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Jason Contreras
CST 300 Writing Lab
12 October 2019
Insect Allies

Life as a plant is rough. According to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA) fifty to eighty percent of the product is lost to the environment. Crops must

deal with naturally occurring threats such as such as drought, flooding, frost, pests and

pathogens. Countermeasures to these threats commonly used by farmers include crop rotation,

selective breeding, slash-and-burn clearing, pesticides and quarantine. These measures are

typically ineffective when combating rapidly emerging threats and are not suitable for maturing

plants. Not only that, these methods can be inefficient, damaging to the environment and could

require extensive and expensive infrastructure. When our food security is challenged, by

extension, the human population is put at risk.

In 2016, DARPA proposed the Insect Allies Program. DARPA. plans to use insect

vectors such as aphids, whiteflies, or leafhoppers as a way to transfer genetically modified

viruses known as HEGGAA’s to target specific plants in an effort to efficiently modify mature

plant traits in one growing season without extensive infrastructure. This is essentially gene

therapy for mature plants, with the intent of making them resilient to fast acting agricultural

threats. Insect vectors refer to insects that transmit diseases.. This program is meant to provide an

alternative to traditional agricultural methods that is effective in rapidly transforming mature

plants to protect them against natural or unnatural agricultural disruption. Focusing on positive

intentions, the program plants to use insects to strengthen crops, in order to increase crop yield.

The problem arises with the use of insects carrying viruses to plants. Many critics have have

posed the question that if the goal of the program succeeds, this technique may be applied to the
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insect vectors with the intention of destroying crops instead of strengthening them. Looking at

the possible consequences these “Insect Allies” may also have the potential to wipe out entire

harvests. Insect allies or possible bioweapons?

After DARPA’s positive introduction of the program, five European researchers struck at

DARPA in an issue of Science titled Agricultural research, or a new bio weapon system? In the

article they consider DARPA’s positive intentions on their dual-use research, however; mainly

focus on the possibility that this program can be misused as a means to develop and stockpile

bioweapons with the intent of targeting food supplies.Dual-use research of concern, refers to

scientific work that could have benefits but could be misapplied to pose significant

consequences. DARPA focuses on Insect Allies’ positive potential to raise crop-yield while

scientific critics center their attention on the possibility of a new bio weapon system.

DARPA has a special set of values when approaching critical problems. “ DARPA has a

unique charter to pursue revolutionary and technologically high-risk projects that go well beyond

the incremental advances typical of many other research and development organizations.” (Black

Bextine, Statement form Dr.Black Bextine, DARPA Program Manager for Insect Allies, p.1)

DARPA purposely chose to focus on the domestic agriculture sector because it is an under-

appreciated element of national security. Biosafety and Biosecurity in this research are of utmost

important to DARPA. All testing is done is isolated secured facilities. DARPA uses a claim of

fact that modern day agricultural methods are not sufficient enough to protect plants from fast

acting thread. Their solution “Insect Allies.” In a DARPA slideshow prepared for proposer’s day

of the program, “experts” claim the problem is fifty to eight percent of the product is lost to the

environment. This claim suffers from a logical fallacy of authority, these “experts” are unnamed
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in the statement yet the term expert is used to strengthen the claim. If “Insect Allies” is

successful DARPA gains recognition, if it fails the program will most likely be dropped.

Science critics main value is protecting the people and maintaining peace. These critics

believe there are too many unknowns for such a wide scale program. The consequences

outweigh the possible benefits when there are other alternatives available. Silja Voneky, one of

the contributing scholars of the Science article criticizing “Insect Allies” claims agricultural

spraying would have been a much safer alternative. Her claim commits an appeal to authority,

despite her being a successful German jurist that specializes in international law and philosophy

of law, she is not qualified to speak about the science of agriculture The critics themselves do not

lose or gain anything from the outcome of the program.

