Food
	Land
	and Culture

	Presentation Summary
	Lac Courte Oreilles Casino and Convention Center Oct 3-4, 2002
	Environmental Risk of Genetically Engineered Crops
	Brent McCown Professor of Horticulture Director of the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems Gottschalk Distinguished Research Chair in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences University of Wisconsin-Madison
	Like so many things in our lives, what is risky depends on the individual observer. Often, risk analysis is more subjective than objective and is highly tempered by values and experience. The assessment of the environmental risks associated with genetically-engineered (GE) crops offers an excellent example of this generalization. The environmental risks of GE crops requires the consideration of four interactions (GE crop with other crops, GE crop with weeds, GE crop with native non-weed plants, and GE crop with non-plant organisms). In addition, ideally analysis should occur at three organizational levels (individual organism, social and ecosystem). Although all levels have their inherent analytical problems, often risk at the ecosystem level is particularly difficult to assess because of the scale and the timeframes involved. Although not yet prominent in the public viewfinder, the potential for ecological problems from the introduction of GE crops becomes very apparent when long-lived perennial crops, such as trees, are involved. In addition to the difficulty of predicting the impact of the escape of efficacious genes in native and managed ecosystems, the reliability of suggested containment measures is an assessment and monitoring nightmare. Such questions are just beginning to be seriously addressed. References: Arriola, P.E. 1999. Risks of escape and spread of engineered genes from transgenic crops to wild relatives. AgBiotechNet.com review article, 8 pp. Buttel, F.H. and R.M. Goodman. 2001. Of Frankenfoods and golden rice. Risks, rewards and realities of genetically modified foods. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, volume 89, 147 pp. Ecological Society of America. 2001. Statement from the Ecological Society of America on genetically modified organisms. Available on the ESA website. Robinson, J. 1999. Ethics and transgenic crops: a review. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology 2(2), 13 pp.
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