From The Farm: GM milk opportunities

Wednesday 3rd October 2012

A genetically modified cow that produces milk low in beta-lactoglobulin, a whey protein that causes allergic reactions in some babies! That opens a whole world of possibilities for the sale of specialist products to the 3 percent of babies prone to such allergies.

Federated Farmers dairy spokesman Willy Leferink gave a particularly qualified endorsement of the research by AgResearch and the University of Waikato.

"We shouldn't run too far ahead of ourselves," says Leferink, who suffered an allergy to milk himself as a child. "We should be willing to embrace new technology where there is a benefit medically and economically" provided challenges can be overcome including how it sits alongside conventional milk, proof that it works and regulatory hurdles.

Differentiated milk is already making big gains overseas. A2 Corp is boosting sales in Australia and has signed licence agreements into markets in Asia for its milk with a protein variant that may have health benefits. It was effectively blackballed here, it seems to me, by a skeptical public and pooh-poohing from Fonterra.

I was trying to think of precedents. Pig insulin has been given to diabetics. GM corn has escaped into the New Zealand biosphere and more crops are being tested. You can breed up a plant to resist insects and weed killer.

If we don't harness the potential of GM products and other countries do we just end up being at a commercial disadvantage? But how does it tie with overarching messages about Brand NZ, such as 100% Pure?

The fact we actually produce grass-fed, pasture-based animal protein differentiates New Zealand farming from the vast feedlots of America. The rest of the world is a lot further down the road to factory farming than we'll ever be.

"Whether we go down the GE path may or may not be valid, but we've got no basis on which to have a debate," said Peter Kerr, a primary sector consultant who is promoting the concept of ‘Pasture Harmonies' - where New Zealand Inc claims global ownership of responsible pastoralism.

"We shouldn't just accept a GM animal by default," he says.

To be honest I'm pretty fuzzy about GM. And I suspect many kiwis are. Imagine you could create a genetically modified opossum that would breed infertility into the NZ population, decimating this imported pest and restoring native bird life and native tree health in our forests.

But what if you added a frog gene to a wheat plant, producing fleshy, fishy, protein filled seeds. There's a part of me that doesn't trust commercially-driven scientists to create new or enhanced products that sit within my ethical universe.

A recent insight I've had is that we're very early on this journey. Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring in 1962, a year before I was born but a flash in the history of earth time, noting the impact of chemical sprays on the natural world that surrounds our fields.

Breeding plants and animals to enhance certain traits is a practice that may have started thousands of years ago when humans first began herding animals but the modern science of it is only hundreds of years old - think black tulips, dogs bred to hunt deer.

The new milk is still a long way off. The research findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences but it could be years before such a product was ready to enter commercial production.

One thing it does underline is the enormous mismatch between public prejudice and mistrust, and the actual science. The public is entitled to have an opinion on changes in science and in society that could have a profound bearing on their lives and the lives of their children.

But scratch under the surface of the sorts of debates people have over dinner on science-based topics including global warming and for the most part the level of information is dismal. The subtleties of science are lost on a public used to having debate defined in black and white terms by an increasingly tabloid media.

It is no surprise the average talkback radio caller has become a cliché for ignorance and prejudice.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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