TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/100190/1001310.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6.0 KB | 124 lines

                                                                                TECHNOLOGY, Page 92

A Bumper Crop of Biotech


Genetic engineering promises to transform agriculture

By J. MADELEINE NASH/CHICAGO


    Imagine a cow that produces skim milk, a canola seed rich
in sperm-whale oil or a naturally decaffeinated coffee bean.
Such curios may sound like science fiction, but they are real
possibilities in the brave new world being created by the
marriage of biotechnology and agriculture. In scores of
experiments, scientists are changing the genetic endowments of
plants and animals, and the results could spawn a revolution in
farm fields, feedlots and dairy barns.

    So far this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has
approved nearly 100 test plantings of crops that have been
genetically altered to give them traits such as pest resistance
and tolerance to weed killers. More ambitious projects are
envisioned, among them adding protein to staples like corn and
changing the type of oil produced by soybeans. Pigs that grow
faster and leaner and cows that manufacture medicine in their
milk are other goals. Observes Arnold Foudin, a biotechnology
specialist at the USDA: "Ideas that a short while ago might
have been dismissed as harebrained Buck Rogers are now being
taken quite seriously." It was only in 1983 that scientists
inserted the first foreign genes into tobacco and petunias, the
"white mice" of the plant world. In the years since, similar
work has been done on about 50 species of fruits, vegetables
and grains. Calgene, a biotech firm in Davis, Calif., has
developed a tomato that does not rot as fast as normal
varieties, and hopes to market the new product by 1993. Early
this year BioTechnica International of Cambridge, Mass.,
announced the first genetic alteration of corn, the No. 1 crop
in the U.S.

    In the past, desirable properties were introduced into
plants and animals through simple crossbreeding, but for the
most part scientists merely reshuffled genes within a
particular species. Corn could not be crossed with soybeans,
nor cows with pigs. Now plants as diverse as tomatoes and
cotton have been equipped with genes that scientists have
borrowed from bacteria. Shrimp may soon be given
disease-fighting genes taken from sea urchins. Eventually,
crops and farm animals may be raised to produce not just food
and clothing but also a wide array of chemical compounds and
human proteins like insulin. While research on plants has taken
the lead, work with farm animals does not lag far behind. Last
year the Baylor College of Medicine and Houston-based Granada
BioSciences succeeded in transplanting growth-promoter genes
into cattle embryos. Granada now boasts four healthy calves, at
least one of which appears to be slightly larger than others the
same age.

    Industry enthusiasts say bioengineered animals and plants
could become commercially available within the next five years.
First, however, they must pass muster with federal regulators.
That may be tricky, given the concerns raised by some
environmental and animal-rights groups. Protests have already
greeted the likely approval by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration of biotechnology's first major agricultural
product, a natural hormone called BST, which can be
mass-produced in genetically altered bacteria. BST injections
make cows produce more milk, but farmers worry about a possible
oversupply of dairy products that could drive down prices.
Moreover, some opponents question the safety of milk from cows
with extra BST.

    Even bioengineered plants are not immune to criticism,
particularly those that have been designed to tolerate
herbicides. Monsanto, for example, developed strains of
soybeans and cotton that grow well when sprayed with the
company's Roundup herbicide. Such research may be intended to
benefit society, but some environmentalists see it as a cynical
play for profits.

    Only the most naive booster would argue that the
bioengineering of farm animals and plants poses no risks. With
plants, for instance, there is always the possibility that new
traits could be accidentally transferred to wild relatives of
domestic species. Theoretically, experiments with genes that
confer resistance to disease or herbicides could create hardier
weeds. Food safety is another legitimate concern. Products from
genetically altered crops and livestock will require rigorous
testing to ensure that they are harmless.

    On balance, however, bioengineering is likely to be more a
benefit than a bane. In the case of cotton, which is heavily
sprayed with chemical insecticides, the addition of a bacterial
gene that poisons budworms and bollworms could help farmers and
the environment alike. Similarly, the discovery that plants can
be "vaccinated" against disease by equipping them with viral
genes ought to reduce reliance on chemical insecticides.
Currently, farmers battle such diseases by spraying the insects
that carry them. Genetic engineering could also be used to give
livestock more resistance to bacteria, reducing the need to
feed antibiotics to farm animals.

    It is to the hungry Third World that biotechnology offers
the greatest hope. Washington University plant pathologist
Roger Beachy is working on introducing genes for disease
resistance into cassava, a critical food source for much of
Africa. Scientists at the International Potato Center in Peru
and the International Rice Research Institute in the
Philippines are applying the tools of genetic engineering to
improve the major crops of South America and Asia. Before the
middle of the next century, experts warn, world population may
reach 10 billion, and agriculture had better keep up. By that
time, the planet's crop and livestock growers will probably
have new environmental challenges to meet, among them a
changing climate and increasingly salty soils. Asserts Beachy:
"Some argue that it is irresponsible to use biotechnology. To
me it seems irresponsible not to use it."