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Biotechnology has given us a wide range of new drugs. Using genetically engineered microbes, fungi, and animal cells grown in huge vats, the biopharmaceutical industry has brought more than 250 new medicines to market. Some companies have experimented with a different approach-engineering food crops such as corn, rice, and safflower to produce drug compounds. These "pharma crops" have been grown outdoors in 35 states. They threaten to mix with food crops and contaminate our food supply, with serious implications for public health, farmers, and food producers. The Union of Concerned Scientists has urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect our food by banning outdoor drug-producing food crops. There are alternatives that are safer for the food supply. Innovative companies and researchers like those at right are building on the success of microbial and mammalian cells and developing new drugs using non-food plants, plants grown indoors, and plant cells. These methods can provide needed drugs and keep them out of our food.
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