The prospect of crops that can be irrigated with sea water and grown in hostile environments such as deserts has been promised by a group of American scientists whose genetic modification business was quietly floated on the London stock market yesterday. FuturaGene, a company formed to protect patents over a series of gene discoveries, has pooled the work of plant experts at three US agricultural research institutions.
|
Mindfully.org note:
Quite frankly, this is just the same old technology looking for a problem.
. . and of course, lots of profit. Now just who will pay for their
profit? Not the people who need food the most—the poor of the world. It
will be those with enough money to pay the premium that goes along with
such crops. And like the rest of biotech genetically modified crops, they
will probably not reach their lofty goals, which are provided below this
article. It would be quite a shame if there was a further reduction in
biodiversity as a result of crops taking land away from other species of
plants and animals in those so-called "hostile environments."
This is not a good technology. |
The scientists claim to be pursuing a new type of "eco-friendly" genetics which has allowed them to develop prototype tomato and rice plants able to thrive in salt-rich soils and hibernate in conditions of extreme cold or drought.
They are now raising money to fund trials of the new crops, aiming to win approval from the US department of agriculture and the food and drug administration for commercial use. But the fact they have turned to British investors - rather than the GM-friendly US capital markets - is likely to reignite the debate in this country over whether GM crops are safe to cultivate.
The scientists, from the universities of Purdue, Arizona, and Illinois, argue that their technology overcomes earlier concerns about agricultural genetics by avoiding the introduction of foreign genes into plant species.
Their approach has been to study how plants protect themselves from environmental stresses and then to enhance the plant's natural defence systems by amplifying the relevant genes. One gene in particular, SOS1, helps plants grow in salt-rich soils, which are becoming a problem thanks to poor irrigation. The gene helps plants pump salt out of their roots before it can damage them.
Ultimately FuturaGene hopes to develop plants that can be grown by irrigating them with sea water instead of fresh water. "This is our dream," said Bruno Ruggiero, the company's chief executive.
Despite the company's declared good intentions, some remained sceptical. "At this moment in time, the population is really sensitive about the whole GM issue and they don't trust these companies," said Carlo Leifert, a professor of organic agriculture at Newcastle University.
Until the trials have been completed it is impossible to know how well the plants will perform in the wild. To cope with salt-rich soils they will have to pump salt that gets into their roots back into the soil, a process which takes up energy.
FuturaGene's leading academic, Dr Ray Bressan, a professor at Purdue University, expressed frustration at the continued suspicion of the British and other European publics towards genetic modification of any type. "Those in the green movement may have their hearts in the right place, but there is very little knowledge. The debate is low-grade and alarmist.
"Our aim is to get more production on less land, which means that less land is used for agriculture. Any ecologist will tell you that conventional agriculture has a larger negative impact on the world than anything else," he says.
A third of the world's irrigated land is deemed useless because it contains too much salt. When soil is irrigated, especially in hot countries, the water evaporates, leaving salts behind. One solution is to flush the area with more water but when water is at a premium this is not an option.
In the US salt-rich soils account for £4bn in lost yields every year. The resistant crops would also find markets outside the US, primarily in China, Australia and South America.
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1221662,00.html 21may04
According to the website of FuturaGene. . .
In the future...
Increasing world population, depleted soils, global climate changes, increasing salinity levels in irrigated lands and water shortages will place new demands on crop production.
Our current crop varieties are not well-suited to meet the needs of a hungry world in these increasingly hostile environments.
Marginal lands must be made more productive. Higher crop yields must be attained through newer plant varieties.
In pursuit of answers to these environmental challenges FuturaGene, Inc. Is working at the forefront of research into stress tolerance and plants and creating genetic solutions to these challenging environmental problems.
Our world-renowned research team has found new and innovative solutions to ancient problems.
We offer exciting and leading-edge opportunities for collaborative efforts to further our genetic research into environmentally stress tolerant plants and to commercialize our ever-expanding patented intellectual property and exclusive commercial rights.
HISTORY
SALT STRESS
FuturaGene technology:
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Dr. Bruno Ruggiero
President and CEO.
He received his education at La Sapienza in Italy and is a national board
qualified professional in biological sciences.
Mark Pritchard
Director
Mark is also a director of the Lomond Consultancy, LTD, and has twenty years of
experience and investment banking and VC financing. Mr. Pritchard is responsible
for managing investor relations.
David Risenpart
Director and Vice President.
David has extensive experience in start-up companies, and is responsible for
FuturaGene's business development.
Marta K. Zgagacz
Researcher and CFO
She received her masters of science in physics from Purdue University and is
responsible for writing patents, statistical data analysis, and related
strategic planning, business development, and accounting.
SCIENTIFIC BOARD
Dr. Ray Bressan
is a distinguished professor of plant physiology in the horticulture
department at Purdue University. Prof. Bressan has taught at Purdue since 1978.
He holds a Ph.D. and plant physiology from Colorado state University. His
research program involves establishing cell systems to study the physiology and
biochemistry of variance with increased tolerance to water and salt stress and
isolate and study genes involved in cellular tolerance.
Dr. Mike Hasegawa
was selected to be the president of the Gordon Conference on salt stress
held this July in Oxford, UK. He received his Ph.D. in botany in 1976 and has
been a professor at the department of horticulture at Purdue University since
1977. Much of his research has focused on the identification of plant salt
tolerance determinants and isolation of plant genes involved in the process. His
research has included the transformation of sorghum, lily, and meant, and
resulted in the first peppermint and lily transformations.
Dr. Jian-Kang Zhu
received his Ph.D. from Purdue University. Currently he is a professor at
the department of plant science at University of Arizona. Dr. Zhu's interests
lie and molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to salt, drought, called
stresses and ABA.
Dr. Hans Bohnert
received his Ph.D. from Universität Heidelberg, Germany in 1972. He is a
professor of plant biology at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. His
research is directed towards the dissection of plant responses to the
environment. Prof. Bohnert is studying physiological mechanisms that lead to
water stress (salinity, drought, low temperature) tolerance in higher plants, to
understand the biochemical basis of these reactions, and gene expression and
genetic requirements for the multi-genic trade of stress tolerance.
source: http://www.futuragene.com/ 21may04
|
To
send us your comments, questions, and suggestions click
here |