PANUPS: Court Orders Biopharm Crops Disclosed

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> PANUPS <panups

> PANUPS: Court Orders Biopharm Crops

 

> Disclosed

> Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:26:49 -0700

>

> ===========================================

> P A N U P S

> Pesticide Action Network Updates Service

> ===========================================

>

> Court Orders Biopharm Crops Disclosed

> August 26, 2004

>

> In an unprecedented victory for citizen oversight, a

> federal district court judge has ordered the United

> States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to disclose

> the locations of open-air field tests of

> biopharmaceutical crops in Hawai`i. The USDA and the

> biotech industry had resisted public disclosure of

> test plot locations, citing fears of " espionage, "

> " vandalism, " and " civil unrest. " However, on August

> 5, 2004, District Court Judge David A. Ezra ordered

> USDA to provide crop locations to the parties in a

> lawsuit brought by Earthjustice for PANNA, the

> Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, and

> KAHEA -- The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance. The

> court order also required the locations of the test

> sites to be publicly announced within 90 days unless

> USDA provides better evidence of specific harm.

>

> Pharmaceutical and biotech corporations are

> interested in biopharming -- the growing of

> genetically engineered (GE) food crops to produce

> industrial or pharmaceutical chemicals and drugs --

> as a relatively inexpensive way to produce large

> quantifies of chemicals, including contraceptives,

> hormones, vaccines, and other potent, biologically

> active substances. Biopharm test crops are

> frequently grown outdoors in open fields, and are

> virtually indistinguishable from edible varieties.

> As a result of the ruling, neighboring farmers and

> residents will be able to learn if biopharm test

> crops are located near conventional varieties that

> may be at risk for cross-pollination, or are being

> grown in ecologically sensitive areas or near

> schools and homes.

>

> Despite its designation as a biological " hot spot "

> with a high number of endangered species, Hawai`i

> has been the site of more than 4,000 open-air field

> tests of GE crops, including biopharmaceuticals.

> Conducted by corporate agribusiness and industrial

> chemical giants such as Monsanto, Prodigene, DuPont,

> and Dow, the tests produce crops that have not been

> approved for human or animal consumption, or for

> general release into the environment. In 12 years of

> open-air testing, not one biopharmed drug has been

> approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

>

> Genetically engineered crops have been known to

> contaminate conventional food crops, as in the

> StarLink fiasco, in which genetically engineered

> corn that was not approved for human consumption

> ended up in dozens of products on supermarket

> shelves and had to be recalled. Potentially

> disastrous slip-ups in biopharm field tests have

> already occurred. In 2000, USDA quarantined and

> destroyed 500,000 bushels of Nebraska soybeans meant

> for human consumption because the crop had been

> contaminated with corn engineered to produce a pig

> vaccine. That same year, potential contamination led

> to the destruction of 155 acres of conventional corn

> in Iowa. Prodigene, the grower in both instances, is

> currently conducting open-air tests in Hawai`i.

>

> " Almost everything about the regulation of

> gene-altered crops suggests that the federal

> agencies are far more responsive to industry than to

> the public, " says PANNA's Skip Spitzer. " That the

> court has to step in to force disclosure of such

> basic information highlights that problems like

> biopharming come from big agribusiness having too

> much control over our food. " He adds that the court

> victory " poses a real problem for the agribusiness

> industry if this precedent, as expected, stimulates

> challenges, and hopefully positive rulings,

> elsewhere. "

>

> Sources: Press Release, August 5, 2004, PANNA,

> Earthjustice, Center for Food Safety; PANUPS, USDA

> Sued for Overlooking Risks of Biopharm, Nov. 20,

> 2003.

> Contacts: Center for Food Safety, email

> office , PANNA.

>

> PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing

> resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues

> that don't always get coverage by the mainstream

> media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network

> North America, a non-profit and non-governmental

> organization working to advance sustainable

> alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

>

> You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations

> for our work and all contributions are tax

> deductible in the United States. Visit

> http://www.panna.org/donate.

>