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OR AUTOMATIC BATCH
WITH THE SAME DRYER!
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.c*U s FARM FANS C-SERIES
jjotf*- GRAIN DRYERS
• Continuous flow full heat or dry
and cool
• 2/3,1/3 split plenum gives you the
ability to maintain high capacity
• Capacities range from 300 up to
1,660 bph!
• Available with vane axial fans or
centrifugal fans
• Low-profile design
• Fully automatic operation and
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• Economically priced
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1248 South Mountain Road,
T Dillsburg, PA
717-432-9738
Here are the dryers for the
farmer who has more to do at
harvest time than just dry grain.
The new CF/AB Series from
Farm Fans are designed to
allow drying of either CON
TINUOUS FLOW or AUTO
MATIC BATCH models.
These dryers are specifically
designed for full heat appli
cation for combination drying
and dryeration. However, when
operating AUTOMATIC BATCH,
you can also select Dry and
Cool application.
VaA FARM FANS. INC.
Division of fßcoppcmivoH
High Performance
Axial Flow
Aeration Fans
1/2 to 10 hp
Corp.
Ag Progress Section 1, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 12, 2000—Page
From the Department of Dairy and Animal Science
Biotechnology
The Public Discussion
Terry D. Etherton
Department Head
Dairy and Animal Science
Penn State
The public discussion over
biotechnology foods is a luxury
the well-fed people of the
industrialized world can afford.
But in developing nations, where
the population is growing while
the supply of farmland shrinks,
people are grappling with a much
thornier—and higher-stakes —
dilemma. Unless they can grow
more food on less land, they may
not have enough to eat.
Agricultural biotechnology is
helping to resolve that quandary
by making it possible to grow
more and healthier food in
conditions and places where it
could not be grown before. The
new agricultural biotechnologies
offer a promising hope for
producing enough food for a
growing world population
According to a recent report by
the United Nations, 800 million
people worldwide, many of them
children, are already chronically
undernourished. There is every
reason to believe that problem
will grow worse. The world’s
population, which recently hit six
billion, could top nine billion by
2050, with most of the growth
occurring in nations plagued by
abject poverty. Meanwhile, the
amount of usable farmland per
person could be cut m half As
farmers in developing nations
clear-cut more land and consume
more natural resources to grow
the food their mounting
populations need to survive, the
world faces an environmental
dilemma in addition to a
humanitarian one.
Innovations in agricultural
biotechnology could transform
that picture, helping produce food
for a growing population while
reducing the environmental strain
of agriculture. Yet biotechnology
is opposed by some activists who
claim both to speak for the people
it promises to feed and to defend
the environment it stands to
protect.
Opponents of agricultural
biotechnology characterize it as a
new, untested frontier. But
biotechnology is as old as
agriculture itself. Human beings
have improved the genetic
characteristics of crops for
centuries, from cross- and
selective breeding by the earliest
farmers to Gregor Mendel’s 19 th
Century experiments on pea pods.
Today, high-tech science is
making it possible to target
genetic characteristics more
precisely and safely. Because of
advances made in science and
through the efforts of
governmental regulatory agencies
we have the safest food supply
ever in the history of humankind.
Some of the most important
innovations are plants that draw
nutrients from the soil more
efficiently. As a result, many are
able to grow in the tough
conditions—such as drought,
changing weather patterns and
depleted soil —that farmers in the
developing world often face
Some biotechnology crops may
be developed to grow year-round
regardless of the season,
potentially relieving food
shortages in tropical areas Food
biotechnology, for example, is
already boosting production of
legumes, a major dietary staple in
the Philippines, Sri Lanka and
India Projections say
biotechnology could boost food
productivity in the developing
world by 25 percent overall,
helping to feed more people while
consuming fewer natural
resources.
Agricultural biotechnology
could also reduce crop losses to
pests and disease, an especially
welcome innovation in
developing regions like Africa,
which lost 60 percent of the 1998
cassava crop —the region’s largest
source of calories —to mosaic
virus. The European corn borer
destroys 40 million tons of corn a
year, equivalent to the annual
food supply, m calories, foi 60
million people —approximately
the population of France But
biotechnology crops can be
produced with genetic
characteristics that enable them to
resist pests and disease,
improving crop yields while
providing farmers with an
alternative to chemical sprays
Biotechnology corn, which is
already widely used m the United
States, produces its own
insecticide Research is under
way on virus-resistant strains of
sweet potatoes and other crops
And agricultural biotechnology
can also help foods to stay fresh
longer by ripening more slowly, a
potentially life-saving innovation
in developing nations that lack
refrigeration.
Biotechnology could help to
alleviate malnutrition by making
dietary staples more nutritious.
“Golden rice,” foi example, is
being produced through
biotechnology to deliver higher
doses of beta-carotene, the protein
the body needs to make Vitamin
A. Similar strains of canola and
other crops may soon be on the
way. Researchers are even
working on a banana that would
deliver the vaccine against
Hepatitis B, potentially replacing
costly, often inaccessible
inoculations with a locally grown,
inexpensive piece of fruit.
The new food biotechnologies
are one of the great scientific
advances in agriculture. Based
on rigorous scientific findings
that have been extensively
evaluated by regulatory agencies
in the U.S., there is no increased
risk to the consumer of using
these foods compared to other
foods in the diet. There are many
promising new food
biotechnologies being developed.
The benefits these confer will be
dependent upon the extent to
which the public believes they are
safe. Based on a recent survey
conducted by the International
Food Information Council in
(Turn to Pago 31)
222