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l
BIOTECHNOLOGY: FOOD PROTECTION AND
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
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THE GENE REVOLUTION
Albert Gore, Jr.
I commend the Food and Nutrition Board for tackling this
challenge. In America, we have long taken the food supply
for granted. Now we appear to be taking biotechnology for
granted as well--with little regard for the difficult ques-
tions it will raise. As a long-time advocate of new tech-
nologies, I would like to thank the FNB for making these
issues a matter of public debate. The sooner we prepare
ourselves for the potential social and economic impacts of
biotechnology, the more promising its prospects will be.
As you know, the science of genetic engineering presents
wondrous possibilities. It will enable us to develop
hardier crop strains, bigger and better livestock breeds,
and new miracle drugs. Genetically altered vaccines,
growth hormones, and other new products could eventually
make hunger obsolete--even as the world population
continues to soar.
But many fear that the brave new world of biotechnology
will also have a dark side. Some of the new crops and
livestock we develop may have no natural enemies and will
be genetically superior to their predecessors. New orga-
nisms could multiply wildly, like kudzu or the gypsy moth,
crowding out everything else. In theory, a genetically
altered crop strain could have some tragic flaw that might
not become apparent until it was already in wide use.
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No one knows for certain how great those risks are. The
uncertainty and confusion that surround the environmental
release of genetically altered organisms have allowed
staunch opponents like Jeremy Rifkin to block the new
technology at every turn. Unwilling to wait for the United
States to sort out the regulatory muddle, some companies
have tested organisms abroad. Angered by a rabies vaccine
experiment near Buenos Aires, Argentina recently accused us
of engaging in environmental imperialism. The Argentines
believe that by conducting these tests on foreign soil,
American companies run the risk of a biotechnological
Bhopal.
Perhaps pressure from overseas will push us along. We
can't afford to leave environmental release in limbo
forever. Uncertainty hurts industry and regulators alike.
But the most lasting impact of biotechnology on the food
supply may come not from something going wrong, but from
everything going right. Sooner or later, every inventor--
from Albert Einstein to Dr. Frankenstein--confronts the
same questions: First, how do we make the thing work?
Second, how do we keep it from working too well?
For every use of biotechnology there is a potential
misuse. For every benefit, there is a potential hazard.
The challenge is to know when we are about to go too far
with the technology and when the drawbacks outweigh the
advantages.
My biggest fear is not that by accident we will set loose
some genetically defective Andromeda strain. Given our
record in dealing with agriculture, we are far more likely
to accidentally drown ourselves in a sea of excess grain.
The Green Revolution made America the world's breadbasket,
but it also brought on an age of intractable overproduc-
tion. Unless we plan more carefully, the Gene Revolution
could do the same--on an even grander scale.
What is the price of progress? Will the supercow
trample the small dairy farmer? Is the family farm about
to be genetically altered out of existence? Meanwhile,
will biotechnology help to feed the starving millions? Or
will it leave the Third World behind to eat our dust?
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the high startup costs. After the ruinous expansion of
farm debt in the 1970s, banks may be more reluctant to lend
small farmers money for expensive new investments--and
quicker to foreclose on them if anything goes wrong. OnlY
the large farms will be able to afford a new tecnnotogy,
which if it works could drive their smaller competitors out
of business. Biotechnology will be a hollow victory for
science or for society if only the big guys survive to
divide the spoils.
It doesn't have to be that way. With the right planning,
biotechnology could be the salvation of the family farm
rather than the death of it. One way or another, biotech-
nology will become a cornerstone of our future prosperity.
The challenge is to make sure it will help those who need
it--from the wheat grower in West Tennessee to the starving
peasant farmer in Africa.
How can we turn this revolution into the common man's
revenge? We can start by changing our approach to agri-
cultural research. In our all-out rush to boost total
production during the Green Revolution, we stopped worrying
about producers. We almost forgot the small farmer, who
needed cost-effective anolied technology. The yield on a
large farm in Iowa is 40 times that of a subsistence farm
in Nigeria--not just because American farmers are more
efficient but also because the world has yet to develop
agricultural techniques that work on a small scale.
