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Modifying creation?

GM crops and foods: A Christian perspective

Reaping what we sow

MODIFYING CREATION?
GM Crops and Foods: A Christian perspective
Ed. Donald Bruce and Don Horrocks
Evangelical Alliance Policy Commission. 182 pages. £7.99
ISBN 1 84227 100 8

The Evangelical Alliance's Policy Commission has set out to research the controversial issue of genetically-modified (GM) food and crops, develop a Christian response and suggest appropriate policy statements and affirmations. Ten chapters explore key issues systematically and in an informative way. The working party reports differences of opinion, and these are sometimes apparent in the text.

Chapter 2, dealing with the science of plant breeding and genetic modification, will help readers who are not acquainted with the technology of GM crop development. However, it gives almost no insight into scientific concerns. Two pages only are devoted to objections, and there is no attempt to be specific. The only scientist mentioned is criticised thus: 'There is no acknowledgement at all of the very well-founded paradigm that individual genes have individual biochemical functions that can be studied individually.' Of course there is no acknowledgement - this paradigm is being challenged! This issue is at the heart of the scientific debate and it really ought to be explored in some depth. There is little in this chapter that shows the scientific objections to GM technologies are taken seriously by the writers, and this does not help achieve the book's stated objective.

Subsequent chapters address questions like 'Is it wrong to do genetic modification?', 'What sort of farming should we adopt?', 'Is GM just a powerful tool in the hands of the powerful?' and 'Is GM needed in the developing world?' The authors recognise that the issues are much broader than whether GM technologies are sound. In general, these chapters are helpful, well-researched and they do help to articulate a Christian perspective.

However, the chapter on environmental and health risks left me with more questions than answers. The authors argue that we cannot escape risk and that there are risks involved in being creative with any technology. While this is true, the reality of 'risk' does not provide us with a warrant to indulge in risk. The authors use the phrase 'a context of wisdom and prudent risk management', but do not elaborate. Have we achieved this 'context' in the GM story up till now? Here we have the tension again. Some parts of the book make it appear that we have. Other parts of the book point to imprudence: the hasty commercialisation of the technologies and examples of exploitative behaviour. Those opposed to GM crops and foods will suggest that a context of wisdom and prudent risk management necessarily means ceasing to commercialise GM products.

There is much radical thinking in this book wanting to come out, but the writers appear to be inhibited by a love affair with establishment science. This has the practical effect of treating lightly the voices of dissidents and playing down the influence funding providers are exerting within scientific and political circles. If Christians are to minister effectively to this situation, these are nettles that must be firmly grasped.

David J. Tyler