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Keep Pharma Crops Out of Our Food
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Progressive Portal
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Jan 09, 2005 22:45 PST
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WITHOUT STRICT SAFEGUARDS, DRIFTING POLLEN AND MIXING
OF SEEDS LIKELY WILL PUT FOOD SUPPLIES AT RISK
[From the Union of Concerned Scientists <http://www.ucsusa.org>]
Genetic engineers are already hard at work on the development of
genetically engineered corn, soybeans, rice, barley, and other crops
that will produce chemicals for pharmaceutical and industrial use. The
United States Department of Agriculture has already authorized open-air
experiments with crops designed to produce, among other substances, a
blood-clotting agent, a blood thinner, experimental animal vaccines,
industrial enzymes, antibodies, and a potent abortion-inducing compound
once considered for use as an AIDS drug.
While some would argue that such crops could deliver important benefits
for humanity, they also raise a serious threat: inadvertent
contamination of food crops, either by drifting pollen or by accidental
mixing of seed stocks during harvest, storage, transport, and handling.
Incidents of such contamination have already been reported as results of
field testing of experimental "pharma" and industrial crops in Iowa and
Nebraska. According to "A Growing Concern," a new report commissioned by
the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and written by six prominent
agriculture experts, many more such incidents are likely, because
current production processes were not designed with this danger in mind.
CONTINUED BELOW ...
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On the basis of this report, the UCS is calling on the USDA to halt the
outdoor production of genetically engineered pharma and industrial crops
immediately, until a system is put in place that can produce drugs and
industrial substances without putting our food at risk. It also
recommends that the department undertake a major campaign to encourage
and fund alternatives to the use of food and feed crops in pharma and
industrial crop production, particularly the search for non-food/feed
crops suitable for such purposes.
Write to the USDA to support the call to protect our food supply from
this new threat.
Take Action
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Send a message to the Department of Agriculture at:
http://www.ucsaction.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23460
More Information
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The Union of Concerned Scientists' "A Growing Concern" report:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1561
An article on the report from the Washington Post:
http://www.newfarm.org/news/1204/121704/bio_report.shtml
Lawsuits filed by the Center for Food Safety over field-testing of
biopharmaceutical crops:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/cfs_files2.cfm
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/PRGEPPV60dayBiopharm3.5.2003.pdf
(192K, Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Transcript of a 2002 panel discussion sponsored by the Center for
Science in the Public Interest entitled, "The Future of Pharming: Can It
Be Done Safely?":
http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/transcript.pdf
(135K, Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Additional information:
http://www.inquisitoronline.com/news/0306gm.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/disaster121504.cfm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040602/news_1b2pharming.html
http://www.ljworld.com/section/businesslead/storypr/101768
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