Human genes and proteins in biotech rice

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" News Update from The Campaign " <newsupdate

Human genes and proteins in biotech rice

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 05:02:13 -0700

 

 

 

 

News Update From The Campaign

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

Posted below are two separate articles about the creation of

genetically

engineered rice that contains human genes and proteins.

 

The first article from the United Kingdom paper, The Independent, is

titled

" GM industry puts human gene into rice. " This article reports on

disturbing

research that is being done in Japan where scientists have put the gene

from

a human liver in rice.

 

The second article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is titled " Firm

races

against clock to plant rice in Missouri. " This article provides an

update on

Ventria Bioscience's effort to plant genetically engineered rice in

Missouri

that contains human proteins.

 

It looks like Ventria will NOT be able to get government approval in

time to

grow their genetically engineered pharmaceutical rice this year. That's

good

news for those of us who oppose the outdoor growing of genetically

engineered pharmaceutical crops.

 

Craig Winters

President

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

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GM industry puts human gene into rice

 

The Independent (London)

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

24 April 2005

 

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops

in a

dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing

disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations

that

GM technology is creating " Frankenstein foods " and drive the

controversy

surrounding it to new heights.

 

Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles,

have

opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by

creating

unnatural combinations of living things.

 

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially

human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.

 

But supporters say that the controversial new departure presents no

ethical

problems and could bring environmental benefits.

 

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have

inserted a

gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides

and

industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6,

which is

particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

 

Present GM crops are modified with genes from bacteria to make them

tolerate

herbicides, so that they are not harmed when fields are sprayed to kill

weeds. But most of them are only able to deal with a single herbicide,

which

means that it has to be used over and over again, allowing weeds to

build up

resistance to it.

 

But the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological

Sciences in

Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human touch gave

the

rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that weeds

could

be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

 

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat

pollution.

 

Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana, who has

worked

with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants modified with it

could

" clean up toxins " from contaminated land. They might even destroy them

so

effectively that crops grown on the polluted soil could be fit to eat.

 

But he and other scientists caution that if the gene were to escape to

wild

relatives of the rice it could create particularly vicious superweeds

that

were resistant to a wide range of herbicides.

 

He adds: " I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to

engineer

plants " , dismissing talk of " Frankenstein foods " as " rubbish " . He

believes

that that European opposition to GM crops and food is fuelled by

agricultural protectionism.

 

But Sue Mayer, director of GeneWatch UK, said yesterday: " I don't think

that

anyone will want to buy this rice. People have already expressed

disgust

about using human genes, and already feel that their concerns are being

ignored by the biotech industry. This will just undermine their

confidence

even more. "

 

Pete Riley, director of the anti-GM pressure group Five Year Freeze,

said:

" I am not surprised by this.

 

" The industry is capable of anything and this development certainly

smacks

of Frankenstein. "

 

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Firm races against clock to plant rice in Missouri

 

By Bill Lambrecht

Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau

04/23/2005

 

WASHINGTON - The government's rules for permits and nature's rules for

planting may combine to nip in the bud a quest to sprout pharmaceutical

crops in Missouri.

 

Missouri political leaders are pressing the Agriculture Department to

shorten its permit review so a California company can sow

pharmaceutical

rice in Missouri yet this spring. But the Agriculture Department has

given

no indication that it will relent, a threat both to the project at hand

and

to Missouri's hopes to establish itself as a leader in converting

croplands

to factories for drugs.

 

The company, Ventria Bioscience, agreed April 15 to find a site for its

pharmaceutical rice at least 120 miles from southeast Missouri's

rice-growing lands. In return, Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. said it would

continue to purchase Missouri-grown rice, which the brewery had

threatened

to boycott if Ventria planted in the Bootheel.

 

Ventria's rice is far from conventional: It is genetically engineered

to

produce human proteins that could be used in medicines and other

products.

 

The prospect of this specially engineered rice becoming commingled with

edible rice troubled the brewery, as it does rice-growers,

environmental

advocates and much of the nation's food industry.

 

After spending five months reviewing Ventria's initial proposals, the

Agriculture Department said last week that winning approval of a new or

hastily amended application would not be a simple matter.

 

Karen Eggert, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department unit that

oversees permits, said a new environmental assessment and public

comment

period could require a month or more - which could take Ventria beyond

the

limits of rice-planting season in Missouri.

 

Last week, Gov. Matt Blunt appealed to Agriculture Secretary Mike

Johanns to

expedite government review, said Jessica Robinson, a spokeswoman for

Blunt.

 

" We're very, very hopeful that it happens, " she said.

 

Ventria encountered the same trouble in California a year ago when it

was

forced, under pressure from rice-growers, to move its planting site far

from

commercial rice fields and then ran out of time to win a federal

permit.

 

" Deja vu all over again, " remarked Ventria president Scott Deeter.

 

Deeter said Ventria was still mulling over potential new sites in

southwest

and northwest Missouri that he declined to identify. But his company

has

concluded, Deeter said, that the pharmaceutical rice would need to be

planted by May 20 to have enough time for its 155-day growing season.

 

" We're trying to figure out what the path forward looks like for us, "

he

said.

 

Ventria recently obtained a federal permit for growing its engineered

rice

on five acres in North Carolina, a far smaller project than the initial

200-acre planting envisioned in Missouri.

 

Ventria's rice is engineered to produce lactoferrin and lysozyme, two

proteins that occur in breast milk, saliva and bodily fluids. The

proteins

are effective in combating bacteria, viruses, funguses and parasites;

the

company has said they could be especially valuable in fighting the

diarrhea

that commonly afflicts children in developing countries.

 

Critics worry that the pharmaceutical rice will become commingled with

edible rice, a threat both to food and to continued exports to

countries

that that harbor a deep distrust of genetic engineering.

 

Missouri connection

 

Ventria's setbacks are especially troublesome on the campus of

Northwest

Missouri State University, which was instrumental in bringing the

company to

Missouri and rallying Missouri's political leaders behind the project.

 

Ventria and Northwest Missouri State, in Maryville, Mo., signed an

agreement

in November calling for the university to build and equip a $30 million

plant-sciences center in Maryville that will house Ventria and perhaps

other

companies.

 

Ventria agreed to move its operations from Sacramento to Maryville. The

university received a 4 percent share in Ventria. And university

president

Dean Hubbard helped raise $5 million in venture capital from private

sources, money that the company already has received.

 

Hubbard said last week that he envisions putting his university on the

ground floor of a new technology while at the same time helping

Missouri

farmers add value to their crops.

 

" My goal is to transform the rural economy and also to provide unique

educational opportunities, " he said.

 

Hubbard, who has since became a Ventria board member, said he is

disappointed in the growing possibility that Ventria will miss

Missouri's

window for rice-planting this season. He said he felt guilty for

suggesting

initially that Ventria plant in the Bootheel, where an uprising by rice

growers led to Anheuser-Busch's threatened boycott.

 

But Hubbard said that his university's relationship with Ventria will

continue, as will plans to break ground in the coming weeks on what

will be

called the Center of Excellence in Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals.

 

Meanwhile, Ventria will work to engineer rice suitable to the soils of

northwest Missouri rather than the prime rice-growing region of the

Bootheel, he said.

 

" You just have to face the facts, " he said. " It's too bad that the

farmers

take the hit again and that the growers in southeast Missouri passed up

this

opportunity. "

 

Bill Freese, a Washington-based analyst for Friends of the Earth, said

shortening the permit review process " would compromise the Agriculture

Department's credibility in regulating these pharmaceutical crops. " He

said

his advocacy group has asked that a 30-day public comment period for

such

permits remain the policy.

 

Sen. Christopher " Kit " Bond, R-Mo., said that in standing up for

Ventria and

the university, Missouri had demonstrated its support for biotechnology

and

sound science.

 

" We're not driving the boat, " he said. " We have urged everybody to look

at

it to see if they (Ventria) can meet all their requirements. We would

love

to see it get done. But we want to make sure any time we're dealing

with

something like this that the regulatory agencies carry out their

responsibilities. "

 

 

 

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