IAs the world population passes the 6 billion mark, pioneering work to guarantee food sustainability continues at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc. (BTI), the largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to plant research in the world. Located on the campus of Cornell University, BTI celebrates its 75th anniversary today (Sept. 24).

"In retrospect, we can see that by helping people study plants, William Boyce Thompson has helped humankind. His vision led to studies that helped create national air pollution standards that not only protect plants but also all of us who breathe the same air," says Charles J. Arntzen, president and chief executive of the institute. "We have created a new technology that is used to create an inhalable version of insulin that will save diabetics from millions of painful injections each year and another for pain-free, inexpensive edible vaccines for our children and those in developing countries."

BTI was the product of international politics and a singular determination and vision. In 1917, just after the overthrow of the Russian monarchy, mining magnate William Boyce Thompson visited Russia as a member of an American Red Cross delegation. He saw firsthand how the new government was unable to feed the hungry. He urged President Woodrow Wilson to aid the provisional government that had been set up by Alexander Kerensky, but his request was denied. The government quickly fell to the Bolsheviks. This experience convinced Thompson that agriculture, food supply and social justice were inherently linked.

Upon his return to the United States, Thompson pondered the problem and wrote, "Any principles that you can establish for plants will help you to understand man in health and in disease. So by helping man study plants, I may perhaps be able to contribute something to the future of mankind."

With a $10 million endowment of his own money, Thompson formed the institute, which officially opened Sept. 24, 1924, in Yonkers, N.Y. Thompson urged BTI scientists to study "why and how plants grow, why they languish or thrive, how their diseases may be conquered, how their development may be stimulated by the regulation of the elements which contribute to their life." He knew that without such research, farmers would struggle to feed the skyrocketing world population in the 20th century.

In 1974 the institute moved to the campus of Cornell University, where plant researchers continue to live up to Thompson's vision by contributing to the green revolution that now feeds millions of people worldwide. Today, BTI researchers focus on anti-cancer compounds in plants, on nutritionally rich foods and on vaccines in plant form, such as bananas and potatoes. They also are involved with environmental conservation, forest biology, plant genomics, plant nutrition and disease resistance.

Related World Wide Web site:

• Boyce Thompson Institute: http://bti.cornell.edu.