Biotechnology industry impact

Effective management of microbiology collections requires that the cultures meet current and future international standard requirements of biotechnology industries. The knowledge and competence of the scientists performing cell culture work obviously impact the quality of the cultures. 

This session reflected on the evolution of biotechnology, industry, and this annual symposium for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals and speculated on future developments that can enhance their impacts. To structure a cohesive session covering areas appropriate for the silver anniversary meeting, presentations were invited in selected areas that offered complementary perspectives for the audience. Dr. Charles Scott, the founder of the annual symposium and its chair from 1978 through 1988, chaired this session, and the cochair was Dr. Charles Wyman, who was responsible for initiating alternate years in Colorado as symposium chair and cochair from 1988 to 1996. 

Without a doubt, the greatest opportunity for biotechnology to impact the process food industry is through the development of new or improved raw materials. Some examples for wheat are shown in Table IV. 

As discussed earlier in the section on industry impacts, hybrid plant varieties shift marketing control upstream to the seed companies and away from the farmer. Linkages between plant varieties and certain proprietary inputs may constrain farmers to technology packages that increase farmer dependence on sole-source input suppliers. Although Third World farmers may produce more food with biotechnology products, part of the profits will be shipped to the developed-country homes of multi-national corporations. The question is over the relative share received by the farmers, the developing countries, and the multinational corporations. 

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