Human genes in your food?
By
SEAN POULTER
The
first GM food crop containing human genes
is set to be approved for commercial production.
The
laboratory-created rice produces some
of the human proteins found in breast
milk and saliva.
Its
U.S. developers say they could be used
to treat children with diarrhoea, a major
killer in the Third World.
The
rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein
Foods, the first mingling of human-origin
genes and those from plants. But the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has already
signalled it plans to allow commercial
cultivation.
The
rice's producers, California-based Ventria
Bioscience, have been given preliminary
approval to grow it on more than 3,000
acres in Kansas. The company plans to
harvest the proteins and use them in drinks,
desserts, yoghurts and muesli bars.
The
news provoked horror among GM critics
and consumer groups on both sides of the
Atlantic.
GeneWatch
UK, which monitors new GM foods, described
it as "very disturbing". Researcher
Becky Price warned: "There are huge,
huge health risks and people should rightly
be concerned about this."
Friends
of the Earth campaigner Clare Oxborrow
said: "Using food crops and fields
as glorified drug factories is a very
worrying development.
"If
these pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers'
plates, the consequences for our health
could be devastating.
"The
biotech industry has already failed to
prevent experimental GM rice contaminating
the food chain.
"The
Government must urge the U.S. to ban the
production of drugs in food crops. It
must also introduce tough measures to
prevent illegal GM crops contaminating
our food and ensure that biotech companies
are liable for any damage their products
cause."
In
the U.S., the Union of Concerned Scientists,
a policy advocacy group, warned: "It
is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors.
"There
would be little control over the doses
people might get exposed to, and some
might be allergic to the proteins."
The
American Consumers Union and the Washingtonbased
Centre for Food Safety also oppose Ventria's
plans.
As
well as the contamination fears there
are serious ethical concerns about such
a fundamental interference with the building
blocks of life.
Yet
there is no legal means for Britain and
Europe to ban such products on ethical
grounds.
Imports
would have to be accepted once they had
gone through a scientific safety assessment.
The
development is what may people feared
when, ten years ago, food scientists showed
what was possible by inserting copies
of fish genes from the flounder into tomatoes,
to help them withstand frost.
Ventria
has produced three varieties of the rice,
each with a different human-origin gene
that makes the plants produce one of three
human proteins.
Two
- lactoferrin and lysozyme - are bacteria-fighting
compounds found in breast milk and saliva.
The genes, cultivated and copied in a
laboratory to produce a synthetic version,
are carried into embryonic rice plants
inside bacteria.
Until
now, plants with human-origin genes have
been restricted to small test plots.
Ventria
originally planned to grow the rice in
southern Missouri but the brewer Anheuser-Busch,
a huge buyer of rice, threatened to boycott
the state amid concern over contamination
and consumer reaction.
Now
the USDA, saying the rice poses "virtually
no risk". has given preliminary approval
for it to be grown in Kansas, which has
no commercial rice farms.
Ventria
will also use dedicated equipment, storage
and processing facilities supposed to
prevent seeds from mixing with other crops.
The
company says food products using the rice
proteins could help save many of the two
million children a year who die from diarrhoea
and the resulting dehydration and complications.
A recent study in Peru, sponsored by Ventria,
showed that children with severe diarrhoea
recovered a day and a half faster if the
salty fluids they were prescribed included
the proteins.
The
rice could also be a huge money-spinner
in the Western world, with parents being
told it will help their children get over
unpleasant stomach bugs more quickly.
Ventria
chief executive Scott Deeter said last
night: "We have a product here that
can help children get better faster."
He
said any concerns about safety and contamination
were "based on perception, not reality"
given all the precautions the company
was taking.
Mr
Deeter said production in plants was far
cheaper than other methods, which should
help make the therapy affordable in the
developing world.
He
said: "Plants are phenomenal factories.
Our raw materials are the sun, soil and
water."