31 October 2006

BRITS CALL FOR GREEN TAX, IFCNR SAYS "TOLD YOU SO!"

The clamor about "global warming," whether it exists as a man-made phenomenon, as a climatic consequence of the fluctuating El Nino or La Nina or as a result of the Milankovitch cyclic pattern of the Earth's rotation about the sun or a combination of each and more, is proving true a long-held conviction of IFCNR, namely that in time environmental groups will pressure governments, starting in Europe, to impose so-called "green" taxes on industry and consumers alike in the name of saving the Earth.

A 700-page tome commissioned by the United Kingdom's chief economist, Nicholas Stern, claims the presence of greenhouse gases will render 200 million of the Earth's inhabitants refugees from drought or flooding by 2100. The Report calls for retaining artificially high petroleum prices via increased taxes, tacking on a $9 dollar tax for airline passengers and upping the government's cut on household appliances among other measures. The key phrase is "green taxes".

Compounding the political lunacy, British Chancellor Gordon Brown, the politician seen as Prime Minister Tony Blair's successor, is promising to name Al "I created the Internet" Gore as his environmental advisor.

There is a need for government, press, and public initiatives to conserve and preserve the Earth's resources and environment. No doubt about that. But the imposition of "green taxes" will fatten politician purses, double or triple the flow of government funds to Environmental NGO's opting to act as anti-polluter watchdogs, and do absolutely nothing to curb environmental degradation. The trust fund crowd populating the environmental movement will still either ignore the rules they lobby to impose or continue doing whatever they are doing in their personal lives so nothing changes there. Rich nations will either shift the technology driving their life-styles towards more expensive modes of travel increasing the chasm between haves and wannabes.

Where the curtailment of commerce in the name of conservation will have a resounding negative affect is on people in developing nations. Efforts to rise above poverty will be destroyed and the key to ending environmental pollution will kept away from those who truly need it more than ever.

GREENS SPANK ROMANIA OVER GM CROPS, IGNORE THE PEOPLE'S NEED TO EAT

Greenpeace is on Romania's case over that nation's farmers and consumers embracing the increased productivity inherent in genetically modified crops. The green group's ire is raised over Romanian farmers planting almost 130,000 hectares (321,236 acres) of GM soybeans in blatant disregard of the EU's rules and regulations concerning GM seed traceability. The Romanians don't care about political paper work; they want food.

For its obsession with feeding its citizens, Romania is considered by Greenpeace as something of a rogue within the European Union agricultural community.

The anti-GMO NGO claims Romanian farmers are violating EU traceability rules as well as endangering the nation's ability to trade agricultural products including organic foodstuffs with other EU nations. The green hue and cry over Romanian farming practices ignores a few very important points: Romania is one of the most economically impoverished of European nations and its per capita Gross Domestic Product is just over $8000. A full 25 percent of its people live below the poverty line.

For Romanian consumers, Greenpeace's self-styled role as their spokesmen holds no water. Romanian consumers see GM foods as the difference between eating and going hungry.

Romania's economy continues to struggle. Its farmer look to GM crops the same way India's farmers view them, as a means of rising beyond bare subsistence to equal footing with other nations as a economic power. India's traditional farming techniques resulted in massive food shortages in 1965 and 1966. Then the nation was barely producing 10 million metric tons of wheat per year. Today, India is a wheat exporting nation with an annual harvest of some 73 million metric tons thanks to their embrace of technology.

As noted often, Greenpeace and other anti-GM NGOs are more attuned to waging ideological campaigns, fundraising and recruiting new members to their environmental cult than expressing real concern for Earth's hungry and impoverished inhabitants.

After hundreds of years living under the economic oppression of aloof princes, rulers whose allegiances were to the Ottoman Empire, the Nazi Empire, the dictatorial Soviet Union, then homegrown dictators, Romania's citizens do not need to be further chained by a new wave of "green" tyrants over meaningless issues such as labeling where seeds were purchased and by whom.

OOPS! COULD ACADEMIC SKEPTICS BE PROVING GM CROPS ARE "ORGANIC?"

