Cuba looks to genetic engineering to help save sugar crop

Some 100,000 fewer machete-wielding cane cutter and factory workers are taking to the Cuban fields and mills this month in the saddest sugar harvest here in recent memory.

Since June, Cuba has shuttered 71 of its 156 sugar mills and ordered more than half the country's sugar fields used for other crops. The country is bracing for a historic low sugar output, and it will be more difficult than ever to sell what they produce.

World sugar prices continue to plunge to all-time lows as the cost of the petroleum needed to process Cuba's once all-important crop rises. Long gone are the days when the Soviet bloc paid Cuba above-market prices for sugar while supplying the island nation with cheap fuel.

"We have analyzed this at the highest government levels," said Nelson Labrada, vice minister of Cuba's Sugar Ministry. "We have arrived at the conclusion that we have to innovate."

According to the ministry, last year's sugar harvest brought in US$80 million. That's US$120 million less than the year before and far from the US$1 billion annually Cuba could count on a decade ago. This year's sales could plunge by another 50 percent.

"Prices remain stagnant and that's unlikely to change," said John Kavulich, president of the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. "Cuba is a highly inefficient producer of raw sugar. Sugar production has been a huge financial drain for years."

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but in Cuba desperation is a close kin.

That's where Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology comes in.

Gil Enriquez and other scientists at the center in a Havana suburb are tinkering with the sugar cane's genes, splicing in material from a bacterium that produces fructose. Natural sugar cane yields sucrose, common sugar table sugar.

Fructose, which is less fattening and twice as sweet as sucrose, is used in thousands of products, from corn syrup to fast-food hamburger buns.

If successful, Cuba would need much less cane to produce the same amount of sweetener and be able to fetch premium prices - a prospect so promising that Cuba obtained a U.S. patent five years ago on its process of engineering fructose into sugar cane.

It's one of about two dozen U.S. patents the Cubans hold, obtained mostly to keep other non-embargoed countries from profiting from their inventions. In the case of fructose sugar cane, Cuba hopes its patent position will give it a commercial edge when it reaches the world market.

Enriquez said he's ready to plant his experiments outdoors - but getting such permission from Cuban regulators is a lengthy process and the fructose sugar cane is years away from supermarket shelves.

Enriquez's mission is about more than economics. National pride is at stake. Sugar is still the country's No. 1 export, ahead of nickel and even tobacco, although tourism has replaced sugar as the biggest source of hard currency. The sugar industry employs about 400,000 workers.

Closer to attaining the open field is sugar cane genetically modified to make it more pest resistant. About a dozen of these plants are growing in a greenhouse behind the Havana biotech center, promising to reduce growing expenses by requiring less pesticide.

Others at the center are tinkering with sugar cane's genome to make it more resistant to weed killers and disease. Labrada also talks about using sugar cane to fuel electric generators, as a source of ethanol and even as a source for cancer-fighting drugs.

But even if the Cuban scientists succeed with their biotechnology projects - Enriquez for one says he's close - they have other hurdles to clear. The European Union, the biggest market currently open to Cuba, has temporarily banned all new imports of genetically modified foods in the face of consumer resistance.

Even in the United States, which Cuba can't do business with because of a 40-year-old U.S.-enforced trade embargo, whether consumers will accept genetically modified sugar remains an open question.

An increasing number of U.S. acres are being planted with engineered crops and 80 percent of the country's soy and one-third of its corn is modified. But public resistance is cropping up, especially with sugar.

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has approved a genetically engineered sugar beet for market. But U.S. farmers have shunned them after major sugar refiners announced they wouldn't buy them.

There's growing international concern about the health consequences of genetically modified food. No illness has ever been attributed to eating modified food - but no long-term health studies have been done either.

"They've really put a lot of scientific effort into reducing fertilizers and pesticides," said Doreen Stravlinsky of Greenpeace, which opposes most biotechnology. "But there are so many unknown impacts of genetically modified organisms."

Stravlinsky said Cuba - and other developing nations where farmers are thinking about using biotechnology - should look at other, natural ways to improve their crop yields.

"Genetic engineering is expensive and American companies own most of the patents," Stravlinsky said. "Biotechnology is no silver bullet."

Cuba shuts sugar mills - workers hold 9th grade education - degree not any better *** Since many sugar workers have only a ninth-grade education, officials said the government is building new schools to allow them to receive a salary while studying for their high-school diplomas. Classes will include computer training, as well as vocational skills for the emerging industries, they said. Whether there will be jobs for everyone, and whether the restructuring of the sugar industry will suffice to ease Cuba's economic problems are both uncertain, said Antonio Jorge, a professor of economics at Florida International University.

Cuba imports about twice as much as it exports, and has high debt, including loans from Russia that have yet to be renegotiated, while European companies have suspended commercial credit for nonpayment, Jorge said. "Cuba's economy is at a very crucial moment," the professor said. "It doesn't possess the capability to keep on importing and that means major crisis." ***

US policy on aid is 'wicked' - Meacher***US policy on aid is 'wicked' - Meacher By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor 01 December 2002 Forcing starving countries to accept genetically modified (GM) food in aid is "wicked", Michael Meacher, the environment minister, said late last week. He called for "anger to be harnessed" against the policy, which is being vigorously pushed by the United States government.***

GM Foods Debate Hits Latin America (OneWorld.net) ***... Argentina are all at very different points on the path to acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods....... the European Union proposed stricter labeling and traceability of all food and animal feed containing more than 0.9 percent genetically modified ingredients......."The fear of Europe is keeping food out of the mouths of hungry people in Africa," Hegwood said, adding that African governments are needlessly concerned that the food aid... ***

Cuba has the VERY BEST genetic engineering in the world. They also have the VERY LATEST new modern medical equipment. How do I know? Because it was in the movie, Die Another Day. They used their genetic engineering equipment in that movie to do gene transfers on people. Oh, and in the same movie, the people of Cuba are shown as happy, Happy, HAPPY! Hot chix are merrily dancing the Salsa in the streets and the vegetable stands are FULL of produce for the well fed people. Hey, it's all in that movie so it HAS to be true!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.