作物バイオテクノロジー 3.0: 農家の視点

ここニュージーランドで, GE GeneRevolutionには参加しませんでした. 私のような農家は、次の農家を見逃さないようにすることに利点があると考えています。.

You’ve seen the statistics. Farmers around the world have planted and harvested billions of acres of genetically engineered crops. 少し前まで, we used to talk about GMOs and conventional crops as if they belonged in different categories. Increasingly—and especially in North and South America—GMOs are the new conventional. They’ve become an ordinary part of agriculture.

Some nations, of course have resisted the use of GMOs, starting with members of the European Union. New Zealand has taken its own wait-and-see approach, turning it into a sort of permanent delay. The science on GMOs safety to human health and our environment may be settled but my country has wanted to preserve its clean-green image in food production, in the belief that this gives us a competitive advantage as we market ourselves to the world.

This is important because as an island nation, we’re an outward-looking country that depends on trade with people in other countries. Our goal is to produce high quality food with an emphasis on ethics and environmental sustainability. That’s how we see ourselves and that’s how we want others to see us. I’ve always believed that this vision of New Zealand could include a place for GMOs, but others have thought differently—and so we’ve remained GMO-free, even as my friends and colleagues who farm across the English-speaking world have come to take GMOs for granted. In developed countries such as Canada and the United States as well as developing countries such as India and South Africa, GMOs are an ordinary way of doing business. The same is true in many countries outside the Anglosphere, アルゼンチンやブラジルなど.

My government’s prohibitions on GMOs haven’t stopped our farm from thriving. On the South Island—New Zealand’s larger but less populated landmass—our farms focus on seed production and dairy. On our seed production farm, we grow ryegrass, フェスク, ハイブリッドニンジン, ハイブリッド大根, もっと. About half these seeds will take root in New Zealand, while the rest will sprout under the care of farmers overseas. All of our carrot seeds, 例えば, go back to Holland for global distribution. On our dairy farm, we milk about 1,100 牛. Virtually all their milk also will ship abroad, where we have a reputation for top quality and occupy the higher end of the market.

While, to date, there has been little benefit for New Zealand to have GE technology in the crops and plants we grow, we certainly take advantage of other new technologies—including a few that would astonish farmers from just a generation ago. 去年の夏, 例えば, I attended a conference of farmers in Minnesota, which is just about on the other side of the world from New Zealand. During a break, I wondered about moisture levels in the soil back home. I didn’t have to order anybody into a field to dig a hole or stick a meter into the dirt. その代わり, I pulled out my smartphone, その画面を見た, そして私のセンサーが何を言っているかを見ました. I knew instantly.

This is what modern agriculture looks like in many places, and especially in New Zealand: グローバルです, それはハイテクです, そしてそれはすべて持続可能な保全に関するものです. But it’s also about the fundamentals, based on the same set of natural resources, 空の太陽光から地面の栄養分まで.

Water may be our most precious resource. Although it varies from place to place, ç´„ 70 percent of the world’s freshwater is invested in agriculture. We need to supply our fields with exactly the right amount, so that we can make the most of what we’re given. GPSと電磁技術を搭載, 私たちは土壌の詳細な地図を作成します. We study the information that we gather and then plan our water use. 畑全体を水浸しにするのではなく, like water sprinklers that run for hours in suburban backyards, 配達をカスタマイズします. Our pivot-irrigation system sends the right amount of water to the right place. We spread water like dots on a carpet, and every drop counts.

We’re just as careful with nitrogen. It’s not about using more, but finding the right match for the land. We’re now heading towards measuring nitrogen in real time, allowing us to understand when and how it reaches root zones. With good data management, including satellite and drone imagery, we can make informed decisions about what the soil needs and what the plants want.

GMOs would help, but even without them, these other technologies will continue to improve, and we’ll keep on making gains in production and sustainability. Yet now the new Gene Revolution is upon us—and I don’t want to miss it.

If you haven’t heard of genome editing, you will soon: It holds the potential to cure diseases, improve organ transplants, and defeat bacteria that resist antibiotics. 農業で, it may help us grow plants that produce more while using only half the water and nitrogen that they consume now. 農家として、, we face enormous pressure to increase our efficiency and reduce our perceived environmental impact. CRISPR and other gene-editing methods could well be a key piece of technology that will allow us to continue to grow crops and raise livestock and also meet our conservation goals. The scientists can describe the details. Here’s what I know: It’s safe, it’s transformational, and it’s on the near horizon.

It’s also what we might call a “leap-frog technology,” allowing us to leap over the current GMO technology and their innovations and head straight into CRISPR technology which could very quickly deliver real benefits for our production systems, the environment and our global markets.

We have watched as the anti-GMO activists seem to worry most about their transgenic nature—that is, the practice of moving genes from one species to another. Although this has helped crops improve weed and pest resistance in safe ways, critics object because they think it sounds creepy. This may be an unscientific view, but it’s also an authentic one, and it has prevented GMO technology from enjoying more widespread adoption. It is important that we understand the customers beliefs and desires when it comes to the food we produce which will allow us to use the appropriate technology.

As we move toward Biotech 3.0, we may see the same old battle lines form between farmers, 科学者, and educated consumers on one side and political activists on the other. But I hope not. 賭け金は高い. Gene editing can become a powerful ally of the environment, especially here in New Zealand, where native trees now under threat might find new life. 私のような農家のために, テクノロジーが非常に速く進歩し、世界人口が急増し、環境の持続可能性に対する新たな要求が常に課題となっている時代において, 賢明な判断をする時が来た, 最も有益となる形質を選択し、それを農家の手に届けるための科学に基づいた議論.

We need this technology, and I can’t wait to have it.

A version of this column 最初に登場した 六月 26 As part of the GMO Beyond The Science series at Genetic Literacy Project.