Agricultural biotechnology: myth and measurement

The title of this article could easily have been "The Inquisition, The First 100 Million Acres, and Future Quantification Challenges." After approximately 20 years of research, transgenic crops have made it through the maze of scientific and regulatory testing to reach commercial practice and have been adopted at a rapid rate. Plant scientists and growers have quickly recognized the extensive portfolio of benefits that can be obtained: it is analogous to the discovery of electricity (biotech) in a world of candles (conventional breeding). Despite the potential for advancement, a few groups have revolted against biotechnological crops. Misinformation has been used to capture headlines, and good scientific research principles have been castigated by self-appointed judges. Conversely, the probiotech camp has not been good at communicating in a broadly understandable manner, but they have the weight of scientific evidence on their side. There are 100 million acres of commercial transgenic crops, and more than 30,000 intensive field trials have been performed, but not one shred of reproducible evidence indicates that biotechnological crops are dangerous, unsafe, or a threat to the environment. Looking ahead, dozens of new beneficial traits are being explored in laboratories across the world, and their application will bring new issues and more difficult challenges. For example, several genes may be stacked in different combinations to provide trait sets with various levels of added value. These crops will no longer be traded as bulk-mixed commodities; therefore, some mechanism will be required to measure the value at each transaction point. The need to develop standards, operating procedures, and devices for accurate, real-time quantification of multiple possible trait sets may be one of the major limitations to rapid future progress in some sectors of crop biotechnology.