Ag Biotechnology Feeds the World Today and Tomorrow

Food biotechnology reflects a long history of evolution. The principles for the use of food biotechnology to improve the foods that we eat are nothing new. Their roots run deep throughout the history of mankind.

The process has been evolving for as many as 10,000 years. It began as a selection process of planting and replanting the strongest, most productive strains of edible plants. Today researchers are expanding these early principles to enhance our food supply.

Foundations of today’s science can be found in genetic advancements discovered in the 1800s and early 1900s when pasteurization, intergeneric crossbreeding and the science of genetics were developed. The advancements persevered times of skepticism and doubt to help ensure the safe, abundant food supply on our grocers’ shelves.

The field of food biotechnology development has several milestones of significant importance. In 1922, farmers planted the first hybrid seed created by crossbreeding two corn plants. Between 1930 and 1985 hybrid corn helped account for a 600% increase in U.S. corn production.

In 1990, the first food products were introduced which had been enhanced through biotechnology. These were an enzyme used in cheese production approved in the United States. and a yeast the United Kingdom approved for baking.

In 1994, the FlavrSavr tomato was available in the United States. It was the first whole food produced using modern biotechnology. By 1999, the production of enhanced crops reached 98.6 million acres worldwide. The result has been increased overall production on less land using fewer pesticides and herbicides producing a wider variety of foods in more abundant quantities.

Producing enough food to feed the world well into the future will not be a simple task. The global population is expected to increase by 50%, reaching more than nine billion people by 2050. Meeting the demands of this level of population will take a highly efficient food production system.

Today’s biotechnology breakthroughs are giving us a glimpse of what the future of food production may hold. Not only is today’s technology increasing food production, but it is also doing it on less land with fewer pesticides. It is also opening the doors to opportunity in areas where food production is critically deficient.

In 1999, it is estimated that 66 million bushels of corn (the production of nearly 500,000 acres) were saved from European corn borer damage, by growing corn hybrids engineered with a gene for insect resistance.

A new genetically engineered, virus-resistant sweet potato shows promise of increasing yields in Kenya up to 60%. Florence Wambugu of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, in collaboration with Monsanto, employed biotechnology to produce this new variety, which is projected to improve food security and health to for millions of African families.

Researchers at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service have developed an experimental hybrid between cultivated potato and a wild Mexican potato species, using biotechnology methods. The hybrid is resistant to a new, more virulent strain of the so-called “late blight”, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s.

Biotechnology is also helping to improve the purity and production efficiency of many enzymes routinely used in the food manufacturing process.

This article is one of a 10-part series that ran monthly in the Colorado Farm Bureau News. The articles are posted at www.colofb.com.