Rutgers University is a traditional hotspot of animal rights activism, the AR movement being the not too distant cousin of the environmental NGO community. That's a fact that compounds the irony that the continual clamor raised by anti-GMO activists that genetic modification is "unnatural" may just be proved a myth in itself by Rutgers' scientific investigators.

Rutgers' archeological investigators began delving into the historical process of crop and animal genetic evolution and appear to have unearthed proof that DNA modification to produce desirable characteristics in plants and animals is quite natural after all. Project leader and director of Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Joachim Messsing, dubbed the process "plant genomic evolution," according to a report on the University Wire.

Messing's research found that nature predates modern geneticists in inserting genes "much like modern biotechnologists do." That bit of scientific knowledge turns the mindless claim by anti-GMO groups like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace that biotech investigators are involved in "unnatural acts" and that they are creating "Frankenfoods" into scientific evidence that genetically enhanced crops may well be the modern day "organic" crop designed to feed the world quite naturally.

The Rutgers research into the genome of a specific variety of rice shows spontaneous shifts where chromosome segments shuffle about with some being lost, some replicated, and/or some moved to other chromosomes in ways quite similar to what's taking place today in laboratories found within the walls of corporate research firms like Monsanto to national research facilities in Asia, Australia, and Africa.

18 September 2006

The Israeli plant propagation and biotech firm, Rahan Meristem, completed a field test that should help the world's banana and plantain growers rest a bit easier. That test validated the firm's research into genetically engineering the Cavendish banana to exhibit immunity to the ravages of root nematodes, microscopic worms quite capable of rendering a productive banana field lifeless.

What's the importance of that field trial? First most effective pesticides aimed at the root destroying nematodes are condemned for their negative effect on the environment. And second, unless crop scientists figure counters to the key threats to the Cavendish strain of bananas, history may well repeat and the world's banana growers, distributors, retailers and consumers will have to find a replacement banana to stock grocers' shelves. Stopping the nematode threat and eliminating the need for pesticides means a potential cost savings to farmers of hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

The Cavendish banana group is a relative newcomer. Combined with plantains and a handful of less popular banana varieties constitute one of the worlds' major food crops with a harvest of some 60 million tons per year, the majority of which are the of the Cavendish group. That tasty berry (bananas are popularly perceived as a tree-grown fruit but in actuality are berries from an herb bush) achieved global market dominance in the 1960s when it assumed its replacement role for the then banana king, the Gros Michel (a sweeter, more shipping durable variety). For nearly a century, the Gros Michel was the strain dominating the global banana trade. By the late 1950s, the Gros Michel banana became commercially extinct thanks to the notorious Panama disease, a vascular wilt that destroys the plant's ability to absorb water caused by the soil fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense.

Today, the Cavendish cultivar sits upon the throne as the world's foremost commercial banana. Like the Gros Michel, the Cavendish is sterile and propagated from corms (the rhizome or root) of a plant leaving the world's banana plants and the global banana industry vulnerable to a wide range of disease and pest threats because of a lack of genetic diversity.

Once again, biotech research steps into the fray with distinctly hopeful consequences for the survival of the Cavendish banana, plantains, satisfied consumers and the earth. May an environmentally sustainable block to the Fusarium fungus be next in the biotech investigators' sights.

ENVIRONMENTALIST NAYSAYERS TRUMPED BY WHO CALL FOR DDT AGAINST MALARIA

With the announcement that the indoor use of the pesticide DDT is a must if malaria is to be brought under control in developing nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) began to course correct three decades of neglect caused by alarmist pronouncements of danger to wildlife based largely on misinformation popularized by the "saint" of the environmental movement Rachel Carson.

Worldwide 41 percent of humans live in malaria infested areas including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South and Central Americas, Oceania, and the island of Hispaniola (home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Estimates place Malaria-related deaths between 700,000 and 2.7 million annually with 75 percent African children (U.S. Centers for Disease Control - CDC - statistics).

