If an age-old challenge in agriculture -- producing more on fewer acres -- finds a solution in biotechnology, a Tennessee company stands to profit.
Some 40 years from now, farmers will need to feed one-third more people worldwide than they do now, according to the World Bank. The farmland that will support those food crops will have more than one tenant, as biofuel feed stocks such as corn gobble up acreage, too.
Next to contend for this finite resource: the common cardboard box.
Memphis-based International Paper, one of the word's largest paper producers with 2008 sales of $24.8 billion, wants to achieve for the forest products industry what farmers have achieved with food crops: use biotechnology to grow more trees on fewer acres.
Critics call the trees in question "Franken-trees." Whether the image conjured by such a term amuses or dismays probably depends upon whether one thinks of Boris Karloff or of kudzu. For IP officials, the term distracts from technological advances they feel will ultimately save native forests by producing genetically altered trees that grow faster and require fewer chemicals to process into paper.
IP owns a one-third interest in Summerville, S.C.-based ArborGen, which has requested U.S. Department of Agriculture permission to sell the first genetically engineered forest trees outside of China. The fast-growing Australian eucalyptus, genetically engineered to survive winters in the southern U.S., grows sustainably in Brazil. Genetic engineering makes the altered version more freeze-tolerant.
"Eucalyptus has an exceptionally fine fiber that excels in producing a clean white paper, which is why pulp from the trees is in high demand around the world," says ArborGen CEO Barbara Wells. "As a biomass stock, eucalyptus is one of the fastest-growing trees in the world, which makes it an ideal biomass plant for biofuels and bioenergy."
Today, conventional forestry methods grow between 500 and 600 trees an acre. ArborGen wants to increase that to 750 trees per acre. Under current plans, seedlings could be available commercially by 2011 and harvesting would occur seven years later.
"With increasing demands on a global basis for wood products, the question is not can firms like IP make more money, but whether there will be enough fiber to go around and still protect and conserve valuable native forests," Wells says.
Some environmental groups oppose ArborGen's effort as a freakish attempt to bend nature to its profit will. Said liberal commentator Jim Hightower on behalf of the Organic Consumers Association: "Your genetically engineered eucalyptus are wildly invasive, explosively flammable and are insatiably thirsty for groundwater."
OCA supporters sent almost 7,000 comments against ArborGen's recent request for a federal permit that would allow existing field trials of trees to flower.
IP officials, however, reject arguments that what ArborGen is doing is dangerous.
"There are those who oppose advances in science and technology and use inflammatory and deceptive terms to describe new developments," says IP spokeswoman Kathleen Bark.
Bark's general dismissal does little to address environmental concerns over the eucalyptus hybrid's potential bite. After all, one needs look no further than the nearest kudzu-carpeted hillside -- and the South has plenty -- to be reminded of the devastation even the most well-intended transplant can cause.
Nonetheless, not every species transplant or hybridization effort goes awry. Consider the plight -- and blight -- of the American chestnut. Wiped out in the early 1900s by blight, the majestic tree is at the center of attempts by UT-Knoxville researchers and others to restore the chestnut to its former glory as a dominant tree in eastern U.S. forests. The UT Tree Improvement Program is one effort seeking to return a genetically altered version of the tree to the region's forests. Lauded by some conservationists as one of the great success stories of American forestry, test plantings of blight-resistant trees grow now in three southern national forests.
Although sustainable forests of chestnut trees may still be a dream, the science behind the attempted comeback has the potential to help other endangered species.
"The biggest impact is to provide a road map for other species," says Stacy Clark, lead researcher with the U.S. Forest Service restoration project. "If we are successful, this will be one of the greatest triumphs in the history of forest conservation."
So, are genetically engineered trees like ArborGen's eucalyptus cause for concern or cause for celebration? The answer, as with many technologies, may be both -- and neither. Regardless, IP's effort serves as a reminder to those jostling for acreage to grow food and provide energy -- save some room for the cardboard boxes, too.
