but is a set of proteins found in wheat and a heavy dose of mistrust. Von Wettstein other grains. People with the inability to says when he did similar work in Germany, digest the proteins can suffer everything his crops were destroyed twice. He remains from an upset stomach to death, so eating hopeful, pointing to similar battles science gluten-free can range from a preference to has fought to gain acceptance in the past. a life-or-death necessity. Most who avoid “The same will happen with acceptance gluten turn to completely wheat-free foods of molecular genetic modifications in crop or use alternative flours, like those made plants, and positive results with our present from rice, beans, potatoes or oats. research will help such acceptance,” von To try to combat the negative reaction Wettstein says. to gluten, von Wettstein’s team has worked Laura Mertens runs the blog Gluten to “silence” the proteins that cause negative Free Traveller (glutenfreetraveller.com), reactions (but aren’t necessary for baking, exploring the world’s options for people researchers say). In a lab and greenhouse, with celiac disease or other gluten intolerthey’ve bred wheat and ances. Mertens has travbarley varieties with at least eled to 52 countries on six a 75 percent reduction in the continents, and since she from the puzzle on page 13 harmful proteins and tested was diagnosed with celiac 4 = O; 7 = D them at high temperatures disease in 2009, she’s been for baking. While von Wetlogging gluten-free options tstein hesitates to predict the future, he says she’s found along the way and tips for his team aims to make a gluten-free wheat gluten-averse travelers. She’s written about available to consumers within 10 years. salad in Denver and breakfast cereal in the UK, and shared others’ gluten-free advice he private sector is getting involved for countries from South Africa to Dubai too. Davis, Calif.-based Arcadia to Finland. Last December, she posted an Biosciences, which also has an ofentry entitled “Genetically Modified Gluten fice in Seattle, focuses on using technology Free Wheat?” expressing worries about to make agriculture more efficient and on creating healthier or higher quality foods, like wheat. So when one of Arcadia’s scientists was interested in creating a low-gluten or gluten-free wheat, the company joined in WSU’s work. The project has gained notoriety, publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and a four-year, $837,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2008. (Now, the team is looking for more funding from the NIH or USDA to continue the work.) The attention is in large part because of more frequent instances of gluten intolerance. About 1 percent of the national population has the autoimmune condition called celiac disease, which causes a negative reaction to gluten, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. Another 6 percent — or 18 million Americans — have some other type of intolerance that restricts their bodies’ acceptance of gluten. In Spokane alone, there are at least 51 restaurants (some with multiple locations) with gluten-free options, according to Gluten Free Spokane, a local blog that tracks the issue. But the research is not without pushback. With global movements to label genetically modified foods, and a federal investigation into unauthorized “Roundup Ready” wheat found in Oregon that has exporters and their customers on edge, efforts to scientifically alter foods can attract
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von Wettstein’s work, which she’d read about in the Los Angeles Times. “This kind of genetically modified ‘Frankenwheat’ is more than likely the reason that many of us can’t tolerate wheat or gluten in the first place,” she wrote, “so is creating another type of genetically modified wheat really the way to go?” Today, Mertens says she’d rather see scientists investing time and money in finding a cure to the disease that makes her and others gluten-intolerant in the first place, instead of in wheat that’s safe for them. She advocates that people suffering from celiac disease find a natural and healthy diet and explore gluten-free flours before they look to products “created in a lab.”. Arcadia Biosciences CEO Eric Rey calls the research “fundamentally the same thing plant breeders have been doing for centuries” to produce the best crops. “For people who don’t believe in the intersection of science and foods, what they would have to do to practice what they preach is take all the food in their homes and throw it away,” he says. “The idea that science shouldn’t be involved in food is really not practical.” n
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