A Brief History of Genetic Engineering

Environmental Media Services

October, 2000

Genetically engineered (GE), or transgenic, foods are created by inserting modified genes - usually from foreign organisms like plants, animals or microbes - into the DNA of another organism. GE food products and additives are widely used in the U.S. (GE foods are also referred to as biotech, genetically modified [GM] and bioengineered.)

Thousands of genetically engineered organisms - mostly plants and bacteria, but animals, fungi and viruses as well - have been field tested to date. These are also categorized as GMOs, or genetically modified organisms.

Dozens of GE crops have already been grown, on almost 100 million acres worldwide. As yet there have been no well-documented cases of serious ecological damage from GE crops or animals. Research assessing how these organisms interact with the environment is scarce, however, and scientific understanding of this relationship is in its infancy.

Genetic engineering is not the same as conventional breeding, a traditional technology that can transfer genes only between plants of the same species. Genetic engineering allows genes to be transferred between two completely unrelated species. For example, strawberries have been genetically engineered with a flounder gene to make them frost resistant (not on the market). But vegetable hybrids like broccoflower - broccoli crossed with cauliflower, a fellow member of the Brassica oleracea species - are conventionally bred, not genetically engineered.

Firsts in Genetic Engineering

· First GE plant - A tobacco plant engineered with a yeast gene was created in 1982 by Mary Dell Chilton, a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, and Andrew Binns from the University of Pennsylvania.

• First GE food product - Chymosin, a substitute for an essential enzyme used to make cheese, came on the market in 1990. It is now used to make more than half of all cheese produced in the U.S.
• First GE animal drug - A hormone manufactured by the Monsanto Corp. called "recombinant bovine growth hormone" (rBGH) was approved in 1993 by the FDA. It is injected into dairy cows to increase their milk production. According to Monsanto, 30 percent of U.S. dairy cows receive rBGH.
• First whole GE food - The Flavr Savr™ tomato was approved in 1994. It was manufactured by a company called Calgene (now owned by Monsanto) which developed a tomato to have a 90- percent longer vine and shelf life, to give consumers a tomato that lasted longer and tasted more like a vine-ripened one. The product proved too costly to produce and was pulled from the market.

Forty-five GE crops have been approved for sale in the United States, including soybeans, chicory, squash, corn, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, and canola.

The majority of processed foods in the U.S. now contain some genetically engineered ingredients, the Grocery Manufacturers of America reported in late 1999, saying "it would be very difficult for most mainstream supermarkets to go totally non-biotech." Processed foods, the mainstay of the American diet, often contain ingredients derived from GE corn starch and corn syrup; GE soy products like lecithin; margarine and oils from GE corn and soy; and animal products from livestock fed transgenic crops. Transgenic ingredients are also found in shampoos, soap, many cotton products, cosmetics and detergents.

Future products in development include:

· Plants and animals designed as "biofactories" to produce plastics and industrial chemicals

• Pesticide-resistant beneficial insects that survive being sprayed while other bugs die
• Cotton plants that mix polyester fibers with cotton
• Grass that doesn't need mowing
• Fibers that dye more easily or produce their own color.

"Pharming" will produce GE plants and animals that provide medicines, edible vaccines and even spare body parts. Examples may include eggs engineered to include appetite-reducing antibodies for weight-conscious consumers and transgenic cows that produce lactose-free milk.