- WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) - Experimental
plants engineered to produce pharmaceuticals are being grown at over 300
secret locations nationwide, a new report has revealed. Biotechnology firms
are conducting experiments with corn, soy, rice and tobacco that are genetically
manipulated to produce drugs designed to act as vaccines, contraceptives,
induce abortions, generate growth hormones, create blood clots, produce
industrial enzymes and propagate allergenic enzymes.
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- "Just one mistake by a biotech company and we'll
be eating other people's prescription drugs in our corn flakes," said
Larry Bohlen, director of health and environment programs at www.foe.org
Friends of the Earth, a member of a coalition of consumer and environmental
groups that produced the report, released late last week.
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- The experimental application of biotechnology in which
plants are genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical proteins and
chemicals they do not produce naturally has been termed "biopharming."
Companies engaged in biopharming keep their activities secret, citing the
secret plantings as confidential business information.
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- The report, entitled "Manufacturing Drugs and Chemicals
in Crops: Biopharming Poses New Threats to Consumers, Farmers, Food Companies
and the Environment," was produced by the Genetically Engineered Food
Alert coalition and presented to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday.
To date, the secretary has made no public comment on the report.
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- Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman (Photo courtesy U.S.
Government) In a letter to Veneman, the coalition called for an end to
open air cultivation of crops engineered to produce prescription drugs
or industrial chemicals.
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- "The USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture] should
prohibit the planting of food crops engineered with drugs and chemicals
to protect the food supply from contamination," Bohlen said.
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- The highest number of field trials are taking place in
Nebraska, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. But other states, including
Iowa, Florida, Illinois, Texas, California, Maryland, Kentucky and Indiana,
also have numerous tests being conducted near food producing farms.
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- The report details the many threats that biopharm crops
pose, the extent to which crops have been planted across the United States,
the failure of regulatory agencies to regulate the experiments, and a set
of recommendations.
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- The coalition proposes that the USDA permit limited cultivation
of non-food plants in the same controlled environment as other drug production.
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- The USDA has primary authority for experimental biopharm
crop cultivation. Historically, the agency has kept all drug and chemical
crop sites secret from the public and neighboring farmers, and has hidden
the identity of the drugs or chemicals being produced. The agency has condoned
companies' preferred practice of anonymously planting biopharm crops without
identification, security measures or notification of neighbors, the report
claims.
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- Coalition members are concerned that genetically engineered
traits could spread from biopharms through pollen carried by wind or insects,
spilled seed, unharvested seed sprouting the next year, and biopharm seed
residues carried by farm equipment to conventional fields.
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- "Current gene containment strategies cannot work
reliably in the field, the editors of the journal "Nature Biotechnology"
said. "Can we reasonably expect farmers to [clean] their agricultural
equipment meticulously enough to remove all GM seed?"
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- In response to the report, a National Academy of Sciences
spokesperson who preferred not to be identified, said, "It is possible
that crops transformed to produce pharmaceutical or other industrial compounds
might mate with plantations grown for human consumption, with the unanticipated
result of novel chemicals in the human food supply."
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- Biopharm companies normally contract with selected farmers
to grow their genetically engineered drug or chemical crops. The coalition
contends that when one field is sown, all farmers, through their proximity
to the test field, are exposed to substantial liability from the biopharming.
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- Neighboring farmers whose fields become contaminated
with drug or chemical traits have no choice but to file expensive lawsuits
against the biopharming companies.
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- On the other hand, biopharm companies that discover their
patented drug traits in conventional farmers' contaminated fields could
sue those farmers, alleging violation of the company's intellectual property
rights.
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- The majority of engineered biopharmaceuticals and chemicals
are incorporated into corn, a prolific pollinator, followed by soybeans,
tobacco and rice. The engineered plants are then integrated into farmers'
fields where it is impossible to detect their presence.
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- Contamination of farmers' corn by engineered insecticides
is already widespread. Iowa farmer Laura Krouse said, "I've seen sales
of open-pollinated corn drop 50-75 percent due to genetic pollution with
engineered traits."
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- Corn is especially risky for pharmaceutical applications
because it readily cross-pollinates and its pollen can travel for miles.
This has been demonstrated by engineered StarLink corn, which contaminated
food products and corn seed stock with a potentially allergenic protein
even while companies were taking gene containment measures.
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- Nevertheless, two-thirds of open air biopharm field trials
have been in corn. Experts have warned that current isolation standards
will not prevent contamination of normal corn. According to the coalition's
report, engineered viruses used to infect plants with drug genes could
easily spread to related crops.
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- In response to one report of biopharm contamination,
Chris Webster, a representative of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals said, "We've
seen, on the vaccine side, where modified live seeds have wandered off
and have appeared in other products."
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- ProdiGene, the company with the most plantings of drug
and chemical producing plants, projects that 10 percent of the U.S. corn
crop will be devoted to biopharm production by 2010.
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- Far from supporting containment strategies such as buffer
areas, ProdiGene's CEO Anthony Laos is pressing for their elimination.
He wrote farmers in 2001, "We will be dealing with these distances
until we can gain regulatory approval to lessen or abandon these requirements
altogether."
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- Some companies propose extracting drugs or chemicals
from plants, then selling the remainder of the plant material. Incomplete
extraction would mean drug and chemical residue in food or feed.
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- "Farmers cannot afford another contamination incident
hurting sales and throwing the harvest into turmoil like StarLink did in
2000," said Matt Rand, biotechnology campaign manager at the National
Environmental Trust.
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- Plant physiologist Katrina Cornish and associate Christopher
Mau examine guayule plantlets that they have genetically engineered while
working at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The report cites
indications that standard methods of pharmaceutical cultivation may be
more cost effective and safer than open field testing.
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- Laboratories conventionally develop new drugs through
extraction from animal or human tissues or production in animal, bacterial
and yeast cell cultures. Newer techniques include plant cell cultures and
secretion of biopharm proteins from plant roots into hydroponic media.
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- In contrast to open air biopharming, these methods are
contained to the laboratory environment, greatly reducing contamination
risks, the coalition maintains. These practices allow complete control
of growth conditions where purification is easier, producing a more consistent
drug quality.
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- http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-16-05.asp
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- The complete report is available online at: http://www.gefoodalert.org
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