Agriculture biotechnology-derived

Since risk analysis plays an important role in public policy decision making, efforts have been made to devise a means by which to identify, control, and communicate the risks imposed by agricultural biotechnology. A paradigm of environmental risk assessment was first introduced in the United States by Peterson and Arntzen in 2004. In this risk assessment, a number of assumptions and uncertainties were considered and presented. These include (1) problem formulation, (2) hazard identihcation, (3) dose-response relationships, (4) exposure assessment, and (5) risk characterization. Risk assessment of plant-made pharmaceuticals must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis because the plants used to produce proteins each have different risks associated with them. Many plant-derived biopharmaceuticals will challenge our ability to define an environmental hazard (Howard and Donnelly, 2004). For example, the expression of a bovine-specihc antigen produced in a potato plant and used orally in veterinary medicine would have a dramatically different set of criteria for assessment of risk than, as another example, the expression of a neutralizing nonspecihc oral antibody developed in maize to suppress Campylobacter jejuni in chickens (Peterson and Arntzen, 2004 Kirk et al., 2005). 

J. Carpenter, A. Felsot, T. Goode, M. Hammig, D. Onstad, S. Sankula, Comparative Environmental Impacts of Biotechnology-Derived and Traditional Soybean, Com, and Cotton Crops. Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, Ames, 2002.. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research Service, Report of Workshop on Naturally Occurring Substances in Traditional and Biotechnology-Derived Foods TTieir Potential Toxic and Antitoxic Effects, Irvine, CA, USDA, Washington, D.C., July, 1992. 

In the next few years, biotechnology-derived chemicals will be applied in every major area of agriculture —... 

Despite the glowing promises which biotechnology offers agriculture, two major unknowns exist Are biotechnology-derived chemicals commercially feasible Are they acceptable to regulators ... 

Commercial feasibility can now only be measured by the considerable interests and investments that agriculturally-based firms are making in biotechnology, since very few biotechnology-derived agricultural products have been marketed. 

S. Sankula, E. Blumenthal, Biotechnology-derived crops planted in 2004 - Impacts on US Agriculture, 2005, available at http //www.ncfap.org. 

OECD (1995a), Commercialisation of Agricultural Products Derived through Modem Biotechnology Survey Results, OECD, Paris. 

OCDE (1995b), Report of the OECD Workshop on the Commercialisation of Agricultural Products Derived through Modern Biotechnology, OCDE, Paris. 

Funk C, Brodelius P (1992) Phenylpropanoid metabolism in suspension cultures of Vanilla planifolia Andr. IV Induction of vanillinic acid formation. Plant Physiol 99 256-262 Funk C, Brodelius P (1994) Vanilla planifolia Andrews in vitro biosynthesis of vanillin and other phenylpropanoids derivatives. In Bajaj YPS (ed) Biotechnology in agriculture and forestry. Medicinal and aromatic plants VI, vol 26. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 377-402... 

Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) (2006) Safety of Meat, Milk, and Eggs from Animals Fed Crops Derived from Modern Biotechnology. Issue Paper number 24. CAST, Ames, Iowa. 

FAO/WHO. 2001. Evaluation of allergenicity of genetically modified foods. Report of a joint FAO/WHO expert consultation on allergenicity of foods derived from biotechnology. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome. 

A number of chapters deal with the emerging field of biotechnology and its possible application to flavor and aroma chemical production. If economic barriers can be overcome, there is little doubt that this rapidly emerging technology will become a significant factor in the production of certain aroma chemicals and essential oils. Ultimately, this may lessen our dependance on important agriculturally derived botanicals that suffer from periodic shortages and price fluctuations. 

Biotechnology is more selective in the manner in which plant characteristics are controlled. Because new products must undergo batteries of toxicity tests before regulatory approval, the products approaching market are safer than most other plant-derived produce developed using conventional agricultural techniques. 

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