GE Crops to Produce Energy Crops: A Very Bad Idea [View All]

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Genetically Engineered Crops to Produce Energy Crops:
A Very Bad Idea

Web Note:
Along with the potential contamination of "pharm" crops, crops that have been genetically engineered to contain medicines, are this new series of ideas of enhancing crops to provide alternative fuels. Though I find this an intriguing idea, I can't help but think of the potential for contamination with the scale this kind of planting would require. In fact I can see this as a further reason that dangerous technologies such as the so called "terminator plants" will be pursued once more. - Thomas Wittman
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"Energy crop" research reaps financing

By John CookSeattle Post-Intelligencer, April 21, 2006
Can bigger canola seeds help solve the world's energy crisis?
Thomas Todaro believes they can.

And the 37-year-old chief operating officer at Seattle- based Targeted Growth Inc. just pulled in $10 million in venture capital financing to help make the idea a reality.

The 7-year-old Seattle bioagricultural company plans to use some of the money to continue field tests on a gene enhancement technology -- licensed from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center -- that increases the yields of canola, sugar cane and other "energy crops" by more than 20 percent, Todaro said.

Boosting the amount of oil produced by each plant could have wide-ranging implications for the rapidly expanding biofuel industry, potentially allowing farmers to more economically grow crops on fallow or underutilized land. Eventually, that could lead to lower prices at the pump for biodiesel and ethanol -- derived from corn, sugar cane and other crops.

"We think we can literally improve alternative energy supplies within five years," boasted Todaro, a former general manager at Canadian dairy Alamar Farms and former senior vice president at PayPal.

If that occurs, Todaro believes, Targeted Growth could be a very big player in alternative fuels.

"Whoever controls the best plant, controls the kingdom," he said. "Building a better ethanol-producing factory is not as defensible as having a crop that can produce the highest yield. It is the equivalent of having the land underneath where the petroleum sits."

That claim won over plenty of fans in the most recent funding round, with Targeted Growth turning away potential investors and capping the amount at $10 million. Total financing is at more than $15 million, with Canadian venture capital firms Investment Saskatchewan and GrowthWorks taking stakes.

Initially, Targeted Growth was formed to create better crop yields for the food supply. Some of the science originated from cancer researchers at the Hutch, who were trying to figure out ways to diminish the division of cancer cells. Todaro and his scientists flipped the idea on its head for crops, trying to get the cells to divide more.

"It was honestly that simple," Todaro said, adding that it took about four years to prove the theory.
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complete article here
edited to add this :
related post How Green are Bio-fuels Made From GE Crops