How does science try to improve agricultural species of interest? Where do GMOs come from? What do they promise?

1. Press Release
January 2012
Plant Biology:
from the Green Revolution to GMOs
What does a plant need to grow? What is the Green Revolution and what has been
its impact on our society? How does science try to improve agricultural species of
interest? Where do GMOs come from? What do they promise?
After a monograph detailing how dietary rules developed over the centuries, the
Louis-Bonduelle Foundation is now addressing state-of-the-art practices related to
the improvement of plant varieties. If the vegetables we consider stars of our
meals are quite different from those of our grandparents, it is because scientific
knowledge about plants have helped enhance their taste, texture, nutritional
value, etc.
This article is a summary of the monograph “Biology, Varietal Improvement and GMOs.”
Complete monograph available upon request.
Obligatory mention: Louis-Bonduelle Foundation
Press contact
Magali Delmas
Vivactis Public Relatio ns ― Tel.: 01 46 67 63 44 ― email: m.delm as@vivactis-publicrelations.fr

2. Agriculture Essentials
To provide a good harv est, plants need natural or synthetic fertilisers. They also
need to be protected against diseases, including parasitic fungi, such as the
notorious mildews, and against pests, the most destructiv e being phytophagous
insects. To meet these needs, farmers can choose from a v ariety of powerful and
effectiv e pesticides.
Howev er, the laws resulting from the Grenelle Env ironment Forum, including the
obligation to halve the use of pesticides by 2018, currently require us to identify
innovative alternative methods to combine productivity with the protection of the
environment. This requires changes in the way we practice agriculture and an
environmental awareness which follow the excesses of recent decades.
The Green Revolution
Between 1960 and 1990, agriculture around the world underwent such dramatic
transformations that this period was called the “Green Rev olution.” W hat
happened? By inv esting heavily in agricultural research, gov ernments were able to
develop new v arieties with v ery high yield as well as dev elop effectiv e pesticides.
The result: the yield of wheat, for exam ple, jum ped from 750 kilos per hectare in
the1950s to 2600 kilos in 2000. However, this feat was achieved at the expense of
huge am ounts of water, fertili sers and pesticides, pollution and deforestation.
Varietal Research: Why? How?
Humans hav e always crossed plants for obtaining better v arieties. Seed producers
now hav e very reliable tools allowing them to make this selection. The
improv ement of plant v arieties may refer to different elements:
− quality. This may entail, for example, selecting v arieties with the most
nutritional benefits, such as antioxidant-rich oliv es or raisins with more
Pycnogenol. Plants are in fact the main suppliers of certain nutrients, fibre,
minerals, vitamins and antioxidants.
− resistance. This entails selecting the v arieties most resistant to destructiv e
elements.
− productivity. An increasing world population leads to growing needs for
food. W e believe that plant breeding has contributed to increased crop
productivity in the last century.
To produce new v arieties of plants, scientists perfectly master the respective sexual
reproduction and carry out extensiv e work: on average, it takes ten years of
crosses between v arieties, each presenting interesting features, to create a new
species. An example? Each year, a dozen new varieties of wheat arrive on the
market.
These newly created v arieties are at the heart of an ethical reflection on patenting
of life.

3. GMOs: Between Promises and Concerns
The production of genetically modified organisms, GMOs, which began in the
1980s, is the result of adv ances in genetic engineering that add one or more genes
to the gene pool of an organism.
One of the great promises of GMOs is the decreased use of chemical pesticides
by introducing, for example, genes resistant to insects. As for food, GMOs would
supposedly enable us to produce food combining two essential criteria: quantity
and nutritional quality.
At the same time, many uncertainties remain: will GMOs mix with wildlife? Do they
hav e a negative impact on beneficial insects? Will they cause a decrease in
biodiv ersity? Are foods made with GMOs more allergenic?
Despite promises and regulations, the use of GMOs continues to meet strong
opposition from the public.
Founded in October 2004, the mission of the Louis-Bonduelle
Foundation is to help change dietary behaviour permanently
by making v egetables and their benefits the focus of its
initiativ es.
The Foundation works on the long term, in an international context, with the desire
to go further than just talk, by giving ev eryone effective, convenient and often
innov ativ e ways of getting v egetables into their diet.
Its programme has three main lines:
- Informing and raising awareness
- Supporting and fostering research
- Acting in the field
“At the Louis-Bonduelle Foundation, we believ e that beyond the information that
needs to be communicated to each individual, guidance and support are
essential to change dietary behav iours,” Christophe Bonduelle, president of the
Louis-Bonduelle Foundation.
More information, news and recipes on:
www.fondation-louisbonduelle.org