![Page 1: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
GMOs
A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and
cheap food
Brian EllisMichael Smith LaboratoriesUBC October 24, 2008
![Page 2: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
GMOs
What are they?
What is really out there?
What impacts are they having?
Where are we going with them?
![Page 3: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
GMOs
What are they?
What is really out there?
What are they doing to us?
Where are we going with them?
GMOs are organisms whose genome has been permanently manipulated by direct insertion
of one or more genesthat were not there before
![Page 4: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
‘Crown Gall’(gall cells contain bacterial genes in their genome)
Mother Nature’s Genetic Engineer
+
Agrobacteriumtumefaciens
![Page 5: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Agrobacterium carrying “Roundup Ready” gene in an ‘engineered’bacterial plasmid
Monsanto’s“Roundup Ready®” gene
Roundup®-tolerant Roundup®-sensitive
![Page 6: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
GMOs
What are they?
What is really out there?
What impacts are they having?
Where are we going with them?
![Page 7: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
GMO crops
• Commercial Applications
Altered agronomic traits forindustrial producers
• Disease/insect resistance• Virus resistance• Herbicide resistance• Salt/drought tolerance• Cold tolerance• Enhanced yields, other
quantitative traits
Application of Roundup herbicide
Field following application
time 2008
Corn, cotton, soybeans, canola
![Page 8: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Nature Biotechnology 25: 271 (2007)
GM crop use is continually expanding
![Page 9: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Which countries grow the most commercial GM crops?
Which countries grow no commercial GM crops?
EU, Japan, NZ
USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada
What are the ‘developing countries’ doing about GM crops?
India and China have begun to grow GM cotton
ScienceSept. 08, 2008
![Page 10: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
GMOs
What are they?
What is really out there?
What impacts are they having?
Where are we going with them?
![Page 11: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Are there fish genes in our tomatoes?
What about ‘Golden Rice’?
Are there proven health impacts?
![Page 12: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Microarray analyses reveal that plant mutagenesismay induce more transcriptomic changes thantransgene insertion
Batista et al Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci (USA) 105:3640 (2008)
“We found that the improvement of a plant variety through the acquisition of a new desired trait, using either mutagenesis or transgenesis, may cause stress and thus lead to an altered expression of untargeted genes. In all of the cases studied, the observed alteration was more extensive in mutagenized than in transgenic plants.”
11,267 (51) genes vs. 2,318 (25) genes
![Page 13: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Intensive GM crop use also modifies the ecology of our agricultural landscape ...
…but we have been massively modifying this ecology for thepast 10,000 years
![Page 14: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
GMOs
What are they?
What is really out there?
What impacts are they having?
Where are we going with them?
![Page 15: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Homo sapiens has become the dominant species on an
increasingly over-exploited planet
![Page 16: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Humans directly exploit ~70% of temperate and tropical ecosystems
Agriculture~50%Commercial forests~20%Human settlements~20%The greatest single activity affecting
native ecosystem structure and functionis agriculture
![Page 17: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Increasing human population size and aspirations
are putting unsustainable pressure on the biomass productivity of the planet
This will drive even wider adoption and extension
of GMO technology as human societies struggle to cope with loss of productive land / water
resourcesand the associated food shortages
![Page 18: GMOs A tale of manipulation, monopoly, Monsanto and cheap food Brian Ellis Michael Smith Laboratories UBC October 24, 2008](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062409/56649f055503460f94c194c4/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Something not covered by the new Gene Technology law…