Newspaper ad for biotech Stauffer seed.
Open field trials are currently being carried out in hundreds of
locations throughout the heart of US farming regions. While the
biotech industry is already producing drugs and proteins for
industrial use in rice, wheat, corn and barley, few regulations to
protect public health and the environment are in place.
These latest debacles were truly accidents waiting to happen.
They demonstrate how genetically engineered crops, once released
into the environment, cannot be controlled. The "pharm" crop in
question comes from a Texas-based genetic engineering company,
ProdiGene, who's working to make a number of plant-generated
pharmaceuticals to combat diseases like diabetes, and AIDS.
ProdiGene has a history of mishandling its "pharm" crops.
Contamination in Nebraska
A plot of ProdiGene "pharm" corn, genetically engineered to make
a pharmaceutical protein, was grown on a Nebraska field in 2001.
Ordinary soybeans were planted in the same field this year. Corn
seeds left over from the year before sprouted and grew a number of
corn plants containing the protein. According to the New York
Times, 500 bushels of soybeans were contaminated with the pharm
corn. Those soybeans, however, were brought to a grain elevator and
mixed with 500,000 bushels of soybeans. The whole amount is worth
an estimated US$2.7 million.
Upon discovery, regulators quarantined the grain elevator and
will destroy the impounded soybeans.
Contamination in Iowa
The next day, the US government disclosed a similar ProdiGene
mishap in Iowa. In the Iowa case, the genetically engineered corn
may have been spreading pollen at the same time plants in nearby
fields were receptive, raising the concern that genes unapproved
for human or animal consumption could have spread into ordinary
field corn. The USDA ordered 155 acres of Iowa corn pulled up in
September and incinerated.
A black eye for genetic engineering
According to Justin Gillis of the Washington Post, "The
ProdiGene matter is proving to be a significant black eye for the
biotech industry, which has been trying to reassure the public it
can be trusted not to contaminate the food supply."
"All genetically engineered 'pharm' crops currently out there
should be banned and all trials stopped immediately," said Dr.
Doreen Stabinsky from Greenpeace.
Learn more:
Biotech Firm Mishandled Corn in Iowa (Washington Post, 13
November 2002)
USDA probes Nebraska biotech crop contamination (Reuters, 14
November 2002 )
Greenpeace Identifies Secret Rice Fields with Human Genes
(Greenpeace)
Pharm crops: a food accident waiting to happen (Greenpeace
briefing paper, 2001)
List
of field trials with pharm crops in the US 1991 - 2002 (Friends
of the Earth)
Crop Producing Human Protein Found Growing in Open Field Test
(Greenpeace press release, 2001)