Biotech rice plan involving human DNA added in

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California regulators nix company´s biotech rice plan involving human DNA

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AP

April 13, 2004

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - State regulators have derailed a small biotechnology

company´s ambitious plans to begin immediately growing commercial quantities

of rice engineered with human genetic material.

 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture on Friday denied Ventria

Bioscience´s application to grow more than 120 acres of rice in Southern

California because federal regulators haven´t issued a permit. The

Sacramento-based company said it has not yet applied for federal regulatory

approval.

 

State officials also said the public needs more time to comment on an issue

that has roiled the $500 million-a-year California rice industry. Many rice

farmers fear consumer perception will turn against their crops and cost them

customers in biotechnology-adverse Europe and Japan if Ventria´s permit was

granted.

 

Now Ventria, which already has permission to grow experimentally on small

plots, will have to wait at least until next year to expand production.

 

Despite the regulatory setback and continued vocal opposition, Ventria chief

executive Scott Deeter said Friday the company would reapply in California.

 

The company would explore options in Hawaii and the South, Deeter said,

adding that Ventria intends to apply next year for a federal permit to

expand its operations.

 

The human genes that Ventria inserts into its rice produce proteins which

are found in mother´s milk, tears and saliva and can combat diarrhea and

anemia, Deeter said.

 

" This will enhance and save human life, " Deeter said.

 

Company scientists spliced the human genes into the rice genome. The

resulting proteins show up in rice seeds, which are then milled into powder

for packaging. The company hopes to sell its products as an over-the-counter

medicine, perhaps by 2006.

 

Ventria has been growing genetically engineered rice on 120 acres in

Northern California on an experimental basis since it received U.S.

Department of Agricultural permits in 1997.

 

On Monday, the USDA refused to renew that permit for this year, saying the

company planned to grow its experimental rice too close to crops intended

for human consumption.

 

Deeter said the company would address the USDA´s concern and still expected

to receive approval to continue growing the genetically engineered rice on

its current plot.

 

The California Rice Commission, a lobbying group which supported Ventria´s

application, declined comment Friday.

 

Company critics, however, seized on the USDA concerns as an indication

Ventria can´t be trusted to expand. They are concerned the biotech rice

hasn´t been studied enough to ensure its safety if it accidentally found its

way into the food supply.

 

" This pharmaceutical rice crop raises a raft of serious public health,

environmental and economic concerns, " said Michael Hansen of the Consumers

Union´s Consumer Policy Institute. The Consumer´s Union, along with several

other environmental and food safety groups typically skeptical of

biotechnology, urged California regulators last week to deny the permit.

 

Many rice farmers fear that even absent any accidental mixing of their crops

with Ventria´s rice, customers in Europe and Japan could boycott their

product.