The 30 year ban on DDT imposed globally by western developed nations is all the more hypocritical because the United States and other industrial nations used DDT to eradicate the disease from their lands. Public policy shaped by the politics of the environmental movement (led by Environmental Defense and others) denied that same life-saving measure to impoverished nations sapping the life of their young and the vitality of their countries as a whole. In 2002 only 1337 cases and eight deaths due to malaria were recorded by US medical personnel.

WHO officials made their determination with the confidence that scientific data shows DDT not only helps to "quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria" but also is safe for wildlife and humans when administered properly. Extensive tests show DDT is the most effective insecticide in the war against malaria reducing transmission in treated areas by as much as 90 percent. President George W. Bush pledged $2.1 billion tied to the President's Malaria Initiative to help fund the effort.

AFRICA'S HORN NATIONS JOIN AGAINST POLIO

Yet another example of science and unity of purpose combining to combat disease is taking place among the nations of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya located on Africa's "horn." A concerted effort to vaccinate 1.7 million children under age five began the second week of September according to the Horne of Africa Technical Advisory Group.

This multi-national effort is spearheaded by the The Global Polio Eradication Initiative made up of national governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF.

Prior to the reintroduction of polio from Yemen and other points of origin in the Middle East, Somalia was polio free for three years and Kenya for 22 years. Inoculation teams using every available mode of transportation from camels to donkeys are going house to house and village to village under some very trying conditions that include social unrest and danger from natural disasters and bellicose humans.

TREE GENOME PROMISES MULTIPLE BENEFITS

The black cottonwood poplar (Populus trichocarpa) commercially used for paper and wood pulp is only the third plant and the first tree worldwide to have its genome published. The importance of that genetic exercise is its promise to aid the environment in a menu of ways that should elicit hoorah's from even the anti-biotech environmental NGOs.

The genetic blueprint for the poplar is seen as enabling scientists to develop individual strains of the tree for producing less costly ethanol (by increasing the cellulose to lignum ration reducing cost of ethanol conversion and decreasing the need for oil exploration and drilling); for absorbing greater quantities of carbon dioxide to reduce the "greenhouse gas" effect associated with "global warming," for developing strains that grow larger and quicker on less land and requiring less water and nutrients; for restoring river banks, flood plains, and holding back expanding deserts; and for reducing the vulnerability of the trees to disease. That's just for starters.

16 June 2006

U.S. WHEAT PRODUCTION AT BIOTECH CROSSROADS

The NGO strategy to sabotage commercial plantings of genetically enhanced wheat was a study in political ingenuity. The formula of shutting down international and national markets before the seed was even approved for planting turned U.S. farmers in different directions. The planting trend wasn't toward conventional or even organic wheat. Wheat acreage declined as farmers chose to increase GMO corn, soy, cotton and canola instead. Now the country is on the verge of a wheat crisis or sorts.

Wheat dropped from covering 20 percent of U.S. farm fields two decades ago to approximately 11 percent today. According to USDA figures, North Dakota wheat acreage dropped 29 percent over the past decade. The "Wheat State," Kansas now plants nearly 20 percent more corn than its name crop. Why? Because, despite the bogus claims of critics, biotech works. Yields increase. Crops are more resilient and hardy. And overhead costs drop.

The current downward spiral of U.S. wheat prompted a coalition of wheat industry groups to address the problem, albeit a bit late in the game. The National Association of Wheat Growers, the North American Millers' Association, U.S. Wheat Associates and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee authored a paper, "Addressing the Competitive Crisis in Wheat," on the subject. In typical industry fashion, once the damage has been done by the NGO advocacy media manipulation machine, the group is now calling for a "Wheat Summit" in the Fall to discuss actions to course correct their segment of American agriculture.

Unless they understand the dynamics of NGO Advocacy, their ability to course correct will encounter opposition far more stubborn but no less determined than those undermining democracy and peace elsewhere on the planet.

