Insights & Outtakes: Farmers Foster Tomorrow's Bounty

Fourteen U.S. farmer associations representing both grain and livestock industries have formed Tomorrow's Bounty, an organization dedicated to communicating the benefits of biotechnology. They see biotechnology benefiting in a number of ways.

Greater food supply. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that farmers must produce 40% more grain by 2020 to meet the world's rising food demand.

More nutritious crops. Only biotechnology has proved successful in creating staple crops with higher vitamin A contents. Vitamin A deficiency is the world's leading cause of blindness. Also, crops with higher iron content can be of benefit to nearly 400 million women of child-bearing age suffering this mineral deficiency.

Effective crop pest and disease management. Because of available biotech seed stock, less herbicides and pesticides are used which protects the environment. Farms are comfortable using biotech because it results in better yield and they can plant in organic material leftover from previous years.

The Council for Biotechnology Information has a website, www.why biotech.com, that includes general biotech information; FAQs; links to government agencies that can provide safety and regulatory information; new events; information about the world's food supply; links to papers about biotechnology, including the FDA's Recommended Biotechnology Guidelines and the Congressional Report on Biotechnology; biotech information for kids and more.

The site gives solid arguments for biotechnology. For example, it states that the world's population has doubled to 6 billion during the last 40 years and that it could climb as high as 10.7 billion in 2050, with most of the growth occurring in the poorest and least developed regions of the world. With less land being dedicated to farming, the crops that are planted must be hardy and bountiful: the new biotech crops fit the bill beautifully.

Seven gram sauce pouches of Frank'sw Original RedHotw Hot Sauce and RedHotw Buffalo Sandwich Sauce are now available. The leading brand (by volume) in restaurants, Frank's is packaged by Portion Pac, which offers a full line of condiments, sauces, dressings and toppings. Portion Pac Inc.

A new low trans fatty acid shortening technology that can be “dropped into” many food manufacturers' current formulas helps to minimize or eliminate the need for reformulation. In some cases, the claims “low in saturated fat” and “no trans fat” may be made, based on proposed FDA nutritional label guidelines. Bunge Foods manufactures and markets shortening and cooking oil, bakery mixes and frozen bakery products for the food processing, foodservice and wholesale bakery markets.
Bunge Foods.

Marinade systems can give chicken the taste of herbs and butter, zesty chili, smoky poblano, or olive oil and rosemary. Beef marinades may include the flavors of butter, beer or roasted garlic and mushrooms. Pork products may be enhanced with the marinade flavors of thyme, sage and red bell pepper or toasted almond and apple. Innova's knowledge of meat proteins and flavor delivery ensures the highest quality finished application.
Innova, A Griffith Laboratories Company.

Dry dairy ingredients, such as nonfat dry milk (NDM), whey proteins or dry sweet whey, may provide superior foam stability, good solubility and clean flavors to dry coffee, tea and cocoa drinks. Preliminary research adding whey proteins to milk used for frothing and foaming in coffeehouses shows that the addition of one percent WPC 80 (whey protein 80%) to milk reduced mean foam dissipation after five minutes. In another area, studies have shown that dry cocoa mixes, which traditionally have lacked a rich flavor, also benefit from dry dairy ingredients.
DMI.