Rounding up all the benefits of biotech

Jerry Caulder believes genetic engineering holds the answer to environmental problems. Picture / Brett Phibbs

For a man of science, Jerry Caulder is blessed with a healthy dose of missionary zeal.

With a burning belief in the positive power of genetic engineering, he has a vision of a world where food is designed to be cheaper, more abundant, healthier and safer.

It's a vision he has spent 40 years working towards - first as scientist and executive at Monsanto and later as head of his own biotech companies.

It's also a vision that would make him an unpopular guest at a Green Party conference ... very unpopular.

"This year, the one billionth acre [405 millionth hectare] of genetically modified crops has been planted," he says with a smile.

"When we look back at biotechnology and the contributions it will make to food and agriculture and human health care, the nay-sayers won't even get a footnote."

Despite his reputation as an agricultural futurist, Caulder comes from a traditional farming background.

He grew up on the Missouri side of the Mississippi delta - some of the most fertile land in the US.

In fact, he still owns the family farm. Not surprisingly he now has it planted with GM soy beans and cotton.

"One guy farms the whole farm, where it used to take four or five families," he says.

Caulder's career path has gone in parallel with the growth of the agricultural biotechnology industry.

He started out with Monsanto in the early 1970s, playing a part in developing Roundup - a product that is to herbicides what Coca-Cola is to soft drinks.

"We happened to invent a product that became known as Roundup," he says.

"We invented it in the winter when there weren't too many green plants around so my boss asked me if I would take it to South America and get it tested down there.

"You couldn't do this now. I got on a plane with a litre of this stuff, flew to South America.

"Two weeks later, I called up my boss and said this is the greatest product I've ever seen. It kills all vegetation."

During the 1980s, Caulder became increasingly involved with the venture capital part of the business.

He helped steer Monsanto to invest in several pioneering companies that have developed genetically engineered seeds.

Eventually - aged 40 - Caulder struck out on his own.

He developed a GE seed company called Mycogen which he later sold to Dow Chemicals - reportedly making US$400 million ($574 million) on the deal.

He was in New Zealand last week in his role as a founder of Finistere Partners - a California-based venture capital investment company that has set up a special interest in New Zealand science.

Venture capitalists tend to invest in technologies that are at the cutting edge of science

"Science has no borders and you get just as good an invention here in New Zealand as you can in the US or Poland or anywhere else," he says.

"But technology isn't borderless because there are different people who want to apply it in different ways under different restrictions."

Finistere has two venture capital funds with an interest in this part of the world - the Oceania Partners Fund and the AgResearch-Finistere Fund. The two funds are focused on investment in agricultural science and medical devices.

They could potentially raise up to US$60 million to invest in local science.

Caulder is aware of how the sudden interest in this county might look to cynics.

"Oh my gosh, here's another American who's going to take our intellectual property go make money with it and we'll never see anything," he says.

He sees New Zealand as having good science but needing international partners to get the best out of its IP. He says the partnership with AgResearch is a bold attempt to take IP from New Zealand and IP from the outside world and make one plus one equal three.

New Zealand stands to make enormous economic gains.

In an economy based on a lot of commodities, small changes to production can make a huge difference.

"What would happen to the New Zealand dairy industry if you are able to genetically engineer cattle that produced no trans-fatty acids - no cholesterol. Or you were able to engineer milk which gave you the anti-bodies to make you resistant to certain diseases."

He sites China as an example of a GE success story.

Until a few years ago, China was a big net importer of cotton.

"Under the old system, they couldn't possibly recognise the insect problems, requisition the proper pesticide, get it delivered and put it on the crops in time to save the harvest," he says.

By inserting a gene that controls the cotton bollworm in its seeds, China has quickly become a net exporter of cotton.

GE critics have highlighted potential environmental problems in China which could be caused by the demise of the bollworm and changes to the ecological balance.

But Caulder is not convinced.

"The doomsday scenarios painted by some people just aren't occurring," he says.

"From an environmental point of view, I think biotechnology is the solution not the problem."

The potential for misuse exists for any new technology.

"Society has to try and make as few mistakes as possible, but the big mistake you don't want to make is censoring the science itself."

Jerry Caulder

* Age: 62

* Born: Missouri, US

* Education: PhDs in physiology, biochemistry, agronomy.

* Career: Worked for Monsanto until the age of 40. Started his own biotechnology company and sold it to Dow Chemicals in 1998 for US$400 million.

* He is a founding of partner of venture capital company Finistere.