| "This is a picture of Dr. Jon Riesdorf, the founder of the Hanover Institute of Food Industry Research and Design. He was a brilliant man, a man of vision and courage, a man who knew what the people of the world wanted, and a man who could give it to them." Right away I could tell that Dr. Felts had been rehearsing this speech for quite some time. "Dr. Reisdorf's research at UC Berkley consisted of the incorporation of a foreign gene into the nuclear DNA of the soybean. This gene, which was extracted from the lemon genome and was responsible for the increased levels of ascorbic acid, vitamin C, produced a similar outcome in the soybean. The result of this was a soybean with greatly increased levels of vitamin C. Although this increased level of vitamin C was beneficial, the most important part of this research was that Dr. Riesdorf found a way to pull it off without creating an altered phenotype of the plant. He realized that he could then apply this technique to a whole host of organisms, inserting specific genes to elicit specific responses." I was somewhat baffled by the technical terminology of all this. The slides, which must have been designed for some scientific presentation were of no help either. "Let me get this straight, he crossed a lemon with a soybean and it made some sort of combination but only combined the one part of the lemon with the rest of the soybean?" "Uh, yes, that is correct. He took nothing away from the soybean, he only added a part of the lemon. After he realized the implications of this he took a project to the head of a certain fast food chain, lets just call them McDon's for anonymity's sake. He told them about his research and what it implied, and they quickly caught on that this would be a revolution in their industry." "So they put up the money for the institute?" "No, it was going to take quite a bit of money, so the formed a sort of secretive alliance with a few of the other big food chains, six in all I believe. With that money the institute was under way. The first project was a big one too. Dr. Riesdorf engineered a soy product which would have such a neutral flavor and even constancy that it could easily be used as filler in the meat products. At that point, after all the research and trial which took over two years, the major food chains were making hamburgers which were nearly half soy. It saved them a bundle, I would imagine that in two years time they probably got back their investment. And with the start up money the institute had all the capabilities to continue making new revolutions in the industry." "So the first product of HIFIRD was the soy filler, what came next." "Oh, well the next product we designed was a chicken filler, it was very easy given all the research could be applied nearly directly. The only thing which was difficult about it was the selling of a chicken product which was not on a bone, our customers thought that their customers would never buy it. Dr. Riesdorf knew better though. And just like that the chicken nugget was born. Now I think it comes in a close second to the burgers. Next they applied the same thing to chicken patties and all sorts of other chicken products. Fish proved a little more difficult, but the doctor quickly devised a way to keep the texture of the meat intact with a layering process of the soy fish mixture. I bet you wouldn't have ever guessed that there was soy in your fish, would you?" "That is simply amazing. I never knew. I had heard about the soy in the hamburgers, and I could sort of guess about the chicken nuggets, but the fish, you really can't tell. It tastes just like fish." "Its interesting that you say that. One of the things the doctor did to the fish soybean was add a specific gene which produces a chemical in fish which accounts for the smell, or at least part of the smell, the biochemistry of it is actually rather complex and too difficult to imitate perfectly. But it's close, and with the real fish in there also you can't tell at all. After the fish soybean, we had a little lull in business, I think it was probably due to the fact that we had done all we could with the soybean. We had to find some new direction in our research. That was about four years ago. That is when I think things really started to get interesting. And I am sure you will agree, after you see some of the present research, that we are really close to redefining the industry again. If you will follow me I take you first to our oldest running project." Dr. Felts and I left the board room and walked further down the hall. Again we passed through a security check point and an electronically locked door. He swiped his id card and we went through into an observation room overlooking a large lab with quite a few scientists working in it. There was an area with lots of chemical bottles on one side and on the other was a row of cages with some sort of animal in them, I couldn't make out what animal it was from the distance. The lab was quite impressive, even to my unknowing eyes I could tell that there was some top dollar equipment in the room, and everything was a pristine white. "Now, I must tell you Mr. Miller, that I fear that this and some of the other current research going on was the reason that you were called to come write your story. You see, the board of directors have a disagreement with me about the direction that we are headed here. It would all be so clear if only Dr. Riesdorf were still around, he could make them understand that his this research, his vision, was truly what the people wanted. But I am not as eloquent as he was, and I can't get them to understand that this is good research. But I think that you will understand it, they just want to disassemble the institute and ruin what the doctor has created. And they are counting on you to validate their claim, that the research is unethical and wrong. But they will see, when you write your paper telling the truth about our research they will have no choice but to agree with you and I that this is what the people want." As Dr. Felts kept talking I began to get quite uncomfortable. I knew that there was some internal conflict between him and the board of directors, but I had no I idea that I was to be the one who resolved it. I knew nothing about the subject, there must be some misunderstanding. "I think you must have misunderstood, Dr. Felts, I was called to write a story on the research here, nothing more, just a story. And I plan to write one independently and not take sides." "Oh, of course, I am sorry if you took me the wrong way. That is all that I ask of you, just an independent story, don't take sides. I am quite sure that you will write it that way, and that it will validate the research as something vital and important to the people. I am quite sure. Lets get on with it, shall we, follow me and I will show you Dr. Riesdorfs solution to the chicken problem." We walked down a flight of stairs to an entrance to the lab. There was a constant hum of equipment all around us, people carrying tubes and syringes and what not, much more activity than I had notice from our earlier perch in the observation room. "What chicken problem, doctor?" "Oh, yes, like I said before we ran into some barriers with the chickens, first you can only add so much soybean until it takes away from the flavor. Second, studies have shown us that real chicken meat simply appears much nicer, it flakes off and what not, people just like it more than our soy/chicken meat. Rightfully so, I mean who wouldn't. The problem with chicken was that it costs so much to produce. You have only a limited size bird, they eat quite a lot and don't conserve the weight, there is the plucking and all that other stuff involved with all the production of the actual useable meat. It costs way to much to be feasible to be sold cheaply on a large scale. This is our solution." |