Thread: Human genes engineered into experimental GMO rice being grown in Kansas

Human genes engineered into experimental GMO rice being grown in Kansas

Wednesday, May 02, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Unless the rice you buy is certified organic, or comes specifically from a farm that tests its rice crops for genetically modified (GM) traits, you could be eating rice tainted with actual human genes. The only known GMO with inbred human traits in cultivation today, a GM rice product made by biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience is currently being grown on 3,200 acres in Junction City, Kansas -- and possibly elsewhere -- and most people have no idea about it.

Since about 2006, Ventria has been quietly cultivating rice that has been genetically modified (GM) with genes from the human liver for the purpose of taking the artificial proteins produced by this "Frankenrice" and using them in pharmaceuticals. With approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Ventria has taken one of the most widely cultivated grain crops in the world today, and essentially turned it into a catalyst for producing new drugs.

Originally, the cultivation of this GM rice, which comes in three approved varieties (APHIS Biotechnology Permits with Environmental Assessments), was limited to the laboratory setting. But in 2007, Ventria decided to bring the rice outdoors. The company initially tried to plant the crops in Missouri, but met resistance from Anheuser-Busch and others, which threatened to boycott all rice from the state in the event that Ventria began planting its rice within state borders (http://todayyesterdayandtomorrow.wordpress.com).

So Ventria's GM rice eventually ended up in Kansas, where it is presumably still being grown for the purpose of manufacturing drugs on 3,200 acres in Junction City. And while this GM rice with added human traits has never been approved for human consumption, it is now being cultivated in open fields where the potential for unrestrained contamination and spread of its unwanted, dangerous GM traits is virtually a given.

"This is not a product that everyone would want to consume," said Jane Rissler from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to the Washington Post back in 2007. "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors."

Though receiving tens of thousands of public comments of opposition, many rightly concerned about the spread of GM traits, the USDA approved open cultivation of Ventria's GM rice anyway. This, of course, occurred after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had refused approval for Ventria's GM rice back in 2003 ( http://www.kansasruralcenter.org/pub...PharmaRice.pdf ).

GM 'pharmaceutical' rice could cause more disease, suggests report

Besides the threat of contamination and wild spread, Ventria's GM rice, which is purportedly being grown to help third-world children overcome chronic diarrhea, may conversely cause other chronic diseases.

"These genetically engineered drugs could exacerbate certain infections, or cause dangerous allergic or immune system reactions," said Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), who published a report back in 2007 about the dangers of Ventria's GM rice.

You can view that report here: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org

Sources for this article include:

Human Gene Gets Put Into Rice

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Pot? | Worldwatch Institute

http://todayyesterdayandtomorrow.wordpress.com


Human genes engineered into experimental GMO rice being grown in Kansas

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box?

Worldwatch Institute
Wed, 02 May 2012 21:41 CDT


© n/a


Rice with human genes will soon be grown in Kansas.

Rice engineered to contain human genes will be grown for the first time outdoors instead of in a laboratory, bringing it one step closer to commercial production, according to The Washington Post. The genes that the California-based biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience has infused into rice enable the plant to produce bacteria-fighting proteins found in human breast milk and saliva. "We can really help children with diarrhea get better faster," Scott E. Deeter, the company's president and chief executive, explained of the product.

But many consumer groups are worried the engineered rice will do more harm than good. Genetically modified (GM) plants have a history of migrating out of their target plots and contaminating other plants, critics note, and it would be difficult to control the doses of human proteins that people purposely or inadvertently take in. "This is not a product that everyone would want to consume," Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists told the Post. "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors."

A study in Peru sponsored by Ventria Bioscience demonstrated that children with severe diarrhea recovered a day and a half faster when taking fluids that contained the proteins. But this does not make the rice a "silver bullet" for combating diarrhea in developing countries, experts say. "There's no guarantee that the public will use this in poorer nations, as patent issues have obstructed altruistic biotech applications before," notes Worldwatch Institute researcher Brian Halweil.

And, according to Halweil's colleague Danielle Nierenberg, "most of these GM-enhanced varieties of crops don't really address the root problems of poverty and disease." Every year, over one million infants and children die from diseases associated with inadequate water and sanitation, and hundreds of millions of people are "debilitated" by illness, pain, and discomfort, authors David Satterthwaite and Gordon McGranahan write in Worldwatch's State of the World 2007 report.

"Instead of pushing these products on poor consumers who lack the financial ability to say 'no' to GM plants, the money invested in developing these crops could go to broader goals like providing clean water and sanitation to prevent the very diseases these crops are created to treat," Nierenberg says.

Human Genes In Rice: Opening up Pandora's Box? -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net-