Chapter 4: Food Technologies
Healthy People, Healthy Economy
Just as biomedical
technologies have made enormous contributions to Americans' health and
well-being in this century, they have also helped the economy. The health care
industry generates roughly $1 trillion in economic activity, high-wage jobs,
and trade. Another measure of medicine's economic importance is the amount
of money
it saves: for example, improved treatment of acute lymphocytic
leukemia has saved the nation more than $1 billion in restored lifetime
earnings, and lithium treatment for manic-depressive illness has saved about $7
billion per year since its introduction in 1970. And the list of cost savings
continues to grow.
The challenges facing biomedical sciences in the 21st century
are daunting. Emerging infectious diseases such as AIDS are a major threat
across the globe. Antibiotic-resistant strains of infectious agents threaten
progress already made against diseases such as tuberculosis. In this country,
coupling prolonged good health with prolonged life span remains an unfinished
task. Today's killers and disablers more often arise as a consequence of
things we do to ourselves (unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drug and
alcohol abuse, poor diets, failure to adhere to drug regimens, or inadequate
physical exercise) or others (violence and injuries). Growing evidence that
changing behavior reduces the risk of disease suggests that our efforts to
improve human health must address the complex interplay between body and
mind.
A broad portfolio of balanced research investments is the key to
advancing biomedicine. The physical, mathematical, behavioral, and other
sciences must continue to advance in tandem with the life sciences if we are to
continue to make progress against disease.
|
Improving Farm Productivity
Farmers increasingly rely on precision farming —
tools and techniques designed to work the land by the square meter instead of
the square mile — to improve productivity. Using GPS and other
technologies, farmers can now achieve an extraordinary degree of accuracy in a
range of operations including field mapping, soil sampling, fertilizer and
pesticide application, and crop-yield monitoring.
Thayne Wiser's 2,000-acre farm lies in the
“rain shadow” of Washington's Cascade Mountains, and receives
only six inches of rain a year, mostly in winter. Irrigation is critical to the
growth of his crops, but managing it is a complex process. The soil on
Wiser's farm is sandy and prone to erosion and leaching, and it varies in
its ability to hold water and nutrients. To complicate matters, the water
pressure at the hundreds of sprinkler heads that make up Wiser's
irrigation system varies with elevation. Balancing soil moisture levels with
the right amount of fertilizer and pesticide had been more of an art than a
science, but GPS helped Wiser develop a precision irrigation system that saves
water, reduces runoff of pesticides and fertilizers from fields, and increases
crop yield. |
Walk into almost any grocery store in the United States, and you
will be overwhelmed by the sheer variety of foods. All year round, fresh fruits
and vegetables, dairy goods, meat and poultry, baked products, canned goods
— and, of course, snack foods — line the aisles. Not only are our
supermarket shelves well stocked, but we also export enormous amounts of
agricultural products to the rest of the world. Sometimes we take this
abundance for granted, but we can thank science and technology for these
blessings.
As the quantity of food available has increased, overall food
prices have steadily decreased, so that food in the United States is also more
affordable to the consumer. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the average U.S. family spent 10.7 percent of its income on food in 1997,
compared to 11.6 percent a decade earlier and 22 percent 50 years ago.
Progress Through Research
The United States has
increased its agricultural output largely through growth in productivity, which
rests heavily on our long history of Federal investment in agricultural
research, development, and infrastructure. Economists have found that the
annual rate of return for publicly funded agricultural research is about 35
percent — for every dollar spent, society gains $1.35 in benefits.
Research in the agricultural sciences is continuous and
cumulative. Our modern supermarket cornucopia did not spring forth overnight or
as a result of research in any one field of science. Rather, over many decades
of research, our farmers and scientists have adapted knowledge from many
scientific disciplines to help them grow and deliver more nutritious and
satisfying food to our citizens with less harm to the environment.
