In its November 1997 issue, Scientific American reports the US Department of Agriculture is preparing a $200 million proposal to study the DNA of plants, animals and microbes in an effort to better understand and perhaps improve the species human beings rely on for food.
Kelley A. Eversole, a lobbyist for the National Corn Growers Association which is pushing the proposal, claims funding the program could increase agricultural production by 20 percent over the next 10 years.
Some critics, however, are concerned by the NCGA’s involvement and worry that the effort would be excessively focused on corn rather than other crops. Mark E. Sorrells of Cornell University is among those who fear that because of genetic peculiarities of corn, any findings about its genome will have only limited applicability to other crops.