Modified corn may fuel boom in biotech
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
A company's cultivation of corn with human genes in Hawai'i is one of more than 1,000 similar experiments planned and executed in the Islands.
But this latest genetically modified corn, developed by scientists at San Diego company Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc., is special for two reasons, experts say. It's supposed to produce hormones that fight herpes, and it's at the vanguard of a growing trend in biotechnology: plants that are genetically modified to treat or cure human diseases.
Hawai'i agriculture experts say the Epicyte corn, now being grown in Hawai'i by Dow Chemical Co., could help turn the state into a hotbed for the latest agricultural biotechnology.
"This might be the niche where Hawai'i can fit into the whole process," said Stephanie Whalen, president of the Hawai'i Agriculture Research Center, a private nonprofit organization. "Hawai'i is an excellent place to do this kind of thing — and farmers here could be very well paid to do this work."
Hawai'i is already one of the nation's most popular test sites for genetically modified crops, thanks to its friendly year-round climate and isolation from "normal" crops that could be accidentally tainted by experimental pollen.
Since the beginning of 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted more than 400 permits for field testing of such crops in Hawai'i — second only to Midwestern farming powerhouse Illinois.
Since the 1987 advent of such permitting, biotech and agricultural companies including Dow, Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred have been granted more than 1,327 test sites in Hawai'i, more than any other state.
These crops have helped add millions of dollars in revenue to Hawai'i agriculture. Seed research produced a record $36 million in revenue in 2000, according to the Hawai'i Agricultural Statistics Service — the third-largest crop in the state, behind pineapple and sugar but ahead of macadamia nuts and coffee.
While much of that revenue is produced by traditional seed research — encouraging traits through cross-breeding — genetically spliced plants are clearly the wave of the future, Whalen said.
Most of the experimental crops raised here have been modified for agricultural uses — like worm or insect resistance, or better taste, color, smell or size.
Epicyte wants to extract hormones, produced by the human genes, from its corn to make a topical herpes-fighting cream.
Dow Chemical spokeswoman Adrian Proctor said yesterday that Dow has already started cultivating a small test crop of Epicyte corn here. She did not disclose the corn's location or the size of the planting.
Reach John Duchemin at 525-8062 or jduchemin@honoluluadvertiser.com.
