TWN Info Service on Biosafety
25 November 2024
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Genetically Modifying Nature Goes Against the Precautionary Principle
This paper presents a perspective of the German Federal Agency of Nature Conservation, which states that it is not productive or meaningful to genetically modify wild organisms solely based on the assumption of potential benefits and with uncertainty about possible harm.
To date, most genetically modified organisms (GMOs) outside closed systems are crops that ought not to spread outside agricultural areas. However, increasingly, research is being conducted on GMOs that are intended to get established and/or spread in nature. The research is fuelled by technological transformations like digitalisation that have given rise to the field of synthetic biology.
Synthetic gene drives involve genetic engineering tools (e.g. CRISPR/Cas) being incorporated as a part of the genetic modification. If organisms with synthetic gene drives are released, these genetic engineering tools are released too – the genetic engineering experiment is moved into the environment, becoming a “lab in the field”. The effect is that the genetic modification is inherited by more than half, and up to all, of the offspring when gene drive organisms interbreed with their wild relatives. Theoretically, gene drive GMOs have the potential to cause a population to collapse or become extinct.
If permanent, far-reaching and inheritable genetic modifications of wild organisms become a reality and are accepted as legitimate instruments of nature conservation, the idea of protecting nature turns into the idea of re-designing nature. The urgency of combating the global crises is not a reason to abandon the precautionary principle. Rather, on the contrary, the crises justify the more determined implementation of the precautionary principle.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY, GENETIC ENGINEERING IN THE WILD, AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Hagen, K., Otto, M., Stracke, K., & Engelhard, M.
In EurSafe2024 Proceedings (pp. 391-397). Wageningen Academic.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004715509_064
September 2024
Abstract
To date, most genetically modified organisms (GMOs) outside closed systems are crops, which have the potential to become harmful to ecosystems for example by releasing toxins or becoming invasive, and therefore ought not to spread outside agricultural areas. However, the contrary paradigm is currently attracting attention in research and policy: Increasingly, research is being conducted on GMOs that are intended to get established and/or spread in nature. The research is fuelled by technological transformations like digitalisation that have given rise to the field of synthetic biology. With the ongoing joint global climate, biodiversity and food crises, a view of humans as able and (morally) permitted to more actively interfere in nature has become a (contested) legitimisation for such research agendas. Contrary to nature conservation’s paradigm of precaution with regard to GMOs, synthetic biology is even targeting species protection as a potential area of application. The present paper presents a perspective of the German Federal Agency of Nature Conservation (BfN), a nature conservation authority which is also involved in GMO authorisation procedures. We briefly address potential impacts of wild living GMOs, the international policy discourse and the role of the statutory foundations and values of nature conservation for the assessment of GMOs in the wild. We argue that the urgency of combating biodiversity loss is not a justification for the use of genetic engineering in nature. Rather, the crisis justifies the implementation of effective measures to prevent further pressure on nature by overuse, contamination or the release of GMOs in the wild, where impacts on nature are too complex to be scientifically evaluated in a relevant time frame. These measures ought not to be undermined by overconfidence in technical solutions.