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Tainted soybeans raise fears about bio-pharming (Monday, Nov. 18, 2002 -- CropChoice news) --
MIKE TONER, Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
A handful of genetically modified cornhusks in a Nebraska grain elevator has
tainted the harvest in America's heartland and raised new doubts about the
government's ability to protect the nation's food from crops engineered to
produce drugs and other chemicals.
An ounce of errant stubble in 500 bushels of soybeans may not sound like
much in a country that will produce 3 billion bushels of the beans this
year.
But the discovery, in an Aurora, Neb., grain elevator, has led the U.S.
Agriculture Department to quarantine a half-million bushels of potentially
contaminated beans. And it has raised questions about the government's
ability to protect the nation's food supply in an era when corporations are
experimenting with "biopharming" -- genetically altering plants to produce
drugs and industrial chemicals.
To make sure no contaminated soybeans get to market, the USDA has ordered
the disposal -- either by outright destruction or diversion to nonfood
uses -- of all the beans stored in the same location, valued at $2.7
million. It is considering fines against the company responsible for the
incident, Texas-based ProdiGene, and may order it to reimburse Nebraska
farmers for their losses.
The Food and Drug Administration says none of the unauthorized material made
it into the nation's food supply.
But the incident marked at least the third time this year that unapproved
genetically engineered plant material threatened to slip into the food
supply.
Friends of the Earth, an environmental group often critical of biotechnology
policy, has asked the USDA to halt further tests of biopharm crops
immediately. The agency has approved more than 300 tests in at least 10
states.
"If the USDA continues to allow biopharm food crops to be planted, someone
is going to get prescription drugs or industrial chemicals in their
cornflakes," said Larry Bohlen, director of the group's health and
environment program.
Greg Jaffe of the Center for Science in the Public Interest called the
incident "ample evidence that the biotechnology industry cannot be trusted
to meet its obligations of safeguarding the food supply and the
environment."
Environmental groups have long been critical of bio-pharming and other
efforts to manipulate the genes of crops, such as engineered herbicide
resistance. This time, however, their criticism is being echoed by segments
of the food industry as well.
Foreign buyers wary
The powerful Grocery Manufacturers of America, representing an industry with
$450 billion in annual sales, has expressed "deep concern" that the country
has no reliable way to keep biopharmed material off the dinner table.
"The food industry requires complete assurance from regulators and the
biotech industry that the safety and integrity of the U.S. food supply
remains intact," said Karil Kochenderfer, director of new technologies for
the group.
The American Soybean Association is alarmed as well, even though its
growers' crop is two-thirds genetically modified. The group chastised
ProdiGene for failing to be "as aggressive and attentive as it should have
been" to prevent the incident, and it suggested that federal regulations may
need strengthening.
Soybean growers have particular cause for concern. Nearly one-third of the
U.S. crop is exported, and key markets, including those in Europe and Japan,
are increasingly concerned about the industry's apparent inability to
segregate conventional crops from genetically modified ones.
The current controversy stems from corn that ProdiGene grew on a
three-quarter-acre plot in central Nebraska last year. The crop was
harvested, and, in keeping with traditional crop rotation, soybeans were
planted on the same ground this year.
When the soybeans were harvested this fall, they were apparently mixed with
a few stalks of corn that had sprouted from the previous year's crop. The
problem wasn't discovered until the soybeans had been delivered to the
Aurora Cooperative Elevator Co. and mixed with soybeans from other farms.
Neither ProdiGene nor the government will disclose exactly what genetic
modification the errant corn contained, but Anthony Laos, the company's
chief executive officer, says it was a protein for "persistent digestive
health conditions."
The company is known to be working on a protein used in manufacturing a
vaccine for travelers' diarrhea. Earlier this month it also announced plans
to produce commercial quantities -- certain to require plantings of
thousands of acres -- of genetically engineered corn containing "trypsin,"
an intermediary in the production of insulin, pain control products, food
processing and infant formulas.
Of the 85 permits for bio-pharming tests ProdiGene has received, nearly half
have been in Nebraska and Iowa. Most of them involve genetic modifications
of corn.
ProdiGene, however, is only one of at least five firms actively working on
U.S. farms to turn conventional crops into living factories for a cornucopia
of compounds, ranging from vaccines for hepatitis and hormones for human
contraception to industrial materials.
'Drug-free zone' set up
As the products of these "plant pharmacies" have grown more exotic, even the
biotechnology industry has grown uneasy about the prospect that errant genes
could creep into the food supply.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group, last month agreed
not to grow genetically modified drug- and chemical-producing crops in Iowa,
Illinois, Indiana and parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri,
Ohio and Kentucky.
The industry hopes the temporary "drug-free" zone, which will take effect in
2003, will give companies and the government time to work out ways of
keeping crops segregated.
But at least two other incidents this year show how difficult it will be to
maintain a physical separation between crops all the way from the field to
the supermarket.
In September, the USDA ordered the burning of 155 acres of Iowa corn out of
fears that it may have been pollinated from a nearby field of ProdiGene's
genetically modified corn.
This year, the Monsanto Co. recalled several lots of its canola seed after
discovering it had been mixed with genetically modified varieties not
intended for human consumption.
In all three cases, the suspect material was intercepted early in the food
supply chain. Three years ago, however, when the system failed to catch
potentially allergenic proteins in genetically modified corn, it triggered a
nationwide recall of tortillas, corn chips and 300 other corn products. | |
