The number of ‘Frankenfood’ activists drops off, perhaps
signaling growing acceptance of biotechnology in agriculture

The largest international biotechnology conference in the world was held earlier this spring in Chicago. A record 19,479 attendees from 62 countries participated in BIO 2006, the 14th annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. BIO (www.bio.org) represents more than 1,100 biotech companies, organizations and research institutions across the U.S. and 31 other nations, with biotech applications that range from healthcare to agriculture.

I attended and covered BIO ’06 as a member of the media. Only about a dozen biotech protesters turned up to demonstrate outside the conference hall where BIO 2006 was being held, mostly to voice opposition against the use of animals for medical/biotechnology research.

The anti-biotech activism was far less than at previous BIO conferences, including last year’s in Philadelphia, when a police officer died of an apparent heart attack while trying to keep protesters from entering the convention center.

So where were the ‘Frankenfood’ activists?  Perhaps they got stuck in the Windy City traffic. Maybe they were at Bioethics 2006 (www.bioethics2006.org), an opposition event in another part of town. Or their relative absence may reflect the increasing acceptance of biotechnology, just as there are few milk pasteurization opponents and microwave oven protesters these days.

Former President Bill Clinton keynoted BIO 2006, discussing the role of biotechnology in addressing food security in the developing world, as well as global health and environmental issues.

First introduced in 1996, biotech crops came of age during the Clinton Administration. The benchmark of 1 billion acres of commercial biotech crop production experience across the world was reached in 2005.

The 42nd president of the United States said he supports the development of biotechnology applications in agriculture, with results evaluated under proper testing and continuous monitoring. “I think that we should be driven in America by science, evidence and argument, not by assertion and fear,” he said, drawing one of the stronger rounds of applause during his speech.

Two of the more other well-known names to speak at BIO 2006 were actor Bernie Mac and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, both of whom related how biotech-driven medical and health care advancements have made a difference in their lives.  Mac suffers from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease, and Johnson stunned the sports world in 1991 when he announced his retirement because of HIV.

Jim Mullen, chairman of the BIO organization and CEO of Biogen Idec, gave an overview of how the biotechnology industry has advanced over the decades.  Early commercialized products included human insulin, recombinant vaccine for hepatitis B, and interferon alpha for cancer, as well as advances in agriculture and new fuels. To date, Mullen says, the global biotech industry has grown to approximately 4,500 companies that employ more than 200,000 people, spend more than $18 billion on R&D and generate more than $60 billion in revenue.

Former CIA director James R. Woolsey discussed the role of biofuels to U.S. energy security, and Mike Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, discussed how health care will evolve with biotechnology. Genetic information will improve as more becomes known about the human genome. Paired with family history data, “the next decade will be viewed by future generations as the time when treatments became preventive, predictive and personalized,” Leavitt said.

It would likely come as a surprise for most to learn that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing nearly $37 million in grants to research projects focused on improving nutrition and health through biotech-improved bananas, cassava, rice and sorghum. At BIO, it was announced that the University of California Berkeley has joined the African Biofortified Sorghum Project, a project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges for Global Health (see www.supersorghum.org).

UC-Berkeley will work on improving protein and starch digestibility. Sorghum originated in Africa, which grows more than 50 percent of the world’s sorghum. It is a dietary staple for more than half billion people around the world, but is inherently low in protein quality due to its low content of essential amino acids, such as lysine.

A media brunch was held during BIO 2006 to provide reporters with an opportunity to taste, use and see products produced through industrial and environmental biotechnology. In the interest of full disclosure, I report that I did indeed sample the fare.

The exhibit hall at BIO 2006 was the largest gathering of biotechnology exhibitors in history, encompassing more than 1,700 companies, organizations and institutions representing every aspect of the biotechnology industry. The 176,000 net square feet of exhibit space featured exhibitors from 43 states and 36 nations.

A new Food and Agriculture Pavilion on the exhibit floor showcased the role biotechnology has played in revolutionizing agriculture throughout the food chain. On display in the Pavilion was the “world’s largest indoor cornfield,” featuring biotech corn (dozens of potted corn plants placed together to form a field of sorts).  Other biotech crops were on display as well, including soybeans, cotton and canola.

Also on display in the Food and Agriculture Pavilion was “The Green Kitchen,” a demonstration kitchen built with materials from bioproducts – cupboards from wheat straw, countertops from hemp, cutlery and carpeting from corn, aprons from hemp and cotton. It was sponsored by The Council for Biotechnology Information and BioProducts Canada  – see more about it online at www.bio-productscanada.org/toolkit/greenkitchen.html.

About a dozen farmers from across the world shared their positive experiences in growing biotech crops. They included farmers from Canada, Romania, South Africa, France, Portugal, Argentina, Spain and India, as well as North Dakota farmer and ag biotech proponent Al Skogen.

Skogen said he enjoyed the interaction with producers from other countries.  “The desire to lower input costs and increase yields is a common thread we all seem to have in common,” he said. “I think one of the most remarkable stories is Ravinder Brar, a widow who has been able to continue farming successfully in India, in part because she switched to growing Bt cotton, which has allowed her to drop her insect pesticide costs and increase yields. In fact, she considers growing Bt cotton to be an organic practice, since it has allowed her to drop insecticide use.”

Tracy Sayler is an ag writer based near Fargo, N.D.