Difference between revisions of "Emile Frison"

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==Affiliations==
 
==Affiliations==
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*[[Bioversity International]] – Director General
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*[[Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research]]
  
 
==Contact==
 
==Contact==

Revision as of 12:28, 28 June 2009

Dr Emile Frison is Director General of Bioversity International,[1] an initiative established in 1974 by the research institute, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).[2]

Frison represented CGIAR at the opening of the pro-GM exhibition "Future Foods", held at the Science Museum, London in December 2008. The exhibition was supported by CGIAR.[3]

"Only GM can save the banana"

"Only GM [genetic modification] can save the banana" is the message of a headline-grabbing story that first surfaced in 2001, made a comeback in 2003, and has done the rounds in the media ever since. The story claims that because bananas are sterile, they can't be bred to avoid virulent banana diseases and so could be extinct within a decade.

According to the story, "The standard variety, the Cavendish, is already threatened with a disease called black Sigatoka, and a new strain of another fungal condition, Panama disease, could wipe the plant out within a decade." The banana business, we are told, is "doomed".[4] "No more fresh bananas. No more banana bread. No more banana muffins or banana cream pie."[5] Worse still, bananas are an important nutritional source for many in the developing world. "Half a billion people in Africa and Asia depend on the banana for up to half their daily calories," say the reports.[6] "Genetic engineering may be the only answer"[7]: "Scientists believe that the creation of a GM banana that can resist the diseases may be the only way of preserving the fruit's future."[8]

Each time the "Only GM can save the banana" headline-grabbing story re-emerges, it gets expertly debunked... until the next time comes around. And almost every time, the same scientist is quoted, Dr Emile Frison. Here are some of the headlines Dr Frison has helped to generate:

  • "Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history"[9]
  • "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM"[10]
  • "'Decrepit' banana faces extinction in 10 years"
  • "Yes, we'll have no bananas"
  • "Bananas could split for good"
  • "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years'"[11]
  • "GM banana needed to fend off pests"
  • "Bananas 'killed off' by 2013"[12]
  • "Bananas could split for good"[13]
  • "Banana on a slippery slope to extinction"[14]
  • "Bye Bye Banana"
  • "Bananas; an endangered fruit"
  • "Banana R.I.P."

But the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has directly contradicted Dr Frison's claims that bananas are on the verge of extinction, saying that while there are problems of vulnerability to disease, this is aggravated by the widescale commercial use of the Cavendish banana, and this can be countered by promoting greater genetic diversity. The FAO also points out that small-scale farmers around the world grow a wide range of banana species which are mostly less threatened than the Cavendish. There are, in fact, hundreds of different species of banana, and only 10 percent of the bananas produced and consumed globally are from the Cavendish.[15]

Other scientists have also dismissed the claim that the banana is close to extinction. The Thai scientist, Benchamas Silayoi from Kasetsart University's Faculty of Agriculture, has said it is just not possible for bananas to vanish so quickly. She points out that there is a world collection of banana germplasm in the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, containing over 1,100 accessions, precisely for the purpose of conserving the plant. In addition, there is also an Asian banana collection in the Philippines, and Thailand also has its own collection at Kasetsart University's banana tissue culture lab. According to Benchamas, pests and diseases could not possibly make the banana extinct in the kind of time period claimed. "Only big bombs can do that," she says.[16]

Plant pathologist Dr David Jones, a banana specialist, has also contradicted the claim that genetic engineering may be the only option for improving "sterile" banana cultivars. He points out that although "sterile" bananas "don't breed well, if at all, they can be induced to produce seed if pollinated by hand. Honduras's agricultural research foundation has had the most successful conventional banana breeding programme to date. The Honduran Foundation of Agricultural Research has bred disease-resistant bananas that are now grown extensively in Cuba [where severe problems with disease occurred previously]. One called Goldfinger is also grown in Australia, and others are on trial in Africa and elsewhere. Conventional breeding can deliver the goods, especially when it comes to bananas favoured by developing countries. It is true that it may be impossible to alter traits in the familiar 'Cavendish' banana with conventional breeding because of sterility problems. But it may be possible to breed a commercially acceptable disease-resistant export banana using a fertile dwarf variety of 'Gros Michel', an earlier export dessert banana."[17]

Affiliations

Contact

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Resources

Notes

  1. "Interview with Emile Frison in London", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  2. "Who we are", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  3. "Interview with Emile Frison in London", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  4. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  5. Robert Alison, "Yes, we'll have no bananas", Globe & Mail (Canada), 19 July 2003
  6. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  7. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  8. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  9. David Ewing Duncan, "Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history", San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 2004, p. D1
  10. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  11. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  12. Tanith Carey, "Bananas 'killed off' by 2013", The Mirror, 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  13. "Bananas could split for good", BBC News Online, 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  14. Charles Arthur, "Banana on a slippery slope to extinction", Independent Online (Zambia), 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  15. Bananas not on verge of extinction, says FAO, FAO website, accessed 28 June 2009
  16. "Bananas 'can't disappear by 2013'", The Nation, January 30, 2003
  17. David Jones, "Bananas about GM", New Scientist, August 4, 2001, Letters