这是国家评估委员会主席的观点。
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5982/1105-fLETTERS
Verdict Still Out on Biotech Crops
The title of the News of the Week story "Biotech crops good for farmers and environment, Academy finds" (E. Stokstad, 16 April, p. 295) gives the impression that the verdict is in after an unprecedented comprehensive assessment by a National Research Council committee studying the sustainability impacts of genetically engineered (GE) crops on U.S. farms. As the chair of that committee and a scientist who has studied these issues since 1996, I can assure you that it is not.
The committee did indeed find that many farmers planting current GE soybean, cotton, and corn varieties have received substantial economic and environmental benefits from using the first generation of these GE crops. However, as the News story mentions but does not sufficiently emphasize, the report also stresses that these benefits are not universal across farms, some may decline over time, and potential benefits and risks may become more numerous as the technology is applied to more crops. There are substantial gaps in our knowledge about the longer-term environmental, economic, and social effects of current and future GE crops. For example, it is critical that we undertake intensive research to understand the evolution of weed and insect resistance at a landscape scale and the salient social issues surrounding the technologies.
The central take-away message should not be that current GE crops are ushering in a sustainable agriculture in the United States. Rather, the report's recommendations make clear that new information on the full spectrum of sustainability impacts of GE crops should be pursued vigorously to assure progress toward that worthy social goal and avoid unanticipated risks.
David Ervin
E-mail: dervin@pdx.edu
Departments of Economics and Environmental Management, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, USA.