But biopharming's great promise lies in the ability of gene-splicing techniques to make old plants do new things.

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As the field begins to demonstrate its potential, reasonable, science-based public policy must ensure that we all reap the potential benefits sown by biopharming.

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Also proposed is an expensive requirement of separate equipment for biopharming.

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Land used to grow biopharmed corn, for example, would have to lie fallow for the following season, a requirement that would promote soil erosion and whose expense would discourage many farmers from biopharming.

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Biopharming is not as science-fictiony as it sounds.

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It is understandable that the food industry wants to protect our efficient and safe systems of food production and distribution, but their anxiety takes into account neither the realities of contemporary agriculture nor the nuances of biopharming.

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It would happen only if a certain gene from the crop confers a selective advantage on the recipient--an occurrence that should be uncommon with biopharming, where most often the added gene would make the plant less fit and less able to proliferate.

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