lettuce seeds, results in leafy greens that contain up to seven times more vitamin C than normal lettuce. Monsanto has developed a variety of corn mated with a bacterium which is toxic to caterpillars, which can destroy up to 300 million bushels of corn a year in the United States. Monsanto has also produced bug-proof potato and cotton seeds, allowing cotton farmers in this country to cut back on the amount of insecticide they use on this crop by two million pounds a year.
Some crops are grown for food, and others for consumer goods. A potato plant has been developed that can do both at once (Industrial enzymes and Food, 2000). Genetically engineered potatoes have been produced which have valuable enzymes in their stalks, but the tubers remain normal potatoes. The transformed plants produce cellulase enzymes in the foliage. Cellulase is an enzyme used to break down plant material and is utilized in a wide variety of applications from food processing to ethanol production. It is believed that the same process can be used to produce other enzymes such as lipases and proteases used in pharmaceuticals and specialty chemical and industrial products which currently have to be made in fermenters in a labor- and time-intensive process that is relatively costly. Using plants such as the potato as Abioreactors@ is much easier and cheaper. Other plants as well as the potato, in which there are non-edible parts, could also be used, allowing the farmer to sell two products for the cost of growing one.
An American-Canadian company has genetically engineered a new variety of salmon that grows up to four times faster than natural, farm-raised salmon (Klose, 2000). The technology vastly increases production and cuts costs, and is in high demand, particularly in developing countries. The FDA is currently reviewing the salmon for possible approval, and say this will provide a good model for how to regulate similar products in the future....