Winemakers Toast Biotech Benefits

Biotechnology holds promise for healthier vineyards, wines and profits. Winemaking is steeped in history and tradition — perhaps more than any other food or beverage industry. From the soil and climate, to the grapes and their harvest, to the crushing and aging processes, painstaking attention to detail dictates the flavor, bouquet and overall sensory experience of the final product. So it may surprise you to learn that the industry is increasingly looking to biotechnology for opportunities to combat crop diseases, lower production costs, produce healthier and more flavorful products, and boost bottom lines. Support for Biotech Grapes Grows Global support for wine produced with biotech grapes is growing. For example, Winetech, a professional association representing South African winemakers, has adopted an official policy favoring the judicious use of biotechnology to advance the art and science of winemaking. The policy "promotes innovative research and dynamic science in a responsible, intelligent, and perceptive manner." In California wine country, 11 county boards of supervisors have passed resolutions supporting biotechnology, affirming its importance to the long-term sustainability and enhancement of agriculture. In several counties, winegrowers were part of coalitions that successfully opposed resolutions that would have limited growers' ability to access this technology. Most recently, on Nov. 8, voters in Sonoma County, a major winemaking region, rejected a 10-year moratorium on biotech crops. In France, the French Health and Food Safety Board stated in 2004 that certain genetically modified organisms could be beneficial to health. The same year, a wine industry spokesperson announced that winegrowers should keep an open mind to the possible benefits of biotechnology. Another sign of growing support for using biotech in wine production is the increasing amount of research on biotech grapes worldwide. Australia, Canada and Western European countries already have begun field tests of biotech varieties, researchers are conducting laboratory and greenhouse studies in Chile and Eastern Europe, and other research projects are under way in South Africa and Italy, according to C. Ford Runge, a professor and director of the University of Minnesota Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy. Combating Crop Disease: Shooting Down the Sharpshooter The surging interest in using biotech in winemaking largely stems from the technology's potential to combat disease. In California, winegrowers are looking to biotechnology as a tool to aid in the war against Pierce's disease. This disease, a bacterial malady fatal to grapevines, reappeared in the 1990s, infecting and killing grapevines at a smattering of vineyards across the state. A tiny flying insect known as the glassy-winged sharpshooter spreads the disease, which decimated vineyards in the Los Angeles basin in the 1880s, 1930s and 1940s. Pierce's disease, which doesn't distinguish between vines that grow table grapes and those that grow wine grapes, destroyed the Florida grape industry in the early 1900s. Winegrowers currently control the spread of Pierce's disease with chemical applications, plant inspections and public information campaigns. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has funded research at the University of California-Riverside aimed at developing genetically engineered bacteria that farmers could use to kill the glassy-winged sharpshooters. But growers and other industry experts, including Dale Brown of St. Helena, president of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, are wary of focusing only on insect control. With what's at stake, they have good reason to be. In 2000, California had retail wine sales of $13 billion. Brown, who lost a third of the vines in his chardonnay vineyard to Pierce's disease, doesn't believe these methods will be adequate over the long term. "Controlling the sharpshooter is not going to be an effective means of defeating this disease," Brown said. "Genetic resistance is where we want to go." Dennis Gray, professor of developmental biology at the University of Florida, also believes the best answer lies in using biotechnology to develop grapevines that are genetically resistant to Pierce's disease. Gray, who has been searching for a remedy for Pierce's disease since 1984, has isolated genetic material from silk worms and jellyfish that is fatal to the bacterium that causes Pierce's disease. Although Gray and his colleagues obtained patents for their work in 2001, completing the testing and gaining approvals may take several more years. "Assuming everything goes according to plan, it will be a bare, bare minimum of five years, more likely eight or so years before resistant plant material — or the technique for developing it — will be available," Gray told reporters when he received the patents. Producing New Products: Better Health and Flavor Biotechnology may prove a powerful weapon in battling Pierce's disease and other threats to the health of grapevines. Researchers also believe in the strong potential for biotechnology to improve the health of wine consumers. Historical records have touted the benefits of wine to human health through the ages. Approximately 4,000 years ago, Egyptians and Sumerians used medicinal recipes that included wine. Since then, inquiring minds have tried to determine whether the benefits are real or imagined. Among the most widely known research suggesting the positive health benefits of drinking wine is a 1970s epidemiological study that uncovered the "French paradox," or an inverse relationship between wine consumption and coronary mortality. Since then, several studies have indicated that wine — specifically, red wine — is beneficial to human health. Red wine contains sterols and polyphenols, or antioxidants, which are micronutrients that many believe help prevent heart disease. In South Africa, researchers have begun exploring ways to enhance the levels of antioxidants in wine while retaining flavor and other sensory qualities. But an even more effective way to enhance the effect of wine on human health is with biotech yeasts. According to researcher Sakkie Pretorius, wine can contain unwanted compounds such as suspected carcinogens, neurotoxins and asthma-inducing chemical preservatives. Pretorius, whose research received funding from the Australian Wine Research Institute and the South Africa Wine Institute, said that through biotechnology, researchers could develop yeasts that might eliminate some or all of these byproducts. Growing a Healthier Bottom Line Improving the healthfulness of wine may make it more desirable to consumers, conceivably increasing demand. And it's easy to understand how advances in crop protection — such as finding solutions for Pierce's disease and other threats — could improve profits for winemakers. Powdery mildew, for example, is a fungus that can reduce vine growth, yield, fruit quality and hardiness. A biotech solution could eliminate the need to use sprays for powdery mildew, saving Australian winemakers as much as $30 million annually. But biotechnology may offer even more to the financial health of winegrowers. Pretorius has identified eight targets for genetically improving winemaking grapevine cultivars and rootstocks, and 24 targets for genetically improving wine yeast strains. Any one or a combination of these improvements could improve a winemaker's balance sheet. Among the targets for improving grapevine cultivars and rootstocks: the color, size, appearance and sugar content of the fruit, as well as drought tolerance and other climatic adaptations. Biotech yeasts could one day improve the efficiency of wine fermentation and processing, as well as control microbial spoilage and improve sensory qualities of the finished product. "The tailoring of grapevine cultivars and wine yeast strains will undoubtedly help the wine industry meet the technical and consumer challenges of the 21st century," Pretorius wrote. "There is vast potential benefit to the wine consumer and producer alike in the application of gene technology." Although consumers will have to wait several years to purchase biotech wines, winemakers around the world are anticipating the benefits biotechnology offers their industry. Increasingly, enthusiasm for biotech is replacing resistance. "Source":[ http://www.whybiotech.com/index.asp?id=5412]

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