- The California Rice Commission on Monday approved a biotech
company's request to grow the state's first crop genetically modified to
contain a drug.
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- The rice commission narrowly passed the proposal by a
6-5 vote. The commission advises the California Department of Food and
Agriculture, which has the final decision on whether Ventria Bioscience
of Sacramento can plant its pharmaceutical crop. If the agency approves,
the company could be the first to commercialize such a product.
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- The rice is genetically modified to produce two human
proteins that fight infection: lactoferrin and lysozyme. Some rice growers
and environmental groups oppose the project, saying the rice could contaminate
regular crops and damage the export market.
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- "Consumers in Japan will not accept (genetically
engineered) contamination of any crop," said rice farmer Greg Massa
in a statement. "The decision to approve Ventria's guidelines is bad
news for farmers and California's rice industry."
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- But Ventria's proteins could be a big step forward in
preventing infections in infants. Lactoferrin and lysozyme are present
in breast milk, and protect babies from ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory
tract infections, meningitis and other infections. But these protective
proteins disappear when a baby stops breast feeding or doesn't receive
breast milk at all. Researchers at Ventria were first to develop a human
form of these proteins that could become therapies.
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- Ventria believes growing rice that produce proteins like
lactoferrin and lysozyme in rice could be a cheaper way to develop drugs
than building and maintaining expensive manufacturing plants.
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- But environmental groups and consumer advocates sued
the U.S. Department of Agriculture in November 2003 for inadequate oversight
of pharmaceutical crops. Companies like Dow Chemical and Monsanto are experimenting
with corn, soybeans, tobacco, rice and sugar crops to find a cheaper way
to mass-produce drugs.
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- Opponents say growing the crops in open fields endangers
organic and conventional crops, as well as human health. And it's not just
an issue environmentalists and consumer advocates are worried about, said
Paul Achitoff, managing attorney of Earthjustice in Hawaii.
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- "Even food-processing corporations are very upset
about this as well, because they know all you need is one shipment of corn
flakes that has a contraceptive in it and there's a real problem, obviously,"
Achitoff said.
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- In 2002, federal officials ordered ProdiGene, of College
Station, Texas, to burn 155 acres of corn and 500,000 bushels of soybeans
because the crops had been contaminated by the company's pharmaceutical
corn, which had been genetically engineered to produce an experimental
diarrhea vaccine for pigs.
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- "Contamination is inevitable under this protocol,
and the CRC did not act in the best interests of California rice farmers
or consumers," said Renata Brillinger of Californians for GE-Free
Agriculture.
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- "Instead of the normal 30-day public comment period
that would exist with any other regulation, this fast tracking allows a
10-day review by CDFA," said Rebecca Spector of the Center for Food
Safety. "The CDFA level is really the time where we depend on the
public to be able to submit comments. We hope that the secretary of agriculture
will review the proposal under the normal public review process."
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- "This is kind of a big mess," she said. "We
requested that they wait to see how FDA and USDA are going to regulate
this before approving this planting protocol. Ventria is taking advantage
of this regulatory vacuum and in the meantime has gone through the regulatory
bodies in California."
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- Ventria executives were not immediately available for
comment.
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- Ventria's proposal restricts the production to counties
that do not currently grow rice: San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara,
Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and
Imperial.
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