CHINA PUTS ITS MONEY ON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND LOOKS TO THE BASICS

Nowhere in the national news outlets, either in print or on television, has word appeared about China's latest biotech breakthrough, genetic development of salt tolerant grass. To the American and European news directors such an endeavor barely conjures visions of lawns stubbornly fighting overturned salt shakers during backyard barbecues causing news of that scientific development to be relegated to the "circular file." That same information to those truly concerned with the plight of humankind, poverty eradication and the condition of the planet understand the import of that seemingly innocuous fete.

The development by scientists at the Beijing Research Center of Agro-Biotechnology of salt tolerant tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) via the insertion of a gene from the Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of the mustard plant, allows the newly developed strain to thrive in soil deemed un-farmable due to high-salt conditions. Tall fescue is an important grass for forage throughout the world. In regions of high poverty in Africa, Asia and the Americas where poor growing conditions due to soil salinity is all too common the GMO grass can provide sustainable forage production.

ISRAELI PEPPERS CAN BRAVE CHILLY WINTER WEATHER

Chilies too tough for winter's chill are fetching millions of dollars in global trade thanks to Israeli biotech investigators. The hybrid peppers, developed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, set a new mark for cold weather tolerance, increased yields, and minimum energy expenditure during their night-time growth cycle.

Peppers previously needed temperatures in excess of 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit)and complex, heated grow-out facilities to survive. The new varieties can be grown in simply constructed greenhouses at night at temperatures as low as 10 degrees Celcius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). Pepper exports bring $80 million to the Israeli economy yearly. The new hybrid seeds contributed $9.5 million last year alone.

Another environmentally important Israeli farming technique is currently producing plump cherry tomatoes (featured in Red Lobster's salads and specialty produce outlets. The tomatoes and other produce are grown on barren volcanic ash fields in central Mexico's Guadalajara-Colima valley.

Tomatoes were first introduced by the Aztecs. Today, tomatoes grown via the Israeli technique are marketed to the world under the Desert Glory brand. The computerized water trickle method produces cherry tomato plants nearly twenty feet tall where a minimal but optimum water and fertilizer mix drips into plants rooted in narrow bundles of ground coconut husks. Villagers who once sought to flee the impoverished conditions of the region now enjoy a strong economy and stable community life thanks to the environmentally friendly farming technique.

19 May 2006

TOO MANY TALES OF BARRIERS TO PROGRESS DUE TO GMO-HATE

GOLDEN RICE AND NEEDLESS DEATH AND BLINDNESS

Writing in his intellectually elegant e-newsletter, AgBioView, Dr. C.S. Prakash details the tragedy of needlessly keeping vitamin-A enriched "Golden Rice" away from the nation's most needy inhabitants. Not a single plant of Golden Rice has been planted in Asia despite the fact that it was developed nearly a decade ago by Professor Ingo Potrykus specifically to counter the numbers of children doomed to blindness or death due to vitamin A deficient diets.

The original strains of the genetically modified rice contained a modest 1.6 micrograms of vitamin A per gram of rice, a fact that caused anti-GMO critics to dismiss its effectiveness. They missed the point that Dr. Potrykus' work enabled crop biologists to deliver the needed supplement in a key dietary staple. On-going research ramped up the vitamin content of Golden Rice to 100 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), 31 micrograms/g.

Feigned concerns over food safety were dismissed by Dr. Potrykus because the genes introduced into the grain come from existing rice and maize strains consumed by humans for thousands of years.

According to Dr. Prakash, German researchers estimate the delay in getting the vitamin enhanced rice to consumers cost between 5,500 and 39,700 lives. Hundreds of thousands of youngster worldwide are losing their sight because no practical and low cost vehicle to deliver the needed vitamin comparable to Golden Rice is currently available.

GMO RICE STORY #2 - CHILDREN ARE DYING DAILY FROM DIARRHEA WHILE CRITICS ARGUE AGAINST ANOTHER PROVEN PHARMED REMEDIES

Who cares about the nearly two million children under age five dying yearly of diarrhea? Ventria Bioscience says it does and dedicated its corporate existence to counter the deadly condition. Ventria scientists spliced two genes found in mother's milk, saliva and tears into rice. That action allows the rice to produce two proteins to help hydrate the youthful consumer and mitigate the potentially lethal effects of diarrhea. The gene-laden rice is ground and the proteins extracted in powder form. Tests in Peru demonstrate the product can cut recuperative time from diarrhea in infants from about 5.21 to 3.67 days.

