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HUMAN GENES IN GM RICE TO TREAT DIARRHEA.

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Agri-Alert 106 07.03.07

Let us grow food, not money,

 

Let us work towards a Green Orissa.

Contents:

1. USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes.2. Another GM rice controversy hits USA.

Comments:

In an yet another frightening development human genes are being

introduced into rice. And for an inconsequential reason like treating

diarrhea. Worse, it is being planned to be included in health foods.

The experiment, says Ventria Bioscience, will be conducted in a

protective environment. But can there be one? Can any enclosure totally

stop pollen from getting out? Besides this study will open the

floodgate for similar experiments. Is there any guarantee that all the

trials will take place under public scrutiny? Serious "errors" by MNCs

in the GM arena have already come to light. Profit seekers do not care

about public opinion. These trials will be conducted on the sly. It

will not take long for the entire food chain to be contaminated. Such

attempts must therefore be condemned and condemned severely. We

have been told that GM food is an inevitability. Our scientists have

resigned themselves to the fact. Our institutions are totally dependent

on the West for research ideas, facilities and material. They are thus

"indebted" and feel "guilty" when the time comes to express dissent.

They also have come to accept the need for a "negative growth in

population". The Govt too knows that it has to accept US diktats. So

where does this leave us, the "common people"? Uneasy questions for

uneasy times. But should we stop asking them?

Yet another question, why are all such products being aimed at the "poor children of the developing world"? Wake up folks.Feedback is welcome at livingfarms(at)gmail.com.

 

USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes

 

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Washington Post, March 2 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101495_pf.html

 

06.02

Agribusiness, GE Rice, GM,

 

The Agriculture Department has given a preliminary green light for the first

commercial production of a food crop engineered to contain human genes, reigniting

fears that biomedically potent substances in high-tech plants could escape and

turn up in other foods.

 

The plan, confirmed yesterday by the California biotechnology company leading

the effort, calls for large-scale cultivation in Kansas of rice that produces

human immune system proteins in its seeds.

 

The proteins are to be extracted for use as an anti-diarrhea medicine and might

be added to health foods such as yogurt and granola bars.

 

"We can really help children with diarrhea get better faster. That is the

idea," said Scott E. Deeter, president and chief executive of

Sacramento-based Ventria Bioscience, emphasizing that a host of protections

should keep the engineered plants and their seeds from escaping into

surrounding fields.

 

But critics are assailing the effort, saying gene-altered plants inevitably

migrate out of their home plots. In this case, they said, that could result in

pharmacologically active proteins showing up in the food of unsuspecting

consumers.

 

Although the proteins are not inherently dangerous, there would be little

control over the doses people might get exposed to, and some might be allergic

to the proteins, said Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a

science policy advocacy group.

 

"This is not a product that everyone would want to consume," Rissler

said, adding that other companies grow such plants indoors or in vats. "It

is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors."

 

Consumer advocacy groups, including Consumers Union and the Washington-based

Center for Food Safety, have also opposed Ventria's plans. "We definitely

have big concerns," said Joseph Mendelson, the center's legal director.

 

Ventria has developed three varieties of rice, each endowed with a different

human gene that makes the plants produce one of three human proteins. Two of

them -- lactoferrin and lysozyme -- are bacteria-fighting compounds found in

breast milk and saliva.

 

A recent company-sponsored study done in Peru concluded that children with

severe diarrhea recovered a day and a half faster if the salty fluids they were

prescribed were spiked with the proteins.

 

Deeter said production in plants is far cheaper than other methods, which

should help make the therapy affordable in the developing world, where severe

diarrhea kills 2 million children each year.

 

"Plants are phenomenal factories," Deeter said. "Our raw

materials are the sun, soil and water."

 

The company is also talking to the Food and Drug Administration about putting

the proteins into health foods. Its third variety of rice makes serum albumin,

a blood protein used in medical therapies.

 

Until now, plants with human genes have been restricted to small test plots. In

October, Ventria sought permission to grow its rice commercially on as many as

3,200 acres in Geary County,

Kan., starting with 450 acres

this spring.

 

A previous plan to grow the rice in southern Missouri was dropped when beermaker

Anheuser-Busch -- the nation's largest rice buyer, which has expressed concern

about the safety and consumer acceptance of gene-altered rice -- threatened to

stop buying rice from the state if the deal went through.

