Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

The regulatory bottleneck for biotech specialty crops

Nature Biotechnology volume 28, pages 1012–1014 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor:

Specialty crops, which include fruits, vegetables, nuts, turf and ornamental crops, are important components of human diets and provide environmental amenities1. In 2007, such crops represented ∼40% of the $140 billion in total agricultural receipts, despite being cultivated on just 4% of the total cropped area2. Although tomato was the first genetically modified (GM) food crop to be commercialized in 1994, the only GM specialty crop traits currently marketed are virus-resistant papaya and squash, insect-resistant sweet corn and violet carnations. All of these received initial regulatory approval over 10 years ago. As a group, GM specialty crops have garnered limited market share (the exception is GM papaya resistant to papaya ringspot virus1, which now produces 90% of Hawaii's crop). In contrast, GM field crops, such as soybean, maize, cotton and canola, have come to dominate the markets in countries where they have been released3. What is responsible for this disparity in the commercialization of GM field crops versus specialty crops?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: International scientific journal publications on transgenic crops.
Figure 2: Field trials and regulatory approvals.

References

  1. Alston, J.M. & Pardey, P.G. Hortscience 43, 1461–1470 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. USDA-NASS. Summary and State Data Vol. 1 (USDA-NASS, 2009).

  3. Brookes, G. & Barfoot, P. AgBioForum 12, 184–208 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Huang, J.K. et al. Science 295, 674–677 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang, D.P. J. Integrative Plant Biol. 49, 1281–1283 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Evenson, R.E. in Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology: Economics and Policy (eds. Just, R.E., Alston, J.M. & Zilberman, D.) 103–123 (Springer Publishers, New York, 2006).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Stein, A.J. & Rodriguez-Cerezo, E. The Global Pipeline of New GM crops: Implications of Asynchronous approval for International Trade. (Joint Research Center Scientific and Technical Reports, Brussels, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Graff, G.D., Zilberman, D. & Bennett, A.B. Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 702–704 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dobres, M.S. in Floriculture, Ornamental and Plant Biotechnology, Vol. V (ed. Teixera da Silva, J.A.) 1–14 (Global Science Books, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kalaitzandonakes, N., Alston, J.M. & Bradford, K.J. Nat. Biotechnol. 25, 509–511 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bradford, K.J., Alston, J.M. & Kalaitzandonakes, N. in Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology: Economics and Policy (eds. Just, R.E., Alston, J.M. & Zilberman, D.) 683–697 (Springer Publishers, New York, 2006).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  12. Bagla, P. Science 327, 767–767 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Graff, G.D., Hochman, G. & Zilberman, D. AgBioForum 12, 34–36 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Potrykus, I. Nature 466, 561–561 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

J.K.M. is partially funded through the UC Discovery Fellows program (http://ucdiscovery.org/). This study also received support from Specialty Crop Regulatory Assistance (http://www.specialtycropassistance.org/).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seed Biotechnology Center, University of California, Davis, California, USA

    Jamie K Miller & Kent J Bradford

Authors
  1. Jamie K Miller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kent J Bradford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kent J Bradford.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Data, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 (PDF 2044 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miller, J., Bradford, K. The regulatory bottleneck for biotech specialty crops. Nat Biotechnol 28, 1012–1014 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1010-1012

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1010-1012

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research