John Stuart Mill first developed the theory Utilitarianism, and it was pushed by Jeremy

Benthan, his mentor who developed the first systematic account of utilitarianism. By the basis of

utilitarians, the rightness of an act is determined by the amount of pleasure and how little pain

that is generated for everyone affected by it. DARPA paints the narrative of “Insect Allies” being

crop-protecting insects. Their justification is that current agricultural methods such as pesticides,

slash-and-burn clearing, ad quarantine are inefficient, expensive, imprecise are destructive to

plants or may require extensive infrastructure. The goal of “Insect Allies” is to be used on a

relevant timescale of one growing season which averages around ninety days. Compared to its’

slower counterpart, traditional selective breeding takes several years. The program’s intent is to

strengthen crops efficiently and effectively make crops more resistant to drought, floods, frost,

and other rapid agricultural threats that traditional methods struggle with. Making crops more

resilient to threats will result in more successful harvests with a higher crop yield which would

benefit the human population by getting more people fed. Research for the program is university
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driven. Penn State University, Ohio State University, and the University of Texas all take part in

research.As for testing of the program, biosecurity and biosafety is emphasized by DARPA so all

testing is done in secured laboratories, greenhouse or other enclosed facilities.DARPA uses an

efficient two-step delivery system to transfer modified genes to plants. This means optimized

insect vectors are implemented with modified viruses to carry on to specific plants. Blake

Dextine acknowledges the fact that the research for the program can be used maliciously,

however; argues there are much easier ways to harm people if that was the intent.

The term consequentialism was coined by Elizabeth Anscombe in 1958.

Consequentialism theory states that the ultimate basis of judgement for the rightness or

wrongness of any act is ultimately bases around the consequences that the act brings.In the

perspective of the critics, “Insect Allies” is a program that has the potential to stockpile

bioweapons capable of destroying entire harvests. Should other countries consider preparing

their own bioweapons against the U.S.? The critics main concern is the unpredictability of the

program. Insect Allies is the first government funded HEGGAs program and there are too many

unpredictable factors for such a wide scale program.

Considering DARPA is a government funded program I believe the government and

innovators driving the program forward at DARPA should be held equally accountable. Insect

Allies has the possibility of becoming a devastating bioweapon and worse, a world threat. If

DARPA is successful and if their data goes into the wrong hands with intentions of doing the

opposite of what Insect Allies was intended for; the consequences could be disastrous. This is

why data security, agricultural safety and human safety should be DARPA’s main

concerns.Safely testing the program was a major concern for me before doing research, however;

with DARPA emphasis on biosafety and biosecurity, all work is safely tested in enclosed labs,
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greenhouses, or other enclosed facilities. DARPA also emphasizes that all researchers must

implement multiple independent kill switches in their tests to prevent any further

damage.Anything concerning global affairs or human safety should be the U.S. government's

responsibility. This is why I believe the government should be more involved in monitoring the

program’s progress. In order to mitigate consequences DARPA should continue safe testing and

emphasize data security while the government monitors the program and have the capability to

take measures to shut down the program if necessary.

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Reference

Bextine, B. (n.d.). Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Retrieved from

https://www.darpa.mil/program/insect-allies

KupferschmidtOct, K., FrederickSep, E., ClerySep, D., WadmanSep, M., FrederickSep, E., &
FrederickSep, E. (2018, October 4). Crop-protecting insects could be turned into bioweapons,
critics warn. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/crop-protecting-insects-
could-be-turned-bioweapons-critics-warn

Bextine, B. (n.d.). PDF, Statement from Dr. Blake Bextine, DARPA Program Manager for Insect
Allies. Retrieved from
https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/DARPA%20Response%20to%20Science%20Opinion%20Pi
ece%20-%20Oct%204%202018.pdf

Specktor, B. (2018, October 5). The Pentagon Wants to Make an Army of Virus-Spreading
Insects. Scientists Are Concerned. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/63765-darpa-
insect-allies-or-biological-weapon.html

Olena, A. (2018, October 4). Questions Raised About DARPA-Funded Crop Program. Retrieved
from https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/questions-raised-about-darpa-funded-crop-
program-64898
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Haskins, C. (2018, October 5). Scientists Fear DARPA's 'Insect Allies' Will Attack Global Food
Supply with Viruses. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/598kq5/scientists-fear-
darpas-insects-allies-will-attack-global-food-supply-with-viruses

S. Justin (2018, October 11) DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office. Retrieved from:
https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/IA%20Proposers%20Day.pdf