Unfortunately, environmentalists, US rice farmers and retailers such as major brewers want no trace of the bio-pharmed rice in fields to contaminate their rice supplies. Tiny Ventria was unceremoniously run out of California and told not to set up shot in any rice-producing state such as Missouri. US rice growers and others whose products depend upon rice point fear foreign markets will close to US rice exports if even the hint of possible contamination is made. Exports account for some $900 million of the US rice annual production placed at $1.8 billion. Ventria relocated its operation to North Carolina where not a single grain of rice is grown commercially. Eventually Ventria hopes to expand its present 70 acres planted in the GMO rice to over 300. The company is firm in its belief that the proteins it produces, when added to infant formula, will result in increased baby health similar to that equated with breast-fed youngsters whose supply of the hydrating proteins comes naturally.

BIOPHARMING OFFERS SAFE VEHICLE FOR PLAGUE VACCINE

Tobacco, once the friend of liability lawyers and bane of health officials, is proving its renewed worth as a bio-pharm vehicle in the production of plague vaccine. The rodent produced bacterium, Yersina pestis, that is the origin of deadly plague remains endemic in Africa, Asia, the Americas and sections of the former Soviet Union. Inhaled Y. pestis is particularly lethal. The pesky and lethal bacterium tends to resist most antibiotics prompting scientists to turn to vaccines. Enter tobacco plants that can produce large amounts of the vaccine and are particularly convenient because they insulate the vaccine growing inside from microbes that could be pathogenic to animals. To date work to perfect the system has found that two important proteins from Y. pestic: the F1 antigen and the V antigen can be grown in the plants. The two protein mix has already proved effective in combating plague in guinea pigs whose survival rate far exceeds that of non-vaccinated lab animals. The latter have a 100 percent lethality rate from the plague bacterium.

UN DEBATE CONFIRMS ONE OF IFCNR'S MAIN THEMES

A host of nations attending the UN meetings on global warming delivered speeches that confirmed one of the main tenets of the International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources, namely, that poverty is indeed the worst form of pollution. Environmental groups openly registered their displeasure that representatives of many of the world's poorer nations said the planet's main priority should be on the elimination of poverty not theoretical global climate change. The meetings in Bonn, Germany drew the ire of green groups like Greenpeace because of the failure of attendees to concentrate on the global warming theme versus the plight of the earth's people.

WILL HARRY BELEFONTE'S OLD TUNE "YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS" PROVE TRUE?

Life rarely gets better than starting the day with a bowl heaped with a mound of Cheerios covered with a banana sliced over top or a huge slice of moist banana cake with half inch thick cream cheese icing. Contemplating mornings or dessert without bananas can be unnerving. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, that day may well appear much sooner than anyone cares to think.

Bananas are the world's fourth most important food crop and ranks tops in fruit popularity. Genetically bananas, wild and domestic, enjoy a precarious longevity at best. The bulk of the world's banana crop comes from a single genetic strain, the Cavendish, whose roots reside in India.

Research, as recent as three years ago, suggests the Cavendish is prey to a host of lethal diseases among them including one caused by the black sigatoka fungus. Bred only from cuttings, developing a fungus-resistant hybrid strains via traditional crop husbandry is a difficult task primarily because of the extremely narrow gene pool. Only a single plant of a variety known to be resistant to the sigatoka fungus exists in Calcutta's botanical gardens. Enter genetic modification soon please.

WORLD BANK ENDORSES NEED FOR BIOTECH ANTI-DROUGHT CROPS

Believe in "global warming" or don't, the issue itself is pushing the need for biotech enhanced crops capable of resisting drastic climate conditions before the public's attention. This week, Warren Evans, the World Bank's official in charge of environmental matters, commented that if indeed millions of humans will suffer from radical climate change, then agricultural biotech researchers need to develop crops capable of thriving under extreme conditions particularly those involving water shortages.

