Corduroy Orange

Request for approval made after rice contaminated supplies

I’m not sure what I find more troubling: that agrochemical companies feel the need to breed new, poison-resistant strains of staple crops, or that the government seems so apt to approve them. The USDA has approved for human consumption a breed of rice developed by Bayer CropScience that is resistant to herbicides. The path toward approval was set in motion last July, when Bayer notified the government that it had found small amounts of the rice (deemed LLRICE601) in rice storage bins in Arkansas and Missouri and in samples of commercial long-grain rice due to cross-pollination between test crops and commercial crops. Prior to that discovery, the rice was “not intended for commercialization,” but because the genetic alteration was found by the USDA not to pose any health or environmental threats, it was just recently approved for all uses.

I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that the “protein conferring herbicide tolerance” itself poses no threat to human health, but what about the extra herbicides that can now be sprayed on the crops? That stuff can’t possibly be good for our systems–its very purpose is to kill plants! I’d feel much more at ease if our nation’s best and brightest biochemical engineers were devoting their talents toward developing strains of plants that need less chemical input instead of developing strains that tolerate more.

Some more disturbing information about Bayer’s and the USDA’s business and regulatory practices are revealed in a press release from the Institute of Science in Society from September 29 of this year, with ISIS’s sources noted as applicable:

• The government assisted Bayer with producing its application for deregulation, “in fact, USDA/AHIS [US Dept. of Agriculture / Animal and Plant Health inspection Service] has even prepared an environmental assessment on Bayer’s behalf, ‘for a preliminary decision to extend a determination of non-regulated status.’”
• Source: USDA/APHIS Draft Environmental Assessment In response to Bayer CropScience Petition 06-234-01P seeking Extension of Determination of Non-regulated Status for Glufosinate Resistant rice, Oryza sativa, event LLRICE601 06-234-01p_pea 06-234-01p_fr_pc_pet 2006 http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/not_reg.html
• Bayer was less than forthcoming with the public in their application for deregulation: “About a third of the LLRICE601 petition was left blank under “confidential business information” (CBI). This is far from consistent with the scientific requirement for full and truthful reporting. None of the previous petitions for un-regulated status have such extensive designation of CBI, and apparently some of the CBI information has been openly reported previously, and it is clear that USDA/APHIS is not normally required to accept frivolous CBI designations.”
• There is some evidence that the actual mutation to the rice is not as safe to humans as Bayer and the USDA say it is: “LLRICE601 was transformed using the Agrobacterium vector system that integrates T-DNA from a disarmed Ti (tumour-inducing) plasmid. There is evidence of multiple complex patterns of T-DNA integration into the rice genome. About a third of transformation events are accompanied by DNA integrations extending beyond the T-DNA boundaries [10]. Furthermore, T-DNA insertions cause mutations by disrupting target genes in the chromosomal integration site [11]. There appears to be no attempts at identifying the mutated gene(s) in LLRICE601″
• Source: Jeon JS, Lee S, Jung KH, Jun SH, Jeong DH, Lee J, Kim C, Jang S, Yang K, Nam J, An K, Han MJ, Sung RJ, Choi HS, Yu JH, Choi JH, Cho SY, Cha SS, Kim SI and An