Social, Political, and Economic Impact

·        Social Impact: Some of the newest and best working drugs that fight illnesses like cancer and heart disease are made from proteins. Proteins are intricate compounds that can be made only by the cells of living organisms. These proteins, called biologics, are made in expensive, sterile fermentation facilities where specific groups of mammalian cells or micro-organisms are brewed in stainless steel tanks. By applying the tools of biotechnology to marketable crops such as tobacco or corn, plants are being made that could create these medicinal compounds. (Virginia Tech) Making pharmaceutical products using plants has been an objective of scientific research for about twenty years or more, bridging the fields of molecular biology, medicine, and agriculture. (Virginia Tech) Engineering such specialized “pharm” crops represents the newest wave of agricultural biotechnology, and growing these crops is being called “bio-pharming”.

·        Economic Impact: Making plants that produce medicinal proteins requires some genetic engineering. Genetic engineering involves transferring DNA from one organism into another. Pharm crops contain an added trait, and the trait they are genetically engineered to produce is a protein that is used for medical purposes. In most cases the biologic is retrieved from the pharm plant by a process called extraction. This is done by grinding up the plant’s leaves or seeds, and then purifying the protein into a usable form. Sometimes the pharm plant expresses the drug in its fruit, so that people or animals can take the drug simply by eating the fruit of the pharm plant. (Virginia Tech) These “edible vaccines” could dramatically change vaccination programs in developing countries where access to medical supplies and trained health care workers can be limited. (Virginia Tech) Vaccination programs could increase throughout different countries and as a result many people could be hired to genetically engineer plants to make these edible “vaccines” and sell them.  Economies would grow and greatly benefit from such programs. If pharming becomes a well developed and utilized technology as many scientists hope it will, than lots of people will gain from it by being able to apply to more jobs.

·        Political Impact: Many groups or companies will stand to gain from this technology. For example: Large Scale Biology (LSBC), Epicyte, Meristem Therapeutics, Genzyme, ProdiGene, SemBioSys, Ventria Bioscience, PPL Therapeutics, Dow Chemical Company, Pharming (Company). (LuMriX.net) All of these companies and groups will greatly benefit from this technology because they are the ones creating medicinal drugs. There are groups that will be hurt from this technology if it is not maintained well and not aware of the risks. Farmers who grow organic crop could be hurt by pharming if the transgenic crops (the ones with an added trait) are mixed with the organic ones. Also if the organic crops are somehow pollinated by the transgenic crop, the farmer will turn out having transgenic crops. But this could only happen if the transgenic crops were grown and experimented in “open field”. This could be easily prevented; the scientists just have to be careful with the crops or plants they are handling. One of the groups that are against pharming is USDA. They are on a zero tolerance policy so they are very strict when it comes to mixing or messing up. They are afraid that through mishandling or gene flow, potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals may unintentionally enter the food supply. (LuMriX.net) After one company was fined for commingling crops that could create harmful gene flow, policies got a little stricter and companies were more aware of the risks. Other than the possible problems, many companies could definitely gain from this technology.  

 

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