A Parliament Hill committee room was packed with MPs last week, on hand to listen to representatives of high tech companies talking about “molecular farming.”
Molecular farming?
Oh, and they also wanted to hear from Jeffrey Turner, whose Montreal-area company Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. recently unveiled the world’s first cloned goats – goats whose milk contains the world’s strongest material.
He told MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee that the milk from the transgenic goats contains spider silk, which will be extracted and used to create products ranging from bullet-proof vests and industrial-strength products to medical sutures and low-cost pharmaceuticals.
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Nexia has named the protein contained in the milk of the cloned goats “BioSteel.” It is found in spider’s webs but spiders are difficult to cultivate.
Turner impressed upon MPs the remarkable strength of the protein to be extracted from the goat milk by holding up his thumb. BioSteel is 20 times stronger than milled steel, he said.
“A cable the size of my thumb would be able to stop a jumbo jet in full flight,” he said.
Along with representatives from Pro Gene Sys and the biotech consulting company FAAR Biotechnology Group, Turner said the field of molecular farming holds great promise for new products and tremendous cost savings.
Medicinal factories
By injecting specific genes into plants, animals or insects that will act as production factories, the natural world can produce a range of products, enzymes and the raw material for a variety of medicines.
They talked about injecting genes into alfalfa to give it an antibiotic content, both to feed cattle and to treat them when they have intestinal problems.
They raised the spectre of fruit containing a tooth decay-fighting gene. And they talked about using plants or animals as hosts to produce the building blocks of health care products at a cost much lower than present manufacturing costs.
“Molecular farming is a very powerful concept,” said Bill Cheliak from Pro Gene Sys.
Paul Arnison, general manager of the biotech consulting company FAAR Biotechnology Group, said the economic benefits from the products of molecular farming could total $100 billion or more.
Government support
They urged the government to support the industry through tax policies and to defend it against critics who raise fears about the dangers of genetic engineering.
“This is a tremendous opportunity that Canada cannot lose by succumbing to these detractors,” said Arnison.
Reform agriculture critic How-ard Hilstrom was enthusiastic in his support, but he questioned whether the biotech industry does enough to defend and explain
itself.
“I see nothing but positive about this,” he told the witnesses. “There is not enough being done to answer the scare mongers out there.”
