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Food: Inside the hothouses of industry

Nature volume 466, pages 548–551 (2010)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 August 2010

Feeding the world is going to require the scientific and financial muscle of agricultural biotechnology companies. Natasha Gilbert asks whether they're up to the task.

Do Not Water, says the small notice by the pots of withered, brown maize seedlings, the genetically unlucky ones in an experiment testing maize's tolerance to drought. Five minutes after stepping into the huge greenhouse in which these plants are attempting to grow at the research headquarters of Monsanto in St Louis, Missouri, I am beginning to feel genetically disadvantaged too. Sweat is beading on my skin. Like the desiccated plants, I am clearly not cut out for the fierce summer temperatures that the greenhouse's climate is set to imitate. Just next to them though, a row of green, sprightly seedlings is faring better thanks to a gene that researchers inserted from the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Just as lively is Dianah Majee, the plant biologist showing me around. Her face hasn't even worked up a shine.

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  1. Natasha Gilbert
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See Editorial, page 531 , and food special at http://www.nature.com/food .

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Food special

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Monsanto

Syngenta

Pioneer Hi-Bred

Golden Rice

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

Water Efficient Maize for Africa

International Rice Research Institute

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

African Agricultural Technology Foundation

Improved Maize For African Soils project

African Harvest

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Gilbert, N. Food: Inside the hothouses of industry. Nature 466, 548–551 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466548a

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