In an article in Mother Jones, food writer Tom Philpott reports on the use of synthetic biology to make vanilla beans that are now commonly used in many foods, including ice creams. The title–“Now your food has fake DNA in it”–is scientifically ignorant, as all substances have DNA in it and the DNA is all “real”; there is no such thing as “fake DNA”–something most of us learned in junior high biology. Philpott, and Mother Jones in general, have a very rudimentary understanding of genetics, and often misrepresent it, particularly when it comes to food related uses of biotechnology. Except for its sneering tone hinting than snybio creations might be hazardous, this report does fairly represent this innovation. Here are some highlights:
It may sound like science fiction, but synbio companies have already performed modest miracles. The California-based firm Amyris, for example, has harnessed the technology to make a malaria drug that now comes from a tropical plant.
No wonder the market for synbio is expected to reach $13.4 billion by 2019.
…[W]hile synbio likely won’t sort out our climate and health woes anytime soon, it just might transform our…ice cream. By creating yeasts that produce high-end flavorings, a Swiss company called Evolva has created synbio vanillin, the main flavor compound in the vanilla bean—and it insists its product tastes much better than the petroleum-derived synthetic vanillin that now comprises virtually all of the vanilla market.
Read full original article: Now your food has fake DNA in it
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