Few people realize how integrated biotechnology has already become in our daily lives. Most people recognize biotech’s impact in the pharmaceutical arena with stand-alone companies like Amgen and Genentech and big pharma’s collaborations with smaller biotech firms to supplement their dwindling conventionally developed drug pipeline. Fewer recognize the size of biotech’s impact in the AgBio and the industrial biotechnology arenas. That perception is changing with the increased production of ethanol from genetically modified (GM) crops. Most of the genetic modifications so far have been in building herbicide tolerance and insect resistance to greatly enhance the yields of mostly traditional crops like soybeans, maize, cotton, and canola.
In the ethanol crop area, future genetic modifications will target the development of specific crop attributes that enhance the ethanol yields or improve their processing characteristics. Entirely new GM crops could also be created for a specific end product, like ethanol. And while some researchers have recently raised questions on the environmental impact of using ethanol to offset imported petroleum-based fuel stocks, those questions are going to be muted by the governments and companies who have invested heavily in building an ethanol-based infrastructure. The momentum already built and the energy value envisioned is too strong an enhancement to slow this current development. The questions raised on the environmental impacts will have to be overcome with additional research and subsequent adjustments.
The revenue created by the biotech enhancement of agricultural products will be more than enough to fund this additional research. And there will likely be some discoveries on the agricultural side of the business that could carry over into the healthcare side as well.
