THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 262, October 11, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
TROPICAL WASTELANDS TO CROPLANDS WITH BIOTECH
By Dennis T. Avery & Alex A. Avery
AFRICA, BIOTECHNOLOGY, & THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT: GENETIC ENGINEERING & ITS DISCOVERY OF A
POTENTIALLY MASSIVE FOOD PRODUCTION BREAKTHROUGH -- WILL THE NEW BREAKTHROUGH FINALLY FORCE THE
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS TO RECOGNIZE THE VITAL POTENTIAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY TO BOTH FEED POOR PEOPLE
& SAVE WILDLIFE HABITAT?
FULL STORY:
Imagine Africa feeding itself comfortably, instead of being overwhelmed by its own expanding population. Imagine
millions of tropical consumers being fed without clearing more forests, thus protecting the wildlife in the very regions
where most of the species of the world live and are critically threatened by population pressure. Suddenly, high-yield
conservation for the tropics may not be a pipedream.
Half of the world’s tropic croplands suffer from aluminum toxicity that forces crop plants to shut down their growth.
Grains and oilseeds produce meager yields, and scientists have not even known why. The resulting low yields and food
scarcity have stifled the tropics’ efforts in health care, technology, and economic growth. At the same time, tropical
farmers have been forced to clear more forest to grow enough food for their families, displacing the wild species that
make the forests their home.
Now genetic engineering — and only genetic engineering — has found a potentially massive food production
breakthrough: crop plants that can ignore the aluminum toxicity and produce ample yields on huge tracts of tropic land
that now produce little except stunted shrubs.
University of California/Riverside’s Dr. Paul Larsen, while screening mustard plants for their ability to grow despite toxic
aluminum, discovered a simple mutation to a single gene that lets plants thrive, in spite of the aluminum. He was able to
shut down a gene called AtATR and the plants ignored the toxic aluminum warnings from their roots.
“We have all these crop plants — wheat and corn and barley and so on — that didn’t evolve or get developed on
aluminum-toxic soils,” says Larsen. Plant breeders have tried to cross-breed varieties that cope better with the aluminum,
but there has been little progress. Larsen’s work dangles the potential of a vast improvement, quickly. “It theoretically
will eliminate the big acid-soil yield penalties in any plant species,” he says.
Larsen says the plants “are really worried about the longterm damage aluminum toxicity could cause to their DNA over
many generations.” But that thousand-year problem doesn’t mean much when modern seeds can be bred — and even
grown out — on non-toxic soils and delivered to farms in the acid soil regions. Larsen says, even after growing five
generations of his mutant plants on aluminum-toxic soils, there are “no obvious deleterious effects on growth, viability,
[or] seed production.”
The transformation itself is one of the simplest in biotechnology. The scientists just block the gene that codes for
aluminum sensitivity. No foreign genes are added.
“It’s a potential magic bullet, depending on how society decides to use it,” says Larsen.
“My dream is to see in my lifetime highly productive food
crops growing on soils that didn’t use to be able to support
them, so more poor people can eat well. For that, it has
massive potential. If we use [this technology] instead to
produce a bit more biofuel on cleared forest land — for a
huge fuel demand cropland can’t meet — it could be terribly
negative.”
Larsen did his original experiments with Arabadopsis, an easily-manipulated member of the mustard family. He’s now
seeking the funding to transform tomatoes, and ultimately a whole range of food crops.
He also notes that other researchers have engineered plants that prevent aluminum invasion by secreting citric acid
from their roots. The negatively-charged acid binds with the positively-charged aluminum so the aluminum can’t get
into the roots. “We might combine my strategy of by-passing the aluminum toxicity with the aluminum-blocking strategy
to create a family of tropical super-crops,” he says.
Will this new breakthrough finally force the Green movement to recognize the vital potential of biotechnology to both
feed poor people and save wildlife habitat?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Avery's book, Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental
Triumph of High-Yield Farming (Washington, D.C.: Hudson Institute, 1995), continues to be popular as a readable overview
of realistic agriculture for the future and for today. Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421.
Email: cgfi@hughes.net
Alex A. Avery is CGFI Director of Research and Education.
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume X, 2008
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity