COLLEGE STATION -- The head of a national forum on agricultural biotechnology said that greater investment in agricultural research will hasten the transition to a more secure, "bio-based" economy that is already gaining momentum in the United States.
"The 21st Century will be known as the era of the life sciences," just as the physical sciences dominated much of the 20th Century, said Dr. Ralph W.F. Hardy, president of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council.
A bio-based national economy, which will use renewable resources such as plants instead of non-renewable fossil resources, promises to make the country self-sufficient in the production of energy, chemicals and materials while improving the quality of the environment, he said.
Hardy spoke to 700 faculty members Wednesday at the annual Texas A&M Agriculture Program Conference on the university's campus in College Station.
The basic tools for building the bio-based economy, Hardy noted, are nearly at hand, with scientific knowledge of genetics expected to increase between 100 and 1,000 times over the next 10 years.
Researchers already have charted the genetic structure of 14 microbes and will complete their work in mapping the plant genome next year, he continued. The last of the billions of parts of the human genome should be traced out within the next five years.
"What this gives us is the biological equivalent of the periodic table of elements in chemistry," Hardy said in an interview. "We'll see the relationships between microbes, plants and humans" at the genetic level as never before.
Hardy said he sees many benefits in a bio-based economy, but added that a multi-billion dollar infusion of capital in agricultural research is needed to hasten its evolution.
"Agricultural research needs to be recognized as going beyond the traditional food, feed and fiber approaches," he said.
"There will also be tremendous new opportunities for agricultural producers who would not be limited to growing just corn, soybeans or wheat, for example, but will have options for growing a much more diverse set of products."
A bio-based economy could also repopulate rural areas, Hardy noted, because processing plants for biofuels, for example, will be located where the crops are grown. Using plants instead of fossil fuels for energy also will reduce the build up of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas that has raised concerns about global climate change, he said.
The National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, founded 11 years ago by the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, N.Y., has 26 members, most of them universities engaged in biotechnology research and teaching. The council seeks to provide an open forum and public policy options on the potential impacts of agricultural biotechnology.