Public and private partnership needed to improve genetic engineering
 

BY BHARATHA Malawaraarachchi

'GOVERNMENT to Government collaboration and private and public sector co-operation could help improve genetic engineering technology in Sri Lanka,' said Dr. Subash C. Gupta, a senior biotechnologist of the International Biotechnology Policy Division in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

"A country like Sri Lanka could immensely benefit from genetic engineering as it could be used to combat diseases related to the agriculture sector especially affecting tea, he said.

"Sri Lanka can benefit from this technology in many different ways," Gupta told a media discussion at the American Centre. He is serving as the Director - Regulatory Capacity Building at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service(APHIS) of the USDA.

Citing examples from India, Gupta said "There are so many diseases that affect the tea industry. You could develop genetically modify tea to resist such diseases and that will greatly benefit tea plantations."

He explained that this technology could be used to combat several diseases affecting the agricultural industry specially fruits and vegetables.

He said Sri Lankan scientists are doing a good job." But they are afraid as they don't know whether their product will ever see the light of day."

While refuting various allegations against genetically engineered or transgenic plants, Gupta said since 1987, there have been over 10,000 field trials with no reports of significant environmental harm. Over 65 products have gone through US regulatory review.

He said deregulated products can be used in food, feed and in breeding programs in the same way as their conventional counterparts.

Amongst products deregulated by USDA - APHIS are corn, soyabean, cotton, potato, tomato, squash, papaya, rice, canola, sugar beet, flax.

Previously, Gupta was a member of the Biotechnology permits staff in APHIS USDA where he carried out risk assessment reviews for agricultural biotechnology products. He stressed that US regulations governing biotechnology are very effective.

Regulations ensured that the new products are safe to human and animal consumption. "Our assessments are scientifically based and we have looked at every aspect.To us transparency is very important.

Gupta said they were aware of the safety of the GM foods.

Referring to mandatory labelling of these products, Gupata said implementation of labelling is a difficult task. "Implementation is a big issue. How are you going to label it. Until, how far you are going to label it."

Gupta cited a genetically engineered tomato as an example to explain the difficulty of labelling." Are you going to label the tomato ? or tomato sauce or your pizza ? How far do you want to go ?

He said there had been no reports so far about the harmfulness of the GM products."