Open field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice containing human genes are being carried out in the heart of the California's traditional rice growing region, according to Greenpeace. The experiment is being carried out to produce pharmaceuticals.
Volunteers from the international environmental group marked out the field with giant syringes to highlight the risk of growing drug-producing GM crops outdoors. No special effort to protect the environment and the food chain had been made.
The nature of all of the compounds produced by these GM rice plants in Sutter County has been kept secret from the public but Greenpeace has identified two of the proteins produced in them as human lactoferrin and human lysozyme, commonly found in human breast milk, bile and tears.
Charlie Kronick, GM Campaigner for Greenpeace UK said
"There is no excuse to allow drug producing crops to be grown in the fields where they can contaminate the environment and food chain. This rice and all the other GM 'pharm' crops should be banned and permits for future open field trials must be revoked,"
According to the information submitted by the company Applied Phytologics Incorporated (API) to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), eight of the nine compounds produced in its field trial come from humans, in other words from rice engineered with human genes. The USDA imposes virtually no safety requirements specific to pharmaceutical crops. Despite Greenpeace's demand both the company and the California Department of Food and Agriculture failed to act upon the risk.
While the industry is already conducting open-air trials (1) of pharmaceutical rice, wheat, corn and barley, few regulations to protect public health and the environment are in place. The conventional rice at risk of GM contamination in California is exported mainly to Japan and Turkey. According to information available to Greenpeace, field trials with drug producing GM crops have been also taken place at least in Canada and France. Twenty companies world-wide are known to produce pharmaceutical through GM crops.
The incident also cast further doubt on US export markets. Only last year a genetically modified variety of corn not approved for human consumption, StarLink, contaminated over 300 supermarket products, resulting in mass food recalls both in the US and in its trading partners.
Editors notes:
(1) Field trials of crop plants producing pharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes, and other non-food proteins, conducted from 1992 through the present. Source: United States Department of Agriculture. Field test releases in the United States.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255
