Question: What kind of ethics and guidelines do agricultural scientists have to comply with in order to do practical research on genetic modification, food or animals?
Keywords: animalwelfare, biotech, ethics, gm, guidelines
By BRIDGE8 under license from Mangorolla CIC 2024
Dear davidmcafee,
Like most researchers, Agricultural scientists must follow the same ethical guidelines when conducting their research and when presenting the data they collect. In my case, plant research is a little bit more benign than say experimenting on animals. However, I work on plants which are used to feed people and we need to make sure what we do to a plant doesn’t impact negatively on the potential user of that plant. This is particularly relevant to on-going diversification of plant species or the use of GM products which isn’t widely accepted by many groups in our society. There are no formal ethical guidelines when working with plants that I know of. However when they are used to produce food then safety and quality assurances becomes important. The Australian govt has imposed laws to manage GM research and the potential release of GM products. These are basically guidelines that we follow when working in these situations. There are also other organisations that ensure the foods that are generated through research (such as GM) are safe before they are approved for sale.
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I know there are ethical guidelines for experiments with animals and GM but i’m not sure of the specifics. I have been involved with GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) trials where we would apply chemicals to plants and then harvest them, send them off to a lab to be tested for chemical residue. Residue trials are a very important part of the process to get agrochemicals registered for use in Australia. Since people will be eating the produce, it is important that no dangerous levels of chemical is found in the food when it is harvested and there are government standards that say how much residue is too much.
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I reckon that Rebecca will add something on animal welfare that will round out all the good answers below.
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Dera David
We work with GM technology which is very well regulated all over the world, whether you are talking plants or animals. In Australia Gene Technology Act 2000 was formed “to protect the health and safety of people, and the environment, by identifying risks posed by or as a result of gene technology, and by managing those risks through regulating certain dealings with genetically modified organisms (GMOs)”. And all our scientists working with GM adhere to that code.
There is the Australian code of practice for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes. The purpose of the Code is to ensure the ethical and humane care and use of animals used for scientific purposes as defined in the Code. The principles set out in the Code are for the guidance of investigators, teachers, institutions, Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) and all people involved in the care and use of animals for scientific purposes.
Apart from this there are Workplace health and safety Guidelines and Good laboratory Practice Guidelines that everyone follows.
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Hey David (and Kim)
Yes, I do have something to say on animal welfare 🙂
In science the use of animals is regulated by an animal ethics committee. This committee is an independent body that decides if proposed research on animals is ethically appropriate – will there be good scientific gain, are you using enough or too many animals, will the methods planned cause undue stress/pain to animals. These committees monitor all animal use, even for some of the research I do that simply observes animal behaviour from a distance.
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