GM rice when it's not. The UK's former Chief Scientist, Prof Sir David King, even pulled this trick in a BBC radio programme. There is a submergence tolerant (flood resistant) rice on the market but it is non-GM. The researchers, in fact, tried to use a GM approach to develop it and failed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/09/david-king-gm-crops
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Current Tonight,   Max and Jason: Still Up,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Floods,  Rice,  natural traits
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5 comments // 'Snorkel' rice being pushed as GM when it isn't

  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Dr. Vandana Shiva explains clearly what these corporations sought to do to take seed democracy away from farmers. I have no doubt any new natural traits now found that are drought or flood resistant would be sought to be stolen to be patented by these same corporations. You cannot patent something natural that you did not create, yet corporations like Monsanto get away with it because of their ties with governments. This is now one of the biggest threats farmers face regarding biodiversity and food freedom, especially in light of climate change.

    • 2 years ago
  • frizzlecat
    • 0
      frizzlecat  
    • JanforGore:

      We're all fucked, anyway.

      Why do you think this problem exists in the first place? Over-population. Too many people, not enough food, so we need to grow more food quickly and intensively. Why do we have global warming? Increasing population. Increased number of global disease epidemics? Over-population. The signs are here for everyone to see; poverty, disease, famine. Over-population should be our biggest concern. Almost all our problems with the world and our existence on it are caused by our increasing population. Nature is taking its natural cause with us, no matter what we think. We will tip over the scales of natural balance and will fall, the same as every single other organism which increases its numbers beyond what are sustainable. How long before we have the next plague? Imagine how it was back in 1340. Now imagine it's today, with global airtravel, public transport, and a population of 6 BILLION, not the 450 million of 1340.

      There's a bigger picture here, and no one's looking at it.

    • 2 years ago
  • frizzlecat
  • JanforGore
  • carmalite
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