Remarkable advances in genetics, for example, have steadily pushed
agriculture forward. At the beginning
of the 20th century, scientists were
rediscovering work done some 30 years earlier by the Austrian monk Gregor
Mendel, who conducted breakthrough scientific experiments proving that plant
traits are largely inherited. Mendel's research allowed scientists early
in this century to develop selective breeding techniques, which identify
agronomically desirable genetic traits and integrate those traits into crops
and livestock to improve them.
|
DNA: Detective for Food-Borne Pathogens
After DNA “fingerprinting” was successfully
used in 1995 to stop an outbreak of E. coli illness, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) established a national network of public health
laboratories to track foodborne bacteria. PulseNet laboratories in 22 states
and two major cities can quickly identify and compare specific DNA patterns
found in bacteria isolated from sick persons or contaminated foods by using the
same technology that creates DNA fingerprints of human criminals. The technique
creates a “barcode” pattern, unique to each type of bacteria, that
can be quickly compared to the barcodes of bacteria in the CDC's
centralized electronic DNA database. This tool helps us understand how
foodborne illnesses might be spreading from a common source and how to stop
them.
PulseNet now plays a vital role in surveillance and
investigation of foodborne illnesses that were previously difficult to detect.
Scientists can spot an outbreak even if its victims are far apart
geographically. With new fingerprinting tools, electronic technologies, and
Federal coordination through the CDC and states, outbreaks and their causes can
be figured out in hours rather than days, and control measures can be
instituted more quickly to prevent loss of life and illness. |
The Promise of Genomics
Further advances in genetics,
coupled with powerful computer technology, led to a new field of study called
genomics — the study of the entire DNA complement of an organism. Using
traditional breeding practices,
scientists found the means to move
desirable genes between sexually compatible species. Today, scientists
can
use genetic engineering to move genes between unrelated species — and can
modify them to function
in specific tissues at specific times.
In 1999 alone, U.S. farmers planted roughly 25 percent of the
nation's corn crop using genetically engineered varieties that reduce our
dependence on toxic chemical pesticides. Half of all soybeans planted in the
United States in 1999 will be seeds that have been genetically modified to
resist herbicides. New varieties of fruits and vegetables are being grown that
will ripen more reliably and resist virus infections better.
Genomics research will be particularly important to the emerging
U.S. aquaculture industry. Declining natural fishery harvests and rapidly
growing populations mean that aquaculture production will need to increase some
300 percent worldwide by 2025 to meet projected seafood demand. There is great
potential for rapid gains in growth rate, production efficiency, and health
status of farm-raised fish through targeted genomic research.
In some parts of the world, genetically engineered foods have
generated environmental and human health concerns. In the United States, our
food safety regulatory agencies have a strong track record of utilizing sound
science in their regulatory actions, and that engenders public trust. Citizen
participation in the policymaking process and ongoing research and outreach
programs to address emerging concerns can help ensure that these new food
technologies serve the best interests of consumers.
|
Biodiversity as the Foundation of Agriculture
Whoever first said “variety is the spice of
life” may have been wiser than we thought. Judging from what scientists
have established over the past 50 years, variety in and among plant and animal
species is what allows life itself to survive and thrive. Biological diversity,
or biodiversity — all the species on Earth, all the varieties within each
species, and all the ecosystems that sustain them — is now recognized as a
critical factor in the natural processes at work in agriculture.
When we began domesticating plants and animals, we
wrought perhaps the most far-reaching single change in the ecology of the Earth
to that time. By patiently perfecting food crops such as wheat, rice, and corn
and making them the dominant crops around the world, we also enabled humans to
emerge as the dominant animal species. Since then, we have steadily improved
our standard of living despite ever greater population densities. Agriculture
has permitted this progress, and agriculture relies on biodiversity for its
continued success.
Biodiversity allows higher yields, pest resistance, and
improved quality of crops. It fosters the development of crop varieties that
adapt to different soils, climate regions, and environmental threats such as
insects and disease. Of the annual increases in crop productivity achieved
through agricultural research, about half are attributable to extractions from
wild species in biodiversity's “genetic library.”
Biotechnology now offers us the ability to tap into the
genetic diversity of all species — not just close
relatives — and
apply desirable traits to completely different species. For this reason,
preserving natural biodiversity is more crucial than ever before. We cannot
predict which individual strain — or even which particular plant species
— might, at some point in the future, offer a genetic weapon against a
pathogen or pest and thereby save millions of acres of food crops from ruin.
And although scientists are now able to move genes from species to species,
only nature can create them. Only by maintaining the widest possible diversity
among all species and their related ecosystems can we hope to ensure that we
will have the resources to develop new crop varieties when needed to respond to
environmental challenges. |
|
