From: Biotech-Mod3
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 9:06 AM
To: 'biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Re: Animal nutrition: Manipulation of plants or the rumen to
increase livestock productivity ?
This is from Stanislaus Dundon, an agricultural biotechnology ethicist, who does that sort of work at UC Davis-California (or did, depending on tensions there over any kind of criticism of biotech).
Harinder P.S. Makkar's survey [17 July] of opportunities in animal husbandry is a valuable piece. His awareness that "undesireable" characteristics of some actual or potential feed plants may serve some purpose [Presumably referring to Harinder's comments on plant secondary metabolites (antinutritional factors).....Moderator] brought to my mind the likely areas of ethical concern--mainly focused on risk. As an ethicist looking over the past, I could only suggest that we try to remain as aware of the efficiency of evolution and work with a presupposition that not only does everything have some purpose, but that that purpose is probably multifaceted and deeply entwined, not merely with the plant, but its neighboring plant species, with whatever it feeds and whatever it is evolutionarily designed to not feed. A multifaceted ecological survey of any proposed engineering seems required for responsible progress here. Don't wait for the critics to do it. They won't do it as well as you can.
Stanislaus J. Dundon
Coordinator, Soul of Agriculture Project
P.O. Box 72084, Davis CA. 95617, USA
Home Phone 530-756-9679 Toll Free 1-888-393-4047, pin 3903
Office (Community Alliance with Family Farmers, CAFF) 530-756-8518 ext 31
Fax 530-756-7857. Toll Free to Dundon at CAFF 1-888-393-4047, pin 7183, ext
31
sjdundon@davis.com
[To contribute to this conference, send your message to biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org For further information on the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp ]
-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod3
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 9:18 AM
To: 'biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Biotechnology in beef production
This is from Gregory Harper, Australia.
I appreciate the energy so many of you are putting into this conference.
I was recently involved in the 15th Australasian Biotechnology Conference in Brisbane, Australia. Amongst the enthusiasm for "red biotech" (human medicine) and the fears for "green biotech" (agricultural biotech), I think some common themes emerged.
Firstly, I think we as scientists need to be even more active about explaining and discussing our plans for agricultural biotech than we have been. I guess this may be quite hackneyed now for some of us, but I think the Australian community is just now starting to hear the debate and become involved. At our conference [we] were lucky that so many of the groups who have not previously had an opinion about biotech, were seeking information. By this I mean local government, the investment, public policy and legal communities. I think this role for scientists is likely to grow over the next decade.
In the context of continuing the international debate, I think the petition approach of Prakash from Tuskegee University, is important: http://www.agbioworld.org.
Secondly, I think it is appropriate for us to spend more energy integrating our particular biotechnologies into the production systems that we work on. In my field, beef production, I think it is important to communicate the role that biotech is already playing in selective breeding, accellerated reproduction, growth management, health diagnostics, eating quality management, species verification, trace-back and product differentiation in the market place. I think that it is our role as biotechnologists, to broaden the debate from undue focus on genetic modification to encompass all the various applications of bioscience. In so doing we will help the community to see biotechnology in relation to products and processes they are familiar with. By over-emphasising the importance of transgenic solutions, we are likely to lose the support of people within the value chain who are dealing with more urgent problems of profitability and sustainability.
Gregory S. Harper PhD
Project Leader
Fat deposition project
Cattle and Beef Quality Cooperative Research Centre
CSIRO Livestock Industries
Molecular Animal Genetics Centre
Level 3, Gehrmann Laboratories
University of Queensland
St. Lucia, 4067
Brisbane, Australia
Ph 61 7 3214 2441
Fax 61 7 3214 2480
mobile 0418 790 486
Email gregory.harper@tag.csiro.au
[To contribute to this conference, send your message to biotech-room3@mailserv.fao.org For further information on the Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp ]