GMW:_CONCERNS_RAISED_OVER_GM_'PHARMING'

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> GMW:_CONCERNS_RAISED_OVER_GM_'PHARMING'

> " GM_WATCH " <info

> Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:53:50 +0100

 

>

> GM WATCH daily

> http://www.gmwatch.org

> ------

> " we should be concerned about the presence of a

> potentially toxic substance in food plants. After

> all, is this really so different from a conventional

> pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical manufacturer

> packaging its pills in candy wrappers or flour bags

> or storing its compounds or production batches

> untended outside the perimeter fence? " (item 2)

>

> 1.CONCERNS RAISED OVER GM 'PHARMING'

> 2.Drugs in crops - the unpalatable truth

> 3.Charles Arntzen - pharma Godfather

> 4.PHARMA CROP SCARE HITS USA

> ------

> 1.CONCERNS RAISED OVER GM 'PHARMING'

> FoE press release, July 12 2004

>

> The EU has awarded 12 million euros to be invested

> in a European research project to produce

> pharmaceuticals in genetically modified plants, it

> was announced today.

>

> Responding, Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner,

> Clare Oxborrow said:

>

> " Growing medicines in plants has serious

> implications for both human health and the

> environment. We recognise the need for affordable

> medicines to be made available to people with

> life-threatening illnesses, but this research could

> have widespread negative impacts. Food crops in the

> United States have already been destroyed because of

> contamination by experimental `pharm' crops. A clear

> set of criteria must be established to ensure that

> human health and the environment are protected. Any

> benefits must genuinely reach those that need them,

> rather than simply lining the pockets of the biotech

> and pharmaceutical industry "

> -------

> 2.EXCERPT from: Drugs in crops - the unpalatable

> truth

> Editorial, Nature Biotechnology

> doi:10.1038/nbt0204-133

> February 2004 Volume 22 Number 2 p 133

>

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nbt/journal/v22/n2/full/nbt0204\

-133.html

>

> ...One might expect - and some in the industry

> obviously do - that drug production in plants could

> be good for the image of GM crops. After all,

> new/cheaper medicines are the sort of thing that

> consumers want.

>

> The problem is - as anti-GM lobbyists have argued

> already - that the production of drugs or drug

> intermediates in food or feed crop species bears the

> potential danger that pharmaceutical substances

> could find their way into the food chain through

> grain admixture, or pollen-borne gene flow (in

> maize, at least) or some other accidental mix-up

> because of the excusably human inability to

> distinguish between crops for food and crops for

> drugs. The 'contamination' of soybeans and non-GM

> corn in 2002 with a corn engineered by Prodigene to

> produce an experimental pig vaccine shows just how

> plausible this is (Nat. Biotechnol. 21, 3, 2003).

>

> This position is not anti-GM (something industry

> should appreciate) - we should be concerned about

> the presence of a potentially toxic substance in

> food plants. After all, is this really so different

> from a conventional pharmaceutical or

> biopharmaceutical manufacturer packaging its pills

> in candy wrappers or flour bags or storing its

> compounds or production batches untended outside the

> perimeter fence?

> ------

> 3.Charles Arntzen - pharma Godfather

> http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=13 & page=A

>

> Arntzen is the founding Director of the Arizona

> Biomedical Institute (ABI) at Arizona State

> University (ASU). The ABI forms a key means of

> achieving the ASU's goal of facilitating

> interactions with Arizona's biotechnology industrial

> base, and of dramatically expanding the ASU's

> external funding in areas like biotechnology. The

> ASU wants a particular focus on high-payoff areas

> that will help to expand economic development for

> the State's biotech sector.

>

> Arntzen was previously the former President and CEO

> of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research,

> Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

>

> Arntzen specialises in edible vaccines genetically

> engineered into food plants such as tomatoes,

> bananas and potatoes.

>

> Arntzen has bred potatoes that express Norwalk virus

> and E. coli antigens. Human test subjects have been

> fed the potatoes raw, because cooking might damage

> the antigen, even though cooking is normally

> considered necessary to render harmless the high

> levels of natural toxins that can occur in potatoes.

