U.S. Approves GMO Rice With Human Proteins*

May 19th, 2007 2:45 PM

By Lisa Haarlander

The U.S. government gave approval on Wednesday for a biotech company to
plant rice genetically modified to produce human proteins in Kansas.

Ventria Bioscience of Sacramento, California, can now grow up to 3,200
acres of genetically modified rice in Geary County, Kansas, to produce
proteins that would be used in medicine to treat diarrhea.

Ventria plans to grow the rice on only 250 acres, said company president
Scott Deeter.

"We have grown it for nine years in North Carolina, California and South
America as well," he said.

The approval by the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) fuels concerns that another GMO crop will
contaminate the U.S. food and feed supply.

Last summer, a genetically modified strain of long-grain rice made by
Bayer CropScience, a unit of Bayer AG, which had not been cleared for
food use, was found in commercial rice bins in Arkansas and Missouri.
Several countries, including the European Union, have sharply cut back
on U.S. rice purchases following the discovery. USDA has since found
LibertyLink safe for food and feed use.

"The U.S. rice industry is still reeling from the release of Bayer
CropScience's genetically engineered LibertyLink rice into U.S.
Delta-region rice fields," USA Rice Producers' Group Chairman Paul Combs
said. "We are living with the effect of unintended events and
consequences. This decision will not generate any comfort among U.S.
commercial rice growers."

APHIS received more than 20,000 comments on Ventria's application, with
only 29 groups or individuals supporting the planting of the GMO rice in
Kansas.

USDA has a stringent protocol for overseeing genetically modified crops
with those made to produce pharmaceuticals regulated by more field
inspections and greater distances from traditional food crops, among
other requirements.

There is no commercial rice production within 300 miles of Geary County,
APHIS said.

"We don't produce this in an area that produces rice," Deeter said.
"It's an entirely different production system. We wouldn't have the
situation that LibertyLink had."

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