Plants as Phyto-Phactories: Connecting the Iowa Value Chain

The technology-driven evolution of crop plants from producers of basic food and fiber materials to producers of a broader range of specific molecules involved in human health and well-being is well under way. It will mark the beginning of a fundamental change in agricultural practices and the farm economy. The relentless discovery of naturally produced molecules in plants and their direct involvement in health and disease prevention in humans, coupled with the latest advances in genetic engineering, promise the approaching dawn of a new era of manufacturing plants or “phyto-phactories.” These new manufacturing plants will be designed in a laboratory, individually sown, grown by the acre, and managed by highly skilled and quality-certified farmers or farmer-owned corporations. They will use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to “manufacture” specific molecules and offer the dream of a new type of agricultural economy—an economy based on dollars per gram, rather than dollars per bushel.