those clever geneticists

Interesting news development last week....the advent of prion-free cows. now this got very little attention in the popular press because:
1) most people have no clue what a prion is.
2) these days, recombinant technology doesn't really seem to make Americans hyperventilate.

So let's handle these two points briefly:
prions are interesting and rather esoteric molecules. conceptually, the basis for prions was laid down in the late 60s and early 70s. however, it was necessary for the molecular biology revolution to address these oddities. prions are endogenous proteins that exist in a native state in your (or many forms of life for that matter) body. upon a particular modification, these proteins are structurally altered from their native to an active state - now becoming a prion. once the protein is in this active state, it can then change the other native proteins into an active form and this leads to a feed forward loop of conversation from native to active. the problem with this conversion to the active state? the active proteins now have a high affinity for aggregating into long polymers. these elongated polymers then destroy the delicate architecture of the brain which leads to a progressive death of the unfortunate individual. prions are extremely heat stable - they can go through the autoclave just fine. prions also are an infectious agent (see the kuru disease among the South Fore). not only are they transmissible from person to person, they are also transmissible across species (think of the big uproar over Mad Cow Disease that came from prion infected animals being ground up for cow feed).
so prion-free cows are a nice development....except they are not proposed for use in the human food chain, rather they are being developed for use to generate recombinant pharmaceuticals that will be free of prions.

which leads me to point 2.....which is somewhat peripheral.
why are americans becoming so disinterested regarding recombinant technology in agriculture when their european peers still harbor very strong feelings against this technology?
i would argue that it really is a malaise/indifference that americans have in general towards corporate excess. no european in the know actually thinks that recombinant technology will lead to dangerous allergies or novel production in toxins, rather this technology (particularly in plants) is being positioned by seed companies as a steady revenue stream...it goes like this:
a) company X develops a new seed line that has herbicide resistance
b) farmer buys the seed so he can spray his field after discing and planting to kill all plant life save the seeds that are herbicide resistant - farmer pays the bonus $$$ to get this trait - (company makes money)
c) the herbicide is produced by company X which is under patent protection, naturally (company makes alot more money because of the patent protection will prevent competition)
d) seeds with this trait cannot be stored year to year, i.e. farmer is prevented by FEDERAL LAW from using the progeny seed the next year - even though he has already paid for the technology (here the company really shows how greedy it is, using the government to ensure that the farmer must keep coming back year after year to buy new sets of seed)
e) this technology is not offered at a discount to developing countries where hunger is a problem (so company forces poor people who are starving to forgo this "amazing technology" because it is concerned with erosion of its intellectual property....)

americans are really not that concerned with these sorts of corporate antics....the reasons are probably manifold and generally depressing. however the europeans see this sort technology as less of an advanced, and more of an attempt of seed companies to corner the market on "germplasm" which is viewed as not being subject to intellectual property law.