Owning the Genome: A Moral Analysis of DNA Patenting

Chapter 9

INTRODUCTION This chapter continues in the theme of the benefit-harm analyses conducted in chapters 7 and 8 but will focus on the potential benefits and harms to agriculture resulting from DNA patenting. After reviewing the benefits of DNA patents for agriculture, the chapter will examine the potential harms. As in chapters 7 and 8, the main concern will be to determine whether these harms are plausible threats, and if they are, what a reasonable response would be to them. THE BENEFITS OF DNA PATENTS FOR AGRICULTURE AND AGROMEDICINE Before discussing the potential harms to agriculture that DNA patents may bring about, it will be useful to briefly review the potential benefits of patenting , since benefit-harm decisions must balance both benefits and harms. The potential benefits of DNA patents are all related to the effect that patents have on basic and applied research, since research is essential to improvements in agriculture. Research that has an impact on agriculture includes basic research disciplines such as genetics, genomics, proteomics, biochemistry, and microbiology , as well as applied research disciplines such as genetic engineering, agronomy, plant pathology, entomology, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine , and nutrition. Although the genetic revolution has not yet had a major impact on medicine, it has had a profound impact on agricultures since the 177 9 DNA Patents and Agriculture 1980s, when scientists developed genetically modified (GM) crops and animals . The first GM organisms, such as Chakrabarty’s bacterium, were plants. In the 1980s, researchers developed GM crops and animals, such as tomatoes, corn, and rice, as well as mice, cows, and sheep (Rollin 1995). There are several benefits of GM crops. First, genetic modification can enhance crop yields. Genetic engineers can design plants to produce more fruit and edible matter. Crops can also be genetically fortified with important vitamins for better nutritional value, such as Monsanto’s beta carotene rice. More than half of the improvements in the yields of cereal crops since 1930 are due to the application of conventional breeding techniques (i.e., the selective breeding of hybrids). Conventional breeding techniques have also accounted for 85 percent of the improvements in the yield of soybeans (Shoemaker et al. 2001). However, selective breeding techniques are far less efficient than genetic engineering at increasing agricultural productivity: it may take dozens of years to develop a new hybrid via conventional means but only a year or so using gene transfer techniques. World demand for cereal crops, such as corn, wheat, and rice, will increase 40 percent by 2020 (Shoemaker et al. 2001). It is estimated that the world population will grow to 10 billion by the year 2030 (Biotechnology Industry Organization 2001a). Almost all of the population growth will occur in developing nations, since industrialized nations are estimated to grow at a rate of less than 1 percent per year. The total acreage of agricultural land is expected to grow at less than 0.3 percent per year (Shoemaker et al. 2001). Unless the world takes effective measures to control population growth and increase the food supply, famine, starvation, and malnutrition will continue to get worse in developing nations. Although increasing crop yields through genetic manipulation is not the only, or even the most important strategy, for dealing with the problem of world hunger, it can play an important role in increasing the food supply (Wambugu 1999). Second, genetic modification can reduce the need to use pesticides, fungicides , and herbicides to control insect and plant pests. Modern farmers use a variety of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides on crops in order to reduce crop losses due to insects, pathogens, and weeds. These chemicals, though effective, can contaminate the soil, water, and ecosystem and thereby threaten the environment and public health. Researchers have developed GM crops that minimize the use of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. Some GM crops that have been developed are highly resistant to highly effective herbicides , such as Round-up, which allows the farmer to kill weeds without killing his crop. Other GM crops have been developed to secrete or contain pesticides , allowing the farmer to use fewer pesticides in the field. For example, researchers have developed plants that contain a protein produced by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), which is toxic to insects but harmless to other animals and people (Biotechnology Industry Organization 2001a). 178 Owning the Genome Third, it may also be possible to develop GM crops that grow under harsh conditions where other crops...