A Bumper Crop of Biotech

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."

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CREDIT: TIME Chart by Steve Hart.

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