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By
Suzanne Goldenberg
U.S. authorities,
shaken by a case in which food crops were contaminated with
an experimental pig vaccine, are preparing to impose stringent
guidelines on a new generation of experimental GM crops.
The department
of agriculture and the environmental protection agency are
encountering growing disquiet from a coalition of farmers
and food manufacturers about the potential dangers of the
next phase of GM products -- "biopharming," or the
implanting of genes in food crops to grow drugs and industrial
chemicals.
The idea of tightening
regulations on GM products represents something of a revolution
in thinking in the U.S., where about 70 percent of the processed
food on supermarket shelves contains genetically engineered
ingredients.
But concerns have
risen after a small biotech firm in Texas was fined $3 million
for tainting half a million bushels of soya bean with a trial
vaccine used to prevent stomach upsets in piglets.
Under a settlement
reached this month, the first of its kind against any biotech
company in the U.S., a firm called Prodigene agreed to pay
a fine of $250,000 and to repay the government for the cost
of incinerating the soya bean that had been contaminated with
genetically altered corn.
U.S. authorities
said the corn did not reach food crops or animal feed. But
the episode has drawn unwelcome attention to an as yet experimental
area of GM farming.
The premise behind
biopharming, or "pharming" for short, is that genetic
tinkering can turn an ordinary-looking corn or barley field
into a potential drug factory, producing insulin, chemotherapy
drugs, and other products for much less than it would cost
to set up an industrial plant.
At present, two-dozen
trials of the experimental GM drugs are under way across the
U.S.
The biotech firms
argue that the new technique can revolutionize health care,
especially in the developing world where hospitals short on
syringes can dispense edible drugs. But in the wake of the
Texas case, questions are being asked.
The latest incident
was the worst violation so far of regulations intended to
keep biopharming out of the food supply. It was also seen
as the most serious setback to date to the next generation
of GM farming.
Until now, genetic
engineering has been used mainly to make crops such as corn
and soya bean resistant to insects and disease, and the U.S.
food industry has been solidly on side.
The Texas alarm
has begun to change that. "The incident overall just
reaffirms our concerns that something could go wrong,"
Stephanie Childs of the Grocery Manufacturers of America,
which represents food companies such as Kellogg and General
Mills, told the Los Angeles Times.
Analysts in Washington
said yesterday that they expected the department of agriculture
to impose more stringent guidelines next year. Published reports
said yesterday that guidelines under consideration by the
authorities include moving experimental farms away from America's
grain belt in the Midwest, or requiring growers to dye the
leaves of the altered crops.
The agriculture
department's disciplinary measures against the small Texas
firm have crystallized concerns among farmers, environmentalists
and industry about the risks of experimental vaccine crops
getting into the food supply.
"The department
of agriculture wanted to send a signal that the companies
need to take the obligation to protect the food supply very
seriously," said Michael odemeyer, the director of Washington's
Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.
"The whole
issue of growing pharmaceuticals in food crops has certainly
raised concern within the food industry, as well as among
environmentalistsand others, about genes from these crops
getting into the food supply."
The
Guardian December 24, 2002
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