 

Because no other rice is grown in Kansas

and because rice can only grow in flooded areas, the risk of escape or

cross-fertilization with other rice plants is nil there, Deeter said. The

company will mill virtually all the seeds on site -- using dedicated equipment

-- to minimize the risk of seeds getting mistakenly released or sold.

 

On Wednesday, the Agriculture Department published its draft environmental

assessment, which concluded that the project posed no undue risks. The public

can comment until March 30.

 

Also on Wednesday, the agency revealed that a type of rice seed in Arkansas

had become

contaminated with a different variety of genetically engineered rice, LL62,

that was never released for marketing. The error was discovered in the course

of an ongoing investigation into the widespread contamination of U.S. rice by

yet another gene-altered variety, LL601, which has seriously disrupted rice

exports.

 

Those problems, along with the previous discovery of unapproved, gene-altered

StarLink corn in food and the accidental release of crops that had been

engineered to make a vaccine for pig diarrhea, undermine the USDA's

credibility, critics said.

 

"USDA's record is not good," Rissler said, pointing to several recent

court judgments against the department and a December 2005 inspector general

report that savaged the department for its poor oversight of biotechnology.

"We don't think they can enforce even the inadequate system that is in

place."

WARNING OVER GM PHARMACEUTICAL FOOD CROPS AS USA PLANS TO

ALLOW HUMAN GENES IN GM RICE

Friends of the Earth Press Release

gmwatch Tuesday 6 March 2007

 

06.02

Agribusinss, GE Rice

Meanwhile another GM rice contamination incident hits US

 

Friends of the Earth is calling for the production of drugs in food crops grown

outside to be banned after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave

preliminary approval to the commercial production of GM pharmaceutical rice

containing human genes [1]. The environmental campaign group warned of the

potentially devastating consequences if pharmaceutical crops end up on

consumers' plates.

 

The warning comes as US

authorities have confirmed that a third GM rice contamination incident in less

than a year has hit the United

States. In the latest incident a type of

non-GM long grain rice (known as Clearfield CL131, produced by BASF) was found

to contain unknown GM contamination. The USDA has stepped in to stop rice

farmers planting the variety because of the likelihood that the GM trait is

unapproved [2].

 

Last week, US authorities confirmed that Clearfield CL131 had also been

contaminated by GM LL62 rice – produced by biotech company Bayer CropScience.

Because this rice is legal in the US, farmers had decided to plant

the variety this spring because of a shortage of seed. This follows the initial

contamination incident with Bayer's LL601 rice which affected long grain rice

exported around the world, including the UK [3].

 

Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner, Clare Oxborrow, said: "This latest

GM contamination incident should set alarm bells ringing about the dangers of

allowing GM pharmaceutical crops to be grown. Using food crops and fields as

glorified drug factories is deeply worrying. The biotech industry has repeatedly

failed to prevent experimental GM rice contaminating food crops. If

pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers' plates, the consequences for our

health could be devastating."

 

"The UK Government must urge the US to ban the production of drugs

in food crops grown outside. It must also introduce tough measures to prevent

illegal GM crops contaminating our food and ensure that biotech companies are

liable for any damage their products cause."

 

[1]. The USDA has given preliminary approval for the first GM pharmaceutical

rice containing human genes to be grown commercially. The rice, produced by a

company called Ventria, has been engineered to produce human proteins to be

extracted to produce anti-diarrhea medicine.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101495_pf.html

 

 

[2] http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/call_for_ban_on_us_imports_21082006.html

 

 

[3] http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2007/03/ge_riceseed_statement.shtml

 

-- Living Farms ( a project of DRCSC, Kolkata )

77 ,B , Brhameswar Patna

Tankapani Road PO-Baragada Brit Colony

Bhubaneswar -751018

Orissa Phone- 9938582616www.drcsc.org Population reduction, a globalist goal, allows monopoly ownership of the earth’s resources – less population means more for them! War, famine, suppressed cures for catastrophic diseases, abortion acceptance, and health-destroying, cancer-producing Monsanto monopolized genetically modified foods all reduce world population and produce big profits. - Deanna Spingola, Political Researcher.

The fish are biting.

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