Agricultural Biotech Firms Develop Products for Home, Garden Markets

Abstract

Most of the attention paid to agricultural biotechnology has focused on genetically engineered plants, foods, and biopesticides for major agricultural crops. At the same time, many companies have been introducing related, although not genetically engineered, products into home and garden markets for the control of other pests such as mosquitoes. Although smaller than the potential agricultural markets, retail markets for biological pesticide products can be lucrative and of a more manageable size for small companies. Like conventional pesticides, biopesticides generally must be registered by the Environmental Protection Agency. The market for biopesticides has existed for many years but has remained only a tiny fraction, less than 1%, of the $20 billion annual worldwide pesticide market. Biopesticides, such as those based on naturally occurring bacterial toxins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), have been used widely in the U.S. in forestry to control gypsy moths and other insects, and to manage mosquitoes. ...