Scientists subscribing to the global warming theory estimate that the Earth has warmed by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius or 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past Century and predict it will rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius over the next hundred years. The most populated and impoverished areas on the planet - sub-Saharan Africa, India and China - are seen as the regions that will be most hard hit.

Mr. Evans call for adapted crops to mitigate the effects of climate change has to cause a bit of a dilemma among many environmental groups. The chief environmental officer of the World Bank acknowledgement gives a certain measure of credibility to the global warming controversy bolstering their position. On the other hand, most who embrace global warming as a priority issue also denounce genetically modified crops for a variety of unproved environmental dangers.

WHERE IS ZAMBIA'S MORAL FOCUS?

Zambia prides itself on being a nation that blends Christianity with traditional beliefs. In the Bible, Christ spent his public life feeding the hungry, curing disease and helping the impoverished become productive members of society. Zambia, it seems, lost focus on those Biblical good deeds.

Today, Zambia is a nation where women do the majority of farming and whose labor accounts for up to 80 percent of the food produced. Still, property acquired by Zambia's women is considered not their own but their husbands'. It's also a nation wracked with hunger and ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

Each call from Lusaka seeking international assistance to provide food to its starving people includes the caveat that no genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are welcome. Forget for the moment that the U.S., the world's most fertile agricultural center has been consuming GMO crops for a decade with not a single incident of health hazard. Forget too that nations whose people consume GMO foods are among the healthiest and most productive on the planet.

Concentrate on Zambia's attitude towards bringing the might of government law enforcement to stop smuggling, not in illegal wildlife or illegal drugs, but in the two items that counter starvation and sexually transmitted diseases: food and condoms. The Zambian government, through the local press, is crowing about the nation's Revenue Authority waging and winning an all out war on "smuggling." The items seized and destroyed: corn meal suspected of containing GMOs and condoms.

EU NATIONS IGNORE WTO RULING THAT GMO BAN IS ILLEGAL

The European Union, quick to seek World Trade Organization rulings against nations it considers applying unfair trade advantages against its members is also quick to ignore that body's decisions that go against EU policy, specifically the NGO-instigated nonsense that genetically modified foods are somehow beneath European standards.

WTO ruled that the European ban of GMOs was illegal and condemned similar individual bans of genetically enhanced products approved by the EU enacted by Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg. The final ruling by the WTO came at the request of the world's major genetically modified crops, the U.S., Argentina and Canada.

The WTO's preliminary ruling earlier this year prompted the EU to approve a few token GMO items. True to form, the EU and anti-GMO NGOs like Greenpeace who act as shills for special interests including the organic farming industry reject the WTO ruling as "bullying" by the U.S., a typical tactic by those whose years of bullying tactics not only misrepresented the fruits of agricultural biotechnology but also prohibited consumers from making their own choice regarding what they might purchase to feed themselves and their families.

17 April 2006

CLINTON ON BIOTECH: A MIX OF POLITICS AND PRAISE

Former President Bill Clinton still supports the biotech industry. He said as much and more at a presentation before the Biotech Industry Organization, better known as BIO, annual convention April 11th in Chicago. To his credit, and condemnation by the environmental fringe, the Clinton-Gore Administration was outspoken in their support for biotechnology applied to agriculture, medical research and energy. Bill Clinton, before the leaders of the various areas of biotech research, remains firm on that point as he said in a disjointed and rambling speech that strongly hinted at being cobbled together without the aid of a professional scribe.

Ever the consummate politician, Bill Clinton sprinkled accolades to every sector of his audience, tossed in a few barbs at the "political right" and continued the theme that America was never better than when he held the keys to the nation's official residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He spoke of the need for biotech to counter the country's "obesity problem," to end dependence on fossil fuel via conversion to biofuels, and of the progress medical biotech is making in combating viral threats ranging from avian flu to AIDS.

