The U.S. Department of Agriculture has quietly approved controversial proposals by genetic engineering firm Ventria Biosciences to grow rice containing human genes on 270 acres in North Carolina and Missouri. The rice is engineered to produce two pharmaceutical compounds, lactoferrin and lysozyme, derived from human genes. When grown in rice, the compounds present unresolved toxicity and allergenic risks and have not yet received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

“With this approval, USDA has signaled that it thinks it’s okay to grow drug-producing crops near food crops of the same type, despite the threat of contamination,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at Center for Food Safety. “There have already been numerous examples of contamination of food crops by biotech crops, including pharmaceutical crops. Over time, such contamination of our food is virtually inevitable under the conditions allowed by USDA.”

USDA granted permits for North Carolina field tests totaling 70 acres, in Washington County near the town of Plymouth. The North Carolina field test approvals come over objections from numerous stakeholders, including environmental and consumer groups, as well as the Food Products Association. Public comments ran 320 to 1 against approval of the North Carolina site.
Opposition came from scientists who work at or with the state- and federally-operated Rice Quarantine Nursery at the Tidewater Research Station, which sits just over half a mile from the Ventria test site. The researchers are concerned about contamination of unique varieties of rice grown at the facility in a nursery that protects foundation stocks of new varieties. According to USDA scientist Dr. David Marshall, who is based at North Carolina State University:

“[T]he potential exists for stray rice pollen to be carried via air currents from the Ventria Bioscience fields to the Nursery and pollinating the introduced germplasm. If this were to occur, genes from the rice expressing human lactoferrin could be introduced into the rice germplasm of the National Plant Germplasm System, and thus be disseminated throughout the U.S.”

In comments on the proposal, Karen A.K. Moldenhauer, Chair of the Rice Crop Germplasm Committee (CGC) and Professor at the University of Arkansas, said: “[The Rice CGC] is concerned about the perception of a grow out this close to the quarantine nursery and hope that they consider moving this grow out to a location farther away (at least 15 miles) from the Tidewater Research Station of NCDA & CS at Plymouth, NC.”

USDA also cleared the way for Ventria to grow its biopharm rice on 200 acres in the middle of Missouri’s chief rice-growing region, despite Ventria’s having already withdrawn its permit applications for that site. Anheuser-Busch, the nation’s largest brewer, had indicated that it would refuse to buy any rice from southeastern Missouri’s hundreds of rice growers if the Ventria biopharm rice was planted there. Anheuser-Busch publicly indicated it feared contamination of its rice-based beers with Ventria’s biopharm compounds.

In its response to comments on the Ventria proposal, USDA dismissed the concerns of rice purchasers like Anheuser-Busch as “non-scientific” and beyond its legal purview. “If USDA is not gong to protect the U.S. food industry, who will?” said Dr. Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In a related story, the North Carolina legislature is considering “preemption” bills intended to block local regulation of crop plantings, including biotech crops. The bills, House Bill 671 and Senate Bill 631, were sponsored by the biotech industry and are part of a nationwide industry effort to preempt local governments from regulating any crops, (see: www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2005&BillID=H671). Similar bills designed to thwart local control of food crops have become law in at least 10 other states this year. Amendments to the two bills are being considered in the Senate, including a potential study bill to assess alternative approaches that would allow for some local government control.

“I have major questions about the wisdom of planting this rice near an important North Carolina asset, the Tidewater Research Station,” said State Senator Janet Cowell (D-Wake County) and the leader of the opposition to the current bills. “This is particularly true because of the Confidential Business Information claims about the precise location of Ventria’s proposal.”

Public comments on the Ventria rice proposals can be viewed at:
http://docket.epa.gov/edkfed/do/EDKStaffCollectionDetailView?objectId=0b0007d48061142f
and http://docket.epa.gov/edkfed/do/EDKStaffCollectionDetailView?objectId=0b0007d480611b1e.

For more information on the local regulation preemption bills, including backgrounders on the legal and policy issues, seewww.environmentalcommons.org/gmo-tracker.html