Biotech promise - nutritious, bug-free plants
RTw 08.12.98 22:34
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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - From more nutritious plants that
naturally fend off disease and insects, to vegetable oil that
doubles as a vitamin pill, biotechnology can improve farming
beyond recognition, researchers said on Tuesday.
There was no hint of a protest against genetically engineered
soybeans at the conference, sponsored by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Association
of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Instead, researchers told about projects underway to make crops
that will resist a range of bugs, viruses and fungal infections,
heart-healthy cooking oils and grains with boosted nutrients.
Their audience -- the officers who will be approving these new
products.
Roger Beachy of the Scripps Research Institute in California said
a potato will be on the market next year that has been
genetically engineered to include genes from the Bacillus
thurigensis (Bt) bacteria, which is commonly used as a pesticide.
Instead of needing to spray with 10 to 12 different pesticides,
farmers will need to use one or perhaps two to protect this crop,
he said.
Beachy said corn makes up 44 percent of all transgenic crops --
which have extra genes added from other species, usually microbes
-- now being tested in trials. Tomatoes make up 12 percent and
soybeans 11 percent.
Most are being made resistant to herbicides, like Monsanto's
Round-up Ready soybean, which resists the weedkiller of the same
name. The idea is to allow farmers to use fewer herbicides.
But some groups object. News that the Round-up Ready soybeans
were being shipped unmarked to Europe sparked street protests in
some countries.
Environmental groups like Greenpeace say the long-term health
effects of such genetic tinkering is unknown. They want all
products containing gene-modified crops to be labeled.
The reaction in the United States has been more accepting,
although the nonprofit International Centre for Technology
Assessment filed suit in May to try to force the FDA to retest
gene-altered foods and to require clearer labels.
Nonetheless, many companies are testing genetically-altered
plants, including potatoes that will resist potato late blight,
which caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and which is
currently threatening global resurgence.
Other foods may enter the realm of "nutraceuticals" --
foods that act almost as drugs.
Sekhar Boddupalli of Monsanto described efforts to develop a
canola (rapeseed) oil that contains high amounts of
beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A, to combat a
documented world epidemic in vitamin A deficiency.
Vitamin A deficits can lead to blindness and a damaged immune
system. The World Health Organisation estimates that 100,000
children die every year because of vitamin A deficiency and
300,000 to 500,000 go blind.
The oil contains 16 times as much beta-carotene by weight as
carrots do. "One could take a teaspoon of this oil and get
the necessary recommended daily allowance (RDA)," Boddupalli
said. He noted that rape, a relative of mustard, grows easily in
developing nations such as China and India.
Other companies are aiming to make their crops have healthier
profiles.
John Pierce of DuPont Agricultural Products said his company is
developing soybeans that have a higher content of one essential
fatty acid known as oleic acid. The soybeans produce an oil that
is more stable for cooking, working almost as well as shortening
without the unhealthy trans-fatty acids that can cause heart
disease.
The oil resembles olive oil, which is stable and rich in healthy
monounsaturated fat, he said.
Pierce also described corn that has a bigger germ, which results
in twice the normal amount of oil. This corn -- field corn fed to
livestock -- is more nutritious. "You get more protein to
boot," he added.