| Abstract: | A professor of biophysics and medical physics at the University of California, Berkeley, comments on advances in developing frost-resistant crop plants, and on the objections that have halted or delayed field tests of these plants. Jukes describes a proposed field trial by a biotechnology company, Advanced Genetic Sciences (AGS), of strawberry plants treated with the strains of common bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae and Pseudomonas fluorescens) from which the gene for the ice nucleation protein has been removed. Closing with an account of his confrontation with demonstrators protesting the AGS experiment, he concludes that the latter are not basing their objections on scientific fact and are failing to weigh the benefits of greater food production against the small risks from genetically altered bacteria. |
