U.S. program may be seen as hostile

N EW YORK» A research arm of the U.S. military is exploring the possibility of deploying insects to make plants more resilient by altering their genes. Some experts say the work may be seen as a potential biological weapon.

In an opinion paper published Thursday in the journal Science, the authors say the U.S. needs to provide greater justification for the peacetime purpose of its Insect Allies project to avoid being perceived as hostile to other countries. Other experts expressed ethical and security concerns with the research, which seeks to transmit protective traits to crops already growing in the field.

That would mark a departure from the current widely used procedure of genetically modifying seeds for crops such as corn and soy, before they grow into plants.

The military research agency says its goal is to protect the nation’s food supply from threats such as drought, crop disease and bioterrorism by using insects to infect plants with viruses that protect against such dangers.

“Food security is national security,” said Blake Bextine, who heads the 2yearold project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The State Department said the project is for peaceful purposes and does not violate the Biological Weapons Convention. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said its scientists are part of the research, which is being conducted in contained labs.

The technology could work in different ways. In the first phase, aphids — tiny bugs that feed by suck ing sap from plants — infected plants with a virus that temporarily brought about a trait. But researchers are also trying to see if viruses can alter the plant’s genes themselves to be resistant to dangers throughout the plant’s life.

Still, the research is raising concerns.

“They’re talking about massive release of genetic modification by means of insects,” said Gregory Kaebnick, an ethicist at the Hast ings Center bioethics research institute in Garrison, N.Y., who has studied genetic modification. He wasn’t part of the Science paper but said Insect Allies technology may end up being destructive.

He questioned how well the viruses and insects carrying them could be controlled. “When you are talking about very small things — insects and microbes — it might be impossible to remove them” once they are introduced into farmers’ fields, he said.