The biotech century food biotechnology

GM foods. GM stands for genetically modified.
THE BIOTECH CENTURY
Biotechnology is older than written history, dating back as far as 4000 BC when malting and fermentation were practiced in Mesopotamia. Despite of this long history, in a cover story of a 1998 issue of Business Week magazine, the 21 ~ century was nominated as 'The Biotech Century', with biology replacing physics as the dominant discipline. A major switch of leading chemical companies to the life sciences is already occurring. Now, at the end of the 20 th century, the discussion about the introduction of transgenic animals and plants, products of modem biotechnology, is fierce, especially when food is involved. In the Daily Telegraph of 10 June 1998, Prince Charles for instance in the article 'Seeds of Disaster' takes a strong position against genetically modified crops. In the mean time he has opened his own web site to discuss these matters. In contrast to this are expectations such as expressed for instance by Rifldn, president of The Foundation of Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., in his article 'Will Genes Remake the World?' in Genetic Engineering News of 1 April 1998: An increasing amount of food and fiber will likely be grown indoors in tissue culture in giant bacteria baths, partially eliminating the farmer and the soil for the first time in history. Animal cloning probably will become commonplace, with 'replication' increasingly replacing 'reproduction', so the farmer on the other hand, may be replacing "indoor cell factories". Monsanto, for instance, recently announced the foundation of Integrated Protein Technologies, a unit formed to produce transgenic pharmaceutical proteins, vaccines and industrial enzymes, initially focussing on plants. According to this company, it takes about two years to produce clinical material and three years for commercial quantities of a protein using a corn system (Genetic Engineering News, February 15, 1999). The discussion is much less heated if it concerns non-food applications. In particular when a life-saving drug is the target, the voices against are much less loud. The question remains whether efforts should be mostly directed to transgenesis of animals or plants, or to the genetic modification of microbial, plant and animal cells. Functionality, economics and acceptance by society, are obviously the decisive factors. In this paper a non-comprehensive, personal (Dutch) view on these matters is given, using the examples given in the keywords.
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