GM rice engineered with human gene

Yahoo news reports that a small bioengineering company, Ventria Bioscience, has been developing a drug to fight diarrhoea. The experimental drug is causing a massive outcry as it is grown in rice that has been genetically engineered with a human gene. Critics of the project complain that Ventria is "recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for food."

"We just want them to go away," said Bob Papanos of the U.S. Rice Producers Association. "This little company could cause major problems."

The practice of biopharming is by far and away the most contentious sector of agricultural biotechnology and has been likened to open-air "drug factories splicing human genes into crops to produce proteins that can be turned into medicines".

While the company claims to use a contained system that ought to prevent contamination of other crops, there have been numerous cases reported by American and Canadian farmers of cross contamination by supposedly safe crops.

full story at Yahoo - biopharming dilemma


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