Clouded in his even cloudier prose were a few subtle jabs at the industry. One was the fleeting but not so subtle reference to the perennial protest at the high cost of AIDS/HIV drugs from the pharmaceutical industry that came in his mention that his "little foundation" was providing the needed drugs in Africa at far below market prices. (His Administration and Al Gore's failed presidential bid were plagued by AIDS activists demonstrating against policies barring South Africa from producing knock-off medicines to combat AIDS there.) More politically ominous was Clinton's absolute silence on the real sector trying to monkey wrench biotech: the environmentalist/organic foods and animal rights movements.

BIOTECH POTATOES: ARE THEY ON THE WAY BACK?

What goes around, comes around seems to be the prevailing rule of thumb for biotech enhanced crops and, in particular, potatoes. Initially lauded during the late 1990s by farmers and scientists concerned over the environment, the biotech potato found its celebrity status short lived as environmental extreme groups successfully cowed gutless fast food corporations into declining the superior spuds for commercial sales.

In 20-20 hindsight, Monsanto, the U.S.' premier pioneering biotech corporation, appears to have erred in promoting its potoatos, marketed under the New Leaf brand, for its qualities in preventing infection by the devastating potato leafroll virus and predation by the Colorado potato beetle and not balancing it with praise of superior nutritional qualities. But that was during the era when green groups were distraught over pesticide use (diminished by the new biotech potato). Now "obesity" is the protest community's mantra.

The resurgence of the biotech potato may have to thank the same environmental crusaders for reopening consumer doors. While potato farmers long for the disease/pest free spuds, the same fast food companies that crushed the biotech potato market for fear of green boycotts are now living in terror of litigation over fat Americans. Genetically improved potatoes that provide higher nutrition while resisting fatty oil absorption during cooking appear to be a potential deterrent to anti-obesity legal liability. The work of life science investigators, including folks at Monsanto, in developing biotech soybeans that shun hydrogenation to improve shelf life are yet another part of that equation.

In the end, Americans seeking better health and tastier French fries need to walk more and thank the nation and the world's scientists long the butt of sophomoric critics in the petulant so-called "green" community.

GMO RICE AND THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

The first strains of "golden rice" fortified via biotech innovation with vitamin A were developed in 1999. Estimates by the International Rice Research Institute project commercial plantings won't occur for another six years. The 13-year delay can be attributed in large part to the clamorous protests of environmental groups led for the most part by the pro-organic Greenpeace organization.

The question that begs an answer is "who died and left Greenpeace in charge of the world's agricultural ethics committee?" Put another way, why is Greenpeace and friends considered by at least the press as the arbiter of consumer food buying practices?

In truth, Greenpeace is not invested by any religious or political entity with any of those responsibilities. It just yells the loudest and therefore attracts the most media attention. But, in practical matters and the way corporate entities that flee any semblance of potential sales-depressing controversy like little girls in the presence of a spider or wild field mouse, Greenpeace wields an undeniably significant amount of influence.

The answer to why the Greenpeace/environmental activist community commands even a smidgeon of influence may lie in the most politically heated geographical regions on Earth, Iran. A review of the history of genetically enhanced rice research provides some insight.

Nearly half of the world's 6.5 billion people depend upon rice as a food staple. Most reside in Asia. That continent is besieged by a burgeoning human population, diminishing farm lands, shrinking water supplies and hostile climate all working against the region's future ability to provide sufficient rice for its inhabitants. Yet, among Asian nations only Iran commercially plants GMO rice. Why?

Under political dictatorships, there is no effective dispute. What the government says goes. Protest disappears along with the protestors. But is efficiency an excuse to eradicate freedom. Not now, nor ever. That same freedom that allows obstructionist protests by groups like Greenpeace also tolerates scientific investigators looking into what is possible via their skills. If 13 years seems an intolerable delay in getting more nutritious rice to the world's malnourished, overcoming that delay requires more effective techniques by the biotech industry in countering critics, not caving to their demands.