轉基因食品
Attack of the really quite likeable tomatoes
招人喜愛的西紅柿遭攻擊
The success of genetically modified crops provides opportunities to win over their critics
轉基因作物的成功為說服其批評者提供了機遇。
Feb 25th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
IN THE 14 years since the first genetically modified crops were planted commercially, their descendants, relatives and remixes have gone forth and multiplied like profitable, high-tech pondweed. A new report (see article) shows that 25 countries now grow GM crops, with the total area under cultivation now larger than Peru. Three-quarters of the farmland used to grow soya is now sown with a genetically modified variant, and the figures for cotton are not that far behind, thanks to its success in India. China recently gave the safety go-ahead to its first GM rice variety and a new GM maize that should make better pig feed. More and more plants are having their genomes sequenced: a full sequence for maize was published late last year, the soya genome in January. Techniques for altering genomes are moving ahead almost as fast as the genomes themselves are stacking up, and new crops with more than one added trait are coming to market.
Such stories of success will strike fear into some hearts, and not only in GM-averse Europe; a GM backlash is under way in India, focused on insect-resistant aubergines. Some of these fears are understandable, but lacking supporting evidence they have never been compelling. On safety, the fear which cuts closest to home, the record continues to look good. Governments need to keep testing and monitoring, but that may be becoming easier. More precise modifications, and better technologies for monitoring stray DNA both within plants and in the environment around them, mean that it is getting easier to be sure that nothing untoward is going on.
自轉基因首次走向市場的14年中，它們的後代、類似品種以及雜交品種不斷出現並增多如可獲利的高科技水池草。壹份新出的報告顯示，目前已有25個國家種植轉基因作物，正在培植的作物的面積比秘魯的面積還要大。曾經種植大豆的四分之三的農田現在都用於種植轉基因品種，用於種植棉花的農田面積也並非遠遠落後，因為它在印度很受歡迎。最近中國確保種植其首個轉基因品種和新開發的轉基因玉米，這必將給豬帶來更好的飼料。越來越多作物的基因序列得到確定，玉米的整個序列在去年年末公布了，大豆的基因在1月份也公布了。技術改變基因的速度與基因自身重組的速度相當，具有多種其它特性的新品種正向市場進發。
這種成功的報道將使壹些人擔心，這種擔心不僅僅出現在反對轉基因作物的歐洲。轉基因作物在印度也遭到強烈的反對，主要集中反對抗蟲茄子。其中的壹些擔心可以理解，但是缺乏可靠證據，它們從來就沒有說服力。在安全方面，這種擔心與家庭的關系最密切，所作的記錄還是表明是好的。政府需要不斷試驗和監控，不過這或許正變得更加簡單。更加精確的改良和更加先進的監控作物及其環境中的遊離的DNA的技術意味著更加容易保證不出現異常現象。
Then there is the worry that GM crops are a way for big companies to take over the livelihoods of small farmers and, in the end, a chunk of nature itself. Seen in this light the fact that 90% of the farmers growing GM crops are comparatively poor and in developing countries is sinister, not salutary; given Monsanto’s dominance in America’s soyabean market, it seems to suggest incipient world domination. It is certainly true that big firms make a lot of money selling GM seeds: the GM seed market was worth $10.5 billion in 2009, and the crops that grew from that seed were worth over $130 billion. But multinationals are not the only game in town. The governments of China (which has increased agricultural research across the board), India and Brazil are also developing new GM crops. In 2009 a GM version of an Indian cotton variety, developed in the public sector, came to market, and a variety engineered by a private Indian firm has been approved for commercialisation. Charities, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are also funding efforts in various countries to make crops more hardy or nutritious. GM seeds that come from government research bodies, or from local firms, may not arouse quite so much opposition as those from large foreign companies, especially when they provide characteristics that make crops better, not just easier to farm.
還有壹種擔心，就是轉基因作物是大公司剝奪小農生計的壹種方法，最終也會破壞大自然本身。從這種角度看，轉基因作物的90%的農民都相對較貧窮，都來自發展中國家是有害的，而不是有益的。Monsanto支配著美國的大豆市場，這似乎暗示著初步支配了世界。大公司通過出售轉基因種子可以賺取很多錢，這顯然是事實：2009年，轉基因種子市場的銷售額為105億美元，而這些種子種出的作物價值為1300億美元。中國（在全國加強農業研究）、印度和巴西政府也在開發新的轉基因作物。2009年，公***部門開發的印度棉花品種的轉基因品種走向了市場，有印度壹家私營公司研制的品種已經批準用於商業。如比爾梅琳達蓋茨基金會等慈善機構也在為多國的努力提高資金，讓作物更加的強壯或更加具有營養價值。尤其當他們的品種具有的特性可以使作物更好，而不僅僅是更容易種植時，來自政府研究機構或當地公司的轉基因種子或許不會像來自大型外國公司壹樣遭到很多反對。
Moreover, where the seeds come from is a separate question from who should pay for them, as Mr Gates points out. As with drugs and vaccines, it is possible to get products that were developed with profit in mind to the people who need them using donor money and clever pricing and licensing deals. In the longer term, if the seeds deliver what the farmers require, the need for such special measures should diminish. After all, the whole idea is not that poor farmers should go on being poor. It is that poor farmers should get a bit richer, be able to invest a bit more, and thus increase the food available to a growing and predominantly urban population.
此外，正如蓋茨指出的那樣，種子的來源和誰購買它們是兩個問題。正如藥物和疫苗壹樣，通過使用捐款者的錢以合理的價格和經許可的協議可以獲得產品，這些產品本是以獲利為目的而為那些需要它們的人研制的。從長遠來說，如果這些種子正是農民們需要的，這種特殊的措施就都沒必要了。畢竟，整個理念並不是貧窮的農民必須要繼續貧窮，而是貧窮的農民必須要富壹點起來，能夠多投資點，這樣糧食才能滿足日益增長和以城市人口為主的人口的需要。
More than strange fruits
不僅僅是奇怪的水果
There is another worry about GM technology, though, that should be taken seriously. It is that its success and appeal to technophiles may, in the minds of those who pay for agricultural research, crowd out other approaches to improving farming. Because it depends on intellectual property that can be protected, GM is ripe for private investment. There is a lot of other agricultural research that is less amenable to corporate ownership but still needs doing. From soil management to weather forecasts to the preservation, study and use of agricultural biodiversity, there are many ways to improve the agricultural systems on which the world’s food supply depends, and make them more resilient as well as more profitable. A farm is not a just a clever crop: it is an ecosystem managed with intelligence. GM crops have a great role to play in that development, but they are only a part of the whole.
必須嚴肅對待另壹種對轉基因技術的擔憂。轉基因作物的成功以及新科技迷對此技術很感興趣，那些為農業研究提供資金的人可能不會再想其它方法改善種植情況。因為知識產權會受到保護，私人投資轉基因作物的機會已經成熟。其它很多農業研究都不那麽適合公司掌控，但仍然需要進行。從土壤管理、天氣預測到農業生物多樣性的保護、研究和利用很多領域，改善農業系統還有很多途徑，世界的糧食供應都要依靠農業系統，因此要使它們更加富有活力，產出更多利潤。壹塊農田不僅是壹種高產的莊稼：它是需要人為管理的生態系統。轉基因作物在這個方向上有很好的發展前景，但它們只是其中的壹部分。