By Ryan Whirty
New York Correspondent
Scientists in upstate New York are trying to bring gene technology to the state’s strawberry industry, but a professor at Cornell University says it might not be easy.
Marvin Pritts, a professor of horticulture at Cornell, said there are legal hurdles to overcome, and a growing distrust of genetically-engineered foods might also become a factor as experts try to produce Roundup-resistant strawberries in New York. Still, he said, strawberry growers would like to see the technology come to fruition because it would help them deal with pesky weeds.
Marvin Pritts
“A lot of growers think this would be a very good thing,” he said. “Weeds are one of the biggest problems in growing strawberries.”
Pritts noted that researchers in California led the way in developing biotechnology in strawberries. In November 1999, officials at DNA Technology Corp., an Oakland-based company, announced they had grown strawberries that were resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup.
DNA representatives said they had introduced mutant forms of the enzyme EPSPS into strawberry crops to induce tolerance to glyphosate. Dozens of lines of both Selva and Camarosa berries were injected with EPSPS. Company representatives said such technology would allow strawberries to survive sprayings of Roundup and could be used as a methyl bromide replacement within a few years.
“The technology is proven,” said one company official in a November 1999 issue of Pesticide and Toxic Chemical News. “We’re trying to make Roundup-ready strawberry plants.”
DNA Technology also announced that it had entered an agreement with the chemical company Monsanto to market the new technology to strawberry growers. That, Pritts said, creates a host of legal issues for scientists and growers elsewhere in the country. He said researchers in New York cannot simply copy what was done in California because, in many cases, gene technology is owned by the companies that created it.
“The big limitation isn’t so much developing the technology,” Pritts said. “It’s the legal issues.”
But scientists at Cornell are trying to come up with their own solution. At the university’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., assistant professor Courtney Weber is working to develop gene technology in local strawberries. Weber, who serves as the ag station’s small-fruit breeder, started with the university in the spring of 1999.
“I hope to release many improved raspberry and strawberry cultivars for the Northeastern grower so the industry will expand,” Weber said when he arrived at Cornell. “The more initial success I have, the easier it will be to be more successful in the future. Success feeds upon itself.”
Even if Weber is successful, New York strawberry growers might face other hurdles. One challenge, Pritts said, could be a sudden rush to grow strawberries, which would result in an oversupply.
“This would make strawberries easy to grow, so a lot of people would want to get in,” he said. “Initially, it’s great, but soon everybody does it, the supply goes up and prices fall.”
Then there’s the growing popular protests against genetically-enhanced foods. Pritts acknowledged many scientists and researchers do not fully investigate the issue of food safety as they develop new technology. “No one looks at the negatives,” he said.
Added to that is the fact that many consumers have an inherent skepticism about food that isn’t produced through traditional methods.
“When people buy a product at the market and they learn it’s been modified, there’s something about that that would be a violation of trust to a lot of people,” Pritts said. Plus, he said consumers often can’t discern any difference between traditionally grown foods and enhanced foods.
“All of these modified products have benefited the companies and the farmers, but there’s been no benefit to the consumer at all,” Pritts said, describing the viewpoint of many consumers. “Monsanto sells more herbicide, farmers have an easier time dealing with weeds and can cut their costs, but the consumer doesn’t get anything out of it. I can understand why there’s a backlash.”
In February, Pritts will speak at the New York State Berry Growers Association annual meeting, where he will discuss the possibility of modified strawberries as well as the positives and negatives of such a development. Researchers and growers need to wrestle with the legal, economic and ethical issues raised by biotechnology, he said. No one doubts that modified berries would help growers in many regards. The question is, will it also hurt them?
