by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics:
Cheese is a staple in most American diets. Milk was coagulated with rennet taken from the stomach lining of an unweaned calf to produce cheese. The calf naturally produces chymosin to digest its mother’s milk, and cheesemakers learned centuries ago how to use that enzyme to separate milk into curds and whey. Then the laboratory entered the barn.
During the 1980s, Pfizer developed a chymosin preparation made through genetic engineering. Scientists took the genetic instructions associated with bovine chymosin and placed them into a microorganism. The altered organism could then be grown in industrial fermentation equipment and made to produce the desired enzyme in enormous quantities.
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In 1990, the Food and Drug Administration affirmed Pfizer’s fermentation-derived chymosin preparation from genetically modified E. coli K-12 as generally recognized as safe. The FDA record identifies Pfizer Central Research as the petitioner and amended federal regulations covering animal-derived rennet and fermentation-derived chymosin. This was not some internet rumor. It is written directly into the government’s own regulatory history.
That approval marked a major turning point. One of humanity’s oldest foods could now be produced using an enzyme manufactured by a genetically engineered microorganism rather than obtained from the animal source nature provided.
The product is called fermentation-produced chymosin, or FPC. It performs the same basic task as calf chymosin by cutting a milk protein known as kappa-casein, destabilizing the milk and forming curds. The attraction to the industry was obvious. It offered consistency, scale, predictable strength, fewer supply constraints, and less dependence on slaughtered calves.
This was not introduced because consumers marched through the streets demanding genetically engineered cheese enzymes. It was introduced because industrial production wanted a cheaper and more controllable input.
That is how the modern food supply changes. Nobody holds a national referendum. The corporation submits its data. The regulator gives its approval. Manufacturers adopt the technology. Thirty years later, the consumer discovers that the traditional ingredient quietly disappeared from much of the mass market. Then the public questions why instances of dairy intolerance are on the rise, or why America has become the least healthy nation in the developed world.
Now, 90% or even 95% of American cheese uses genetically engineered rennet. Pfizer’s current production volume is not publicly disclosed, and today’s enzyme market includes other large biotechnology suppliers. Pfizer was an early commercial and regulatory pioneer. It helped establish the technology, but there is no evidence that it currently controls the American cheese supply. That does not make the story less disturbing.
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