BioCoder #7

Chapter 1. Revolutionizing the Conversation on Biotechnology

Keira Havens and Nikolai Braun

New technologies inevitably meet resistance. Canning, refrigeration, and pasteurization all took some time to get off the ground due to consumer mistrust. It goes beyond food—there was also resistance to both anesthesia and organ transplantation. These technologies all share one thing: they change the common understanding of our limitations.

In the 1800s, everyone knew that you couldn’t eat vegetables stored at room temperature that were months or years old, until canning came along and you could. Up until the twentieth century, surgery was a last resort, until anesthesia made it possible to bear. Up until the twenty-first century, everyone knew that agricultural breeding was a function of skill, a keen eye, and good luck. You couldn’t design a plant to do what you wanted, until you could, with modern bioengineering tools.

The first plant genomic transformation took place in 1983. Due to the expense and complexity of the technology at that time, further genetically modified organism (GMO) development was primarily a tool of large corporations. These corporations developed crops to benefit their customers (farmers) with increased yields in commodity crops. Farmers got to spray less, till less, and reap higher yields with these enhanced crops. Farm productivity increased, consumers had more food at lower prices, and everybody won.

Except, consumers have had no idea they are benefiting from ...