Why Molecular Farming of Transgenic plants, why PMPs

MOLECULAR FARMING WILL BE GOOD FOR THE WORLD

MOLECULARFARMING.COM is a website dedicated to informing students, the public, and farmers about this future industry. General information and press articles here are for public information. This site also has material for student use such as the patent listings section especially to help students and their research
The Database is for farmers and Pharma companies.
This is a complex industry, and an industry which is giving rise to irrational fears through a simple lack of knowledge. We will show you, the public, that this fear and distrust is misplaced. Molecular Farming is more regulated than the Food industry, and much safer.
FACT - NO MOLECULAR FARMING CROP HAS POISONED ANYONE - EVER !
Read on and discover how plant made pharmaceuticals and the protein products from pharm crops and other transgenics will improve global health and well-being

WHAT IS MOLECULAR FARMING ?

Biotechnology in agriculture has two categories: (1)"improvements" to existing livestock and crops, and (2) development of entirely new uses for both animals and plants ( Biopharming ) So called "improvements", include ‘input traits’ such as crops with extra resistance to insect attack and improved weed control. These "GM" or "GMO" crops, are modified food crops made more commercially viable, e.g. "Roundup ready" soya, "Starlite" corn, or "Frost-tolerant" tomatoes. Consumers are worried about the safety of their food. Unfortunately we already have cases of compliance failures.

MOLECULAR FARMING is the term for new use plants only [ not animals ] and is different in that this does not affect and has nothing to do with Food . Although it is not yet routinely used commercially, interest and investment in molecular farming with plants is accelerating rapidly. Full scale production licences are imminent, although actual land area involved will be very small and highly regulated, and much will start in contained greenhouses. There are two types of Molecular Farming - Medical and non-Medical

TRANSGENICS 'biofarming animals' or 'pharming' is the related Animal field. This is the direct application of biotechnology to develop new uses from Animals and has already produced potential treatments for conditions as diverse as Diabetes and Cystic-Fibrosis.

Medical Molecular Farming is the growing and harvesting of genetically engineered crops of transgenic plants, to produce biopharmaceuticals [ sometimes called 'farmaceuticals' ]. The idea is to use these molecular crops as biological factories to generate drugs difficult or expensive to produce in any other way. Combining plant genetics, molecular biology and gene delivery, scientists take genes from other sources, such as microorganisms, and splice them into the plant's genome. During normal growth these genetically engineered plants synthesize 'recombinant' proteins which can be Therapeutics, Vaccines, Blood substitutes, Enzymes or Diagnostics which are then extracted from the crop. These transgenic techniques are already being used to produce vaccines for some animal diseases, such as mink enteritis virus. Many others are at advanced stages, such as measles vaccine in Australian potatoes and drugs to fight cancer, heart disease, infant diabetes and Crohn's disease. Therapeutic Proteins, edible vaccines, 'plantigens' and 'plantibodies' are already in Clinical trials.

Tobacco plants are especially suited to this purpose, and by 2025 may be more valuable as a source of biopharmaceuticals than of tobacco, although land area involved will be very small. Other transgenic crops to date include Alfalfa, Safflower,Canola, Flax, Potatoes, Corn, Barley, Soybean, Peas, Beans, Bananas, Tomatoes, Wheat, Carrots, Lettuce, Duckweed, Moss & Rice.

Non-Medical Molecular Farming includes Industrial Enzymes and Polymers. Potentially the biggest development in this field could be the development of plants growing biodegradable plastics [ e.g. the Metabolix company ]{ Think of the amount of annual waste saved Globally } Other uses could be as Industrial oils such as hydraulic oil or highg yielding biodiesels, new solid Biofuels, new Fibres and Papers, and as agents for Bioremediation and Phytoremediation, environmentally cleaning up contamination. Although the term Molecular Farming has been around since 1986 in specialist literature, it is now becoming widely known because;--

At least 1000 medical and non-medical candidate proteins for Molecular Farming have been identified

The world's oil production could have peaked, http://www.hubbertpeak.com/magoon/ which will fuel the need for alternatives as oil increases in price. Molecular crops are being, and will be, engineered to produce specific use oils, as well as higher yielding ethanols and biofuels.

There is an International Molecular Farming Association, which held World Conferences in 2003 and 2005 in Canada - MolecularFarming.com was there.

Several International Organizations are holding Conferences which include Molecular Farming. Details on our NEWS page

We describe what is happening more fully in specific fields on the various other pages of this site.

FARMERS, - VISIT THE WORLDWIDE POTENTIAL MOLECULAR FARMERS DATABASE PAGE AND CONSIDER JOINING THE OTHERS ALREADY THERE .
Although actual land acreage required will be very small, and the industry will be highly regulated, some safe locations will be needed. You, your greenhouses or your land may be suitable. Registering on the Database is FREE, and may be the most important decision that you will make about the future potential use of your property.

UNIVERSITIES ! LET US KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IF YOU ARE WORKING IN MF or PMPs.
We want to let the world know of your work. Tell us about COURSES and we will mention them.

Fax ++ 353 7491 56249 or e-mail US

Recombinant Proteins from Plants: Methods & Protocols - 2008. editors Loic Faye & Véronique Gomord - currently the best, most up to date book on Molecular Farming. You can buy it, and other Molecular Farming books, from Amazon.