Biotech Beer
AP Financial
Dienstag, 28. Dezember 1999 07:04:00
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.@bThe information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.
By BLAKE NICHOLSON
Associated Press Writer
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Charles Ottem would love to see the barley
in his fields be immune to disease, but brewing companies worry
that beer drinkers might be turned off if genetic engineering made
that possible.
"It's something we can't shove down people's throats. We all
have to get better at communicating and compromising," said Rick
Ward, a wheat breeder at Michigan State University. "The consumer
is king, and they will rule no matter what."
In North Dakota, which leads the nation in barley production,
this year's crop was the smallest in more than a decade. A fungal
disease called scab has cost farmers in the Northern Plains an
estimated $2.6 billion in lost crops from 1991 through 1997 alone.
"Scab, for all practical purposes, has devastated the barley
industry in this state," said Ottem, a North Dakota farmer and
chairman of the state's Barley Council. "That's the only way we're
going to find the solution to all of our disease problems --
manipulating genes."
Barley is used to make beer, but scab-infested barley can affect
the taste and cause the beer to gush out of the bottle.
Genetic engineering involves manipulating the genes of a plant.
With the growing controversy over biotech food, some overseas
brewers already are refusing to buy grain genetically designed to
kill pests or withstand herbicides or disease.
In the United States, the brewing industry is still pinning its
hopes on a more conventional solution to scab.
"The majority of (research) funds being expended are for
traditional breeding programs," said Mike Davis, president of the
American Malting Barley Association, a trade group for major
malting and brewing companies. "Our general thoughts are that
(biotech) research should be pursued as a possible avenue to solve
the scab problem."
At the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research
Service facility in Madison, Wis., molecular biologist Ronald
Skadsen is trying to create a barley that has antifungal genes in
the right place to ward off the scab fungus.
At the ARS facility in Fargo, N.D., geneticist Lynn Dahleen is
trying to insert genes into barley that will reduce the toxins
caused by scab.
Both say a biotech solution to scab could be as much as a decade
away.
"This particular disease has been a bigger challenge than
most," Dahleen said. "We don't have a single gene we can breed in
that will give resistance."
Ward, the wheat breeder, said it's too early to tell whether the
efforts of Dahleen, Skadsen and others will produce a barley immune
to scab.
"We would be remiss to ignore the opportunity to interrogate
these complex systems with these very eloquent approaches," he
said.
Brewers have come to rely more on barley from Canada and the
western United States, Davis said. But even if a biotech solution
to scab could be found, brewers probably would not rush to embrace
it, he said.
"If one was commercially developed, at that time it would have
to be thoroughly tested, and a decision made as to whether it could
be used," he said. "For any companies selling a food product,
they always weigh market considerations."