>

> It also remains unclear how much vaccine a person

> would need to eat to ensure protection and how

> often, nor is it known how to avoid overdosing, or

> what side effects such as allergies may arise.

>

> Like other plant biotechnologists, Arntzen has also

> found unexplained effects within plants he has

> genetically engineered. (Newsweek International,

> January 28, 2002)

>

> In 1999 Arntzen attacked US company Frito Lay for

> bowing to consumer demands to make their snacks

> GM-free. Arntzen warned that consumers would boycott

> Frito Lay in punishment for denigrating GM 'crops

> that are helping make American agriculture more

> competitive on a global scale' (Top Producer

> magazine, December 1999). US farm exports have

> suffered multi-million dollar losses since the

> introduction of GM crops.

> ------

> 4.ANOTHER GM CROP SCARE HITS USA

> Press Release, 15 Nov 2002

> GM " pharmaceutical " maize contaminates soya

>

> GM pharmaceutical maize contaminates soya

> Crops worth millions of dollars have been destroyed

> in the US after Soya contaminated by genetically

> modified (GM) maize plants used to produce a

> pharmaceutical or industrial chemical was discovered

> in a US grain elevator [1]. Friends of the Earth is

> seeking urgent reassurance from the European

> Commission that food in Europe has not been

> contaminated.

>

> Half a million bushels of Soya, worth about $2.7

> million, was discovered with GM contamination in

> Nebraska. The incident is believed to have occurred

> because the Soya was planted on the same site used

> to grow GM “pharmaceutical” maize by biotech firm

> ProdiGene the previous year. Seeds dropped by the

> maize grew this year and contaminated the new crop.

> US authorities have not disclosed details of the

> mysterious GM “pharmaceutical”, but have revealed

> ProdiGene was involved in a similar incident in Iowa

> in September. ProdiGene, carries out a range of

> outdoor tests on crops containing pharmaceuticals

> and industrial products in at least 96 locations in

> the US.

>

> Friends of the Earth’s GM campaigner Adrian Bebb

> said:

> " This was an accident waiting to happen. If you grow

> GM crops outdoors then they will eventually

> contaminate the rest of the food chain. The US

> authorities have now had to intervene twice to

> prevent these unlicensed genes entering the food

> chain. But how many incidents have they missed? We

> are seeking urgent assurances that food imported

> into Europe has not been contaminated.

>

> " Once again the dangers of allowing GM crops to be

> commercially grown have been highlighted. The UK

> Government must take note, and refuse to allow them

> to be commercially grown in the UK " .

>

> Friends of the Earth, as part of a wider US

> coalition, warned the US Government earlier this

> year of the risk of contamination. The coalition is

> now filing a legal petition demanding an immediate

> halt to the outdoor growing of pharmaceutical GM

> crops.

>

> Research into the company involved, Prodigene,

> reveals that the contamination could come from one

> of the following:

>

> Aids vaccine gp120 -- a glycoprotein

>

> Blood-clotting agent -- Aprotinin

>

> Trypsin - Digestive enzyme that can be used in

> leather tanning or to produce insulin.

>

> Industrial adhesive Laccase -- an enzyme derived

> from a fungus

>

> Other " pharmaceutical " GM crops reportedly grown by

> ProdiGene include experimental oral vaccines for

> hepatitis B and for a pig disease, transmissible

> gastroenteritis. According to USDA records ProdiGene

> has received 85 test permits for experimental

> open-air trials of “pharmaceutical” GM crops and

> chemical crops for planting in at least 96

> locations.

>

> Friends of the Earth’s GM Campaigner Adrian Bebb

> continued:

> " Once you start genetically engineering drugs and

> chemicals into crop plants you are opening Pandora’s

> box. The consequences could be catastrophic. "

>

> Notes

> [1] The US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

> announced on Tuesday Nov. 12 that it quarantined

> over $2.7 million worth of Soya beans (500 000

> bushels) destined for human consumption at a

> Nebraska grain elevator after finding parts of

> ProdiGene's GM maize mixed with the Soya beans. They

> later ordered their destruction.

>

> Note

> 1. Press release on food crops in US contaminated by

> GM pharm crops:

>

www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/20021115145406.html

>

>