But there's another side to biotechnology, and it's one that even the environmental protesters might applaud: the production of enzymes.
"True innovation and products with a more durable revenue stream" are coming from the biotechnology side of the industry," he says.
Right now, with most studies being sponsored by industry, millions of dollars being spent on lobbying by agribusiness in Washington, and a revolving door that brings people from private sector agricultural companies to Capital Hill, the public is being given one side of the story on biotechnology.
The SNPs identified in this study, in which the polymorphism is flanked by 20 bp of sequence context on each side, have been deposited in the National Center of Biotechnology (NCBI) SNP database (dbSNP) under submitter handle WU_ABGC.
On the other side of the debate are the biotechnology industry, science organizations and farm groups that view transgenics as an important tool for improving the value and efficiency of New Zealand's agriculture and forestry industries.
Both sides agree that research is changing rapidly, thanks not only to the blossoming of biotechnology and genetics but also to new laboratory techniques.
The advent of biotechnology has fuelled the search for drugs that act more specifically to overcome the considerable side effects of nonspecific anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs.
On the civilian side, the department of science and technology, which funds academic research, is receiving an 18% hike, to $164 million, and the department of biotechnology's budget will rise by 9%, to $30 million.
This will allow them to sample the differences in know-how between the two renowned universities and between biotechnology enterprises on either side of the Atlantic.