Traditionally, 95% of all agricultural research has been
geared toward agribusiness, to ever greater efficiencies of
scale.
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Today we're paying for that policy of bigger is better--
with bigger farm debts, a bigger price-support program, and
big troubles for all but the biggest farms. We cannot
afford to make that mistake again. Biotechnology can and
ought to be a Great Equalizer, making a miraculous yield
possible on even a small plot of land.
That should be an important goal of our research.
Instead of rewarding agribusiness interests or distributing
academic pork barrel, government grants should target the
individual farmer. I hope we never see another U. S.
Department of Agriculture study on how long Americans take
to cook breakfast. We should worry instead about what
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Let's look first at the threat of overproduction. As you
know, these are hard times down on the farm--and if
anything, the prospects are worse. We live in an age of
excess--excess capacity, that is. A worldwide glut,
lackluster domestic markets, and misguided agricultural
policies have put American farmers in a precarious
financial position. Since 1982, the value of American
farmland has plunged $150 billion. The farm bankruptcy
rate has quadrupled. Farm debt now exceeds $200 billion--
more than the foreign debt of Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina
combined.
From the standpoint of the small farmer, even the Green
Revolution has been a mixed blessing. Increased agricul-
tural efficiency forced many family farms out of business
and left others hostage to the increasing volatility of
glutted commodity markets.
How, then, can the small farmer possibly survive the Gene
Revolution? The effect of genetic advances on production
will dwarf the triumphs of the past two decades. Already,
we have seen bovine growth hormone that can make cows
produce up to 40% more milk. Scientists are working on
supercows, superpigs, even supersized salmon. Other
experiments have led to multiple births, more rapid growth,
and higher resistance to disease. Unless we can somehow
find a way to create very hungry superhumans, each of these
advances may produce nothing but glut.
In the next few years, our capacity to expand the food
supply will grow at an unprecedented rate. The Gene
Revolution will do for animal products what the Green
Revolution did for crop yields. Much to the chagrin of the
farmers, it will have the same effect on food prices as
well. Robert Kalter, an agricultural economist at Cornell,
predicts that "the unparalleled speed and magnitude of the
expected productivity gains" will flood commodity markets.
As prices fall, he thinks the cost of maintaining price
supports will rise so rapidly that the government may have
to abandon the program.
Moreover, for the individual farmer, most of these new
developments in biotechnology will be out of reach. The
quarter million family-size farms in this country, which
are already on the ropes, will be hard pressed to afford
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Americans are eating for breakfast and how the farmer
can provide a cheap, tasty, and nutritious product.
Unless we consciously steer progress toward the little
guy, it will trickle down too late to do much good. I
would like to explore the possibility of a Biotechnology
Extension Service that would offer technological assistance
in agricultural areas. Biotechnology will bloom and grow
only if it is affordable and easy to understand.
The government might also consider a Rural Development
Bank to give small farmers low-interest loans for appro-
priate biotechnology. Eventually, we could apply our
success in the Third World, so the areas that need progress
most don't fall further behind.
Here at home, we can use our technological research to
target the individual consumer. One biotech company (DNA
Plant Technology) has begun to produce healthy snacks, such
as carrots that are extra sweet and popcorn that tastes
buttery without adding butter. Instead of continually
trying to change people's diets, we may some day be able to
take the dietary risk out of high-risk foods.
The Gene Revolution is still young and full of possibili-
ties. It can bring on a brave new era--or just a lot more
of the same old thing. The choice is ours. Will we sit
back and watch the gap widen between rich and poor, North
and South, the agribusinessman and family farmer? Or will
we use this fabulous opportunity to leap ahead together?
In the years to come, government must learn to give
people the tools to control their own destiny, make their
own choices, and find their own way. Biotechnology is a
key to that future. Let's make sure it ends up in the
right hands.
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