By Henry I. Miller, M.D., and Gregory Conko
Posted: Saturday, January 1, 2005

EDITORIAL
Publication Date: January 1, 2005

The winter 2005 issue of Issues in Science & Technology included an article by ACSH Director Dr. Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute about unnecessary impediments to biotech, which you can read in its entirety here and begins with these observations:

The application of recombinant DNA technology, or gene splicing, to agriculture and food production, once highly touted as having huge public health and commercial potential, has been paradoxically disappointing. Although the gains in scientific knowledge have been stunning, commercial returns from two decades of R&D have been meager. Although the cultivation of recombinant DNA-modified crops, first introduced in 1995, now exceeds 100 million acres, and such crops are grown by 7 million farmers in 18 countries, their total cultivation remains but a small fraction of what is possible. Moreover, fully 99 percent of the crops are grown in only six countries -- the United States, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, China, and South Africa -- and virtually all the worldwide acreage is devoted to only four commodity crops: soybeans, corn, cotton, and canola.

Attempts to expand "agbiotech" to additional crops, genetic traits, and countries have met resistance from the public, activists, and governments...