New technology is often met with resistance, especially when
it concerns the food supply. University of Georgia experts say
biotechnology is proving to be no exception.

Consumers Leery

“The biotech companies haven’t done a good job of
consumer
education. And some people think that means they have something
to hide,” said Paul Guillebeau, pesticide coordinator for
the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“Consumers have been duped by unsafe products in the
past,
intentionally and unintentionally,” he said. “Now,
they’re
more suspicious of new technology, especially when the companies
seem to be saying, ‘Just trust us. Nothing will go wrong. You
don’t need to know what foods carry bioengineered
components.’”

Guillebeau noted that biotechnology is a broad field. “It
encompasses agriculture, medicine, animals, nutrition and
more,”
he said. “Some areas will undoubtedly yield tremendous
benefits.
Others may carry substantial risk.”

Europeans Skeptical, Americans
Confident

That threat of risk is raising a ruckus.

“In some parts of the world, there is great consumer
resistance
and cynicism toward biotechnology,” said U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Dan Glickman. “In Europe, protesters have torn
up test plots of biotech crops. Some of the major food companies
in Europe have stopped using genetically modified organisms in
their products.”

So far, consumer confidence in the United States has remained
high.

“By and large, Americans trust the food safety efforts
of (government agencies) because these agencies are competent
and independent from the industries they regulate,” Glickman
said. “That kind of independence and confidence will be
required
as we deal with biotechnology.”

Helping Feed the
Planet

Biotechnology can help greatly in the fight against hunger.
“Genetically modified plants have the potential,” he
said, “to overcome problems that are starving people in the
developing world.”

It can help the environment, too. “It could reduce
pesticide
use, increase yields, improve nutritional content and use less
water,” he said.

Research Reveals Pros and
Cons

Guillebeau pointed to a USDA lab study of pollen from Bt corn.
The Bacillus thuringiensis genes added to the corn, he
said, “encode a protein toxic to an important corn pest.
But the study showed the pollen could also kill monarch
butterflies.”

It isn’t a simple matter. “The Bt corn,” he noted,
“is replacing some broad-spectrum insecticides that would
also kill nontarget insects and animals,” he said.

“I think people are primarily upset because these results
seemed to be a surprise,” he said. “Either the company
didn’t know or they didn’t publicize these kinds of potential
effects. Either case makes consumers uneasy.”

Future Shows
Promise

Glickman said he has no doubt problems will arise. But the
future has great promise, too.

“Science will march forward,” he said. “And
in agriculture, that science can help create a world where no
one needs to go hungry, where developing nations can become more
food self-sufficient and thereby become freer and more
democratic.”

Clean water and air, global warming and climate change are
challenges, too. “These must be met with sound and modern
science,” he said. “And that will involve
biotechnological
solutions.”

With huge fortunes at stake, Guillebeau said, biotech
companies
will face great pressure to bring new products to the market
fast.
But the shorter the review period, the more likely something
risky
will slip through.

“Bottom line,” he said, “biotech is a powerful
new science that will affect all aspects of human life. We would
be foolish to ignore the tremendous benefits it offers.”

However, powerful tools can carry high risks, too. “We
would be equally foolish,” he said, “to look at this
new world through only rose-colored glasses.”

(Monarch butterfly photo courtesy Iowa State
University.)