Menary, J; Amato, M; Sanchez, AC; Hobbs, M; Pacho, A; Fuller, SS
(2020)
New Hope for a “Cursed” Crop? Understanding Stakeholder Attitudes to Plant Molecular Farming With Modified Tobacco in Europe.
Frontiers in Plant Science, 11.
p. 791.
ISSN 1664-462X
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00791
SGUL Authors: Fuller, Sebastian Suarez
Abstract
Plant molecular farming (PMF) with tobacco could provide a sustainable and cheap platform for the production of high-value proteins for medical use. It could also offer European tobacco farmers an alternative, healthful end use for their crop. New plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) offer a means of quickly and precisely optimizing molecular farming platforms for this purpose. However, there has been little empirical research focussing on the barriers and facilitators of these technologies in the agricultural sphere. Here, we explore key stakeholder perceptions toward this combination of technologies, exploring their understanding of risk and opportunity. We interviewed N = 24 key stakeholders – tobacco farmers, agronomists, policymakers, and researchers – in three tobacco-growing areas of Spain and Italy. Our findings demonstrate these stakeholders have a favorable attitude toward PMF with tobacco due to its beneficial medical purpose and the opportunity it provides farmers to continue growing tobacco in a declining European market. Tobacco producers also reported favorable views toward NPBTs, though for some this was contingent on their use for non-food crops like tobacco. Most stakeholders’ concerns are economic in nature, such as potential profitability and demands for new agronomic practices or infrastructure. Tobacco producer associations were thought to be important facilitators for future PMF scale-up. The attitude toward these technologies by smoking tobacco companies is, however, unknown and constitutes a potential risk to the development of PMF.
Item Type: |
Article
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Additional Information: |
Copyright © 2020 Menary, Amato, Sanchez, Hobbs, Pacho and Fuller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: |
Academic Structure > Infection and Immunity Research Institute (INII) |
Journal or Publication Title: |
Frontiers in Plant Science |
ISSN: |
1664-462X |
Dates: |
Date | Event |
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12 June 2020 | Published | 18 May 2020 | Accepted |
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Publisher License: |
Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 |
Projects: |
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URI: |
https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/111956 |
Publisher's version: |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00791 |
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