Associated Press
07-31-06
Pollen-free corn is objective of researchers at Iowa State
By Amy Lorentzen
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa – Researchers at Iowa State University say they are
developing biopharmaceutical corn that doesn’t produce pollen, preventing the
plants from contaminating other crops.
The team of researchers is using traditional breeding techniques to cross a malefertile corn line with a biopharmaceutical line to produce a hybrid containing a
therapeutic protein.
That protein is then crossed with a sterile corn that hampers pollination,
preventing nearby traditional corn and other crops from being contaminated by
the genetically modified corn.
“Pollen is one of the controllable aspects of the system, and we can do it, and do
it very well,” said Kendall Lamkey, interim chairman of the Agronomy
Department.
Some critics are skeptical that biopharmaceutical crops will not contaminate
other crops meant for food and feed. If contamination by bio corn does happen, it
could hurt exports and devastate farmers, said George Naylor, who grows corn
and soybeans near Churdan in central Iowa, the nation’s top corn-producing
state.
“It makes you wonder if they can guarantee that this thing is 100 percent effective
... in terms of the pollen,” said Naylor, president of the National Family Farm
Coalition.
Iowa State’s Plant Science Institute initiated the research, which is also
supported by the College of Agriculture. Lamkey said it will take about five
growing seasons to conduct all of the crossbreeding that’s necessary for the
project.
Lamkey, director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding, leads
the breeding portion of the work and researcher Kan Wang, director of the
Center for Plant Transformation, engineered the corn to produce the
therapeutic protein.
Lamkey said corn is easy to manipulate from a breeding perspective because it
has large tassels that can control pollination.
“From a molecular biology and biochemistry point of view, we know so much
about corn,” Wang said in a statement.
Hay, here’s a handout
A Kentucky farmer who learned through family of the difficulties facing Vermont
dairy farmers is offering free hay to help them recover from heavy rain.
Tricia Houston of Warsaw, Ky., contacted Vermont officials to offer 53 large
round bales of hay to any Vermont dairy operation that could pick it up.
“It made sense to me to offer it up,” she said. “I would network to get more if
farmers needed it.”
Frequent rain in May and June made it difficult and sometimes impossible for
Vermont farmers to gather their hay crop. The U.S. Agriculture Department
declared a disaster, making it possible for farmers to apply for assistance.
Agricultural economists have warned that farmers are facing a crisis this summer
because of the weather, which has been compounded by low milk prices and
high fuel costs.
Houston said she owns a 30-acre farm with her husband. They raise grapes and
are planning to expand their vineyard and build a winery on about 20 acres,
where they just cut hay.
“We are grateful for the offer,” said Mark Bosma, spokesman for the Vermont
Agency of Agriculture. “It is just a question of whether it makes economic sense
to bring it here.”
The agency has been working with the Vermont Farm Bureau to let farmers know
that the hay is available if they can afford to get it.
“There may be someone out there who can make this work,” he said.