January is National Biotechnology month! This month, we created a multi-part series about the topic. Here’s everything we posted in one place for you to enjoy!
Biotech Series: Part I
What is Biotechnology?
According to the USDA, agricultural biotechnology is:
“A range of tools, including traditional breeding techniques, that alter living organisms, or parts of organisms, to make or modify products; improve plants or animals; or develop microorganisms for specific agricultural uses. Modern biotechnology today includes the tools of genetic engineering.”
What is genetic engineering?
“Manipulation of an organism’s genes by introducing, eliminating, or rearranging specific genes using the methods of modern molecular biology, particularly those techniques referred to as recombinant DNA techniques.”
What are Traditional Breeding Techniques?
“Modification of plants and animals through selective breeding. Practices used in traditional plant breeding may include aspects of biotechnology such as tissue culture and mutational breeding.”
How do GMOs fit into these definitions?
The USDA defines genetic modification as:
“The production of heritable improvements in plants or animals for specific uses, via either genetic engineering or other more traditional methods.”
However, the term GMO has commonly been used to refer specifically to genetically engineered crops/ bioengineered foods. Many people, organizations, and even government entities still use GMO to mean strictly bioengineered foods, even though the definition encompasses more!
Science is fascinating, and the distinctions matter! What questions do you have about bioengineered foods that we can answer? 🌱✨
(All definitions from the USDA Biotechnology Glossary: https://www.usda.gov/farming-and-ranching/plants-and-crops/biotechnology/agricultural-biotechnology-glossary)
Biotech Series: Part II
Biotechnology has been around longer than you might think. It all started with early agriculture, when humans began selecting plants and animals with desirable traits. This eventually led to the science of genetics, discovered by Gregor Mendel in 1866 with his pea plants. By the 1950s, DNA as we know it was identified. Still, farmers and scientists were looking for quicker, more exact ways to make the changes they were looking for and in the 1970s, genetic engineering was developed.
The first genetically modified product wasn’t food—it was biosynthetic human insulin, approved in 1982 to help treat diabetes. Humulin is still used today! Following this breakthrough, the USDA, FDA, and EPA established the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology in 1986, ensuring GMOs (bioengineered foods) meet the same requirements and safety standards as foods derived from traditionally bred plants.
In the 1994, the first GMO produce was available to consumers- the FlavrSavr tomato. A slew of bioengineered products became available following in the 1990s, including summer squash, soybeans, cotton, corn, papayas, potatoes, and canola. Not all of these are still on the market today, including that Flavr Savr tomato that was pulled just 3 years after it hit shelves. While old, a 2003 article from the then-Agricultural Research Service National Program Leader does a great job looking at why some of these crops were failures: https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2003/jan/form/
Additional bioengineered foods approved since the 90s include alfalfa, sugar beets, salmon, apples, pink pineapple, and pigs. In 2018, the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard was announced based on a 2016 law. This requires food manufacturers, importers, and certain retailers to ensure bioengineered foods are disclosed.
As it stands, there are 11 bioengineered crops (‘GMOs’) that are available in the United States. These include corn, soybeans, cotton, potatoes, papaya, summer squash, canola, alfalfa, apples, sugar beets, and pink pineapple. There are also two bioengineered animals that are approved- the AquAdvantage Salmon (2015) and the GalSafe Pig (2020). Non-GMO varieties of all of these crops still exist.
Bioengineered foods are always developed for a purpose. Some modifications benefit the product during the growing process, like we see in many field crops, and some modifications benefit the end product, making them more desirable to consumers- like pink pineapple! Our next installment will highlight a couple of these crops and examine their bioengineered purpose.
(Sources: https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/science-and-history-gmos-and-other-food-modification-processes | https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/30/us/a-new-insulin-given-approval-for-use-in-us.html | https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2003/jan/form/ | https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-its-kind-intentional-genomic-alteration-line-domestic-pigs-both-human-food | https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be )
Bioengineering for Improved Production
All bioengineering is done with a purpose. The modification of most bioengineered crops has to do with improvements in the production process. Let’s look at two very different bioengineered crops that both have modifications that allow for more efficient production.
Case Study 1: Corn
There are two commonly leveraged bioengineered varieties of corn- Bt corn and HT corn.
Bt corn has a protein from a naturally occurring bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis) that is lethal to a specific order of pests. The protein is not harmful to non-target orders of insects or humans, and eliminates the need for farmers to use pesticides or other control methods to eliminate that order of pests. The Bt technology is also available in potatoes, sweet corn, and cotton.
HT corn (herbicide tolerant) corn has been modified to be tolerant of certain herbicides. (Meaning when weeds are sprayed, the corn isn’t affected.) This allows farmers to better control weeds during the growing season and has also led to a big reduction in the need for tillage. HT technologies are also available in canola, soybeans, alfalfa, and cotton.
Case Study 2: Papaya
Either you love papaya, or you hate it, but either way, we might not have had it at all if it weren’t for bioengineering. In the 1950s, the papaya industry in Hawaii was suffering severely due to the papaya ringspot virus. Despite farmers’ best efforts to control the virus and even move production to different islands, the industry was in shambles by 1997. Production was down nearly 50% and many farmers had lost everything. That same year, the Rainbow papaya- a bioengineered variety resistant to the ringspot virus- was given its regulatory review and a public-private-government partnership provided seeds to 200 farmers. Today, a very large percentage of papayas grown in the US are the bioengineered Rainbow variety- anywhere from 77% to 90%, depending on the season.
(Sources: https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2022/genetically-modified-corn-does-not-damage-non-target-organisms/ | https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef130 | https://ncga.com/key-issues/other-topics/biotechnology | https://www2.hawaii.edu/~doisteph/Papaya/rainbow.html | https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FE914 | https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Pages/PapayaHawaiianRainbow.aspx )
Bioengineering for… beauty?
Not all bioengineered foods can claim the noble backstory of the papaya or boast the efficiencies gained like field crops. Some of them are just… cool.
Case Study 1: Pinkglow Pineapple
Newer to the market, this pineapple was available to consumers in 2020. The bioengineering feat here turned the normally yellow flesh of a pineapple pink. Del Monte began developing this pineapple in 2005. The mechanism involves the enzymes lycopene and beta carotene, both naturally occurring pigments found in things like tomatoes and watermelons and carrots and non-bioengineered pineapples.
Case Study 2: Arctic Apples
The worst part about sliced apples for lunch is how brown they get. Sure, it’s a totally natural process caused by enzymes in the apples, but let’s be honest- they look unappetizing once browned. The Arctic Apple doesn’t release the enzyme that causes browning. Work on these apples began in 1996, with approval granted in 2015. Currently, Arctic has Golden, Granny, Fuji, Gala, and Honey varieties available in the US and Canada. Along with the non-browning feature, these apples also boast a slightly longer average shelf life and since they don’t get that unappealing color when sliced, could be considered lower-waste.
(Sources: https://www.pinkglowpineapple.com/ | https://arcticapples.com/ | https://usapple.org/news-resources/arctic-apples-backgrounder | https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/bioengineered-foods-list )
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