NASA High On Ag-Tec Technology

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Speaks at NASA

American Ag-Tec Feature on NASA Video Conference

American Ag-Tec International, Ltd. of Delavan, WI was a featured segment on the February 26, 1998 live downlink of NASA's fifth annual International Space Station (ISS) satellite teleconference, "International Space Station: Open for Business."

The program which was downlinked to more than 600 locations throughout the United States and a number of countries worldwide, was aimed at a specific audience made up of scientists, educators, students and businessmen. Lee Thornton, CBS correspondent and National Public Radio Host, acted as moderator to this media event which brought together scientists, former astronauts and NASA space researchers along with innovative biotechnology, materials processing and Agriculture experts.

Agriculture and biotechnology was represented by Robert G. Britt, President of American Ag-Tec International, Ltd., the developer of the Quantum Tubers™ technology. Quantum Tubers™ is a biomanufacturing technology which employs biotechnology in the development of pathogen-free, nuclear seed potatoes called minitubers.

The development of the Quantum Tubers™ rapid reproduction method of biomanufacturing potato minitubers as the beginning seed stock for multiplication of seed potatoes, is creating a dramatic impact on the production of potatoes worldwide. The Quantum Tubers™ system enables countries which have not been able to grow their own seed potatoes in the past to be able to raise their own seed needs. Those countries who have depended entirely upon imported seed potatoes to multiply locally, can now become independent of the burdens of importing their seed needs. Seed potatoes can be multiplied from pathogen-free minitubers grown locally at any location in the world where potatoes are grown commercially when using the Quantum Tubers™ biomanufacturing system.

NASA became involved in the Quantum Tubers™ project through the NASA center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison via WCSAR (Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics) which was involved in closed cell growth chambers used in growing plants in space aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Since the first introduction of the Quantum Tubers technology to WCSAR, a relationship developed which grew into the fully computerized and precisely controlled growth chambers in use today in the Quantum Tubers™ technology for potato minituber production.

Systems nearly parallel to the Quantum Tubers™ system, but more spaceworthy, are currently flying aboard the Russian space station MIR, and are being adapted for installation on the International Space Station (ISS) at completion of its launch which is beginning in June 1998. The ISS is destined to use cutting-edge life sciences, materials, biotechnology and agricultural research in its new orbiting laboratories. The Quantum Tubers™ technology is proud to be a part of the NASA program as a commercially available technology which is now available back on Earth.

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Company News Release - April 21, 1998

NASA Video Conference

American Ag-Tec Speaks at NASA on Potato Minitubers
[minitubers produced in space]

Mr. Robert G. Britt, President of American Ag-Tec International, Ltd. located at 1711 Woolsey Street Delavan, has recently returned from Albuquerque, NM where he presented a formal Abstract Report to NASA.

The formal presentation of this research paper was made before the Space Technology & Applications International Forum which was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Britt's Abstract titled "Production of Potato Minitubers Using Advanced Environmental Control Technologies Developed for Growing Plants in Space" was a description of the work completed by American Ag-Tec International in cooperation with the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR), a NASA Commercial Space Center located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Britt, and American Ag-Tec International, Ltd., are responsible for implementation of a new biotechnology process for the fast-growth culture of pathogen-free potato minitubers which originated in Asia, was discovered by Ag-Tec then tested at the University of Wisconsin during 1993. The nature of the technology required a labor-intensive process which was too sensitive in application to commercialize. In 1996 NASA entered the research phase of the technology mechanization through WCSAR in Madison. WCSAR provided access to closed environment plant growth chamber technology which they developed for a space experiment growing potato plantlets into small tubers aboard the Shuttle Columbia in late 1995 using the Microgravity Laboratory aboard the shuttle on space flight USML-2.

The breakthrough agricultural technology employs the use of advanced computerization and controlled atmosphere BioChambers in the production of potato minitubers and is named Quantum Tubers™. This new technology has the capacity to produce as many as 20,000,000 pathogen-free minitubers per year in a biomanufacturing facility. The net effect of this technology will reduce the need for field multiplication of seed potatoes by as many as 5 to 7 years, and will dramatically lower the cost of early generation seed potato to potato farmers.

Worldwide interest in Ag-Tec's biomanufacturing process has also been generated by the U.S. Government having been listed by the White House as the top Russian development project on the Gore-Chernomyrden Commission, and also being a participant of the Gore-Mubarek Joint Economic Partnership in Egypt.
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Company News Release - January 28, 1998

Speaks at NASA

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