website like to recommend (Rice-Liver)

[Guest guest]

Speaking of rice:

 

Liver and rice, isn't that nice! I didn't know rice

had livers!

 

regards,

 

tev

 

http://www.thecampaign.org/news.php

 

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

 

*******************************************************

 

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. "

 

__

--- we3deeves wrote:

 

> Did you see the product they called 'the Rolls Royce

> of Raw Food'?? It had

> 3 kinds of RICE???? in it. Eat raw rice? bleeeeck!

> <grin> ~denise

 

 

[...there'll be love and laughter,

and peace ever after,

just you wait and see...

---Vera Lynn]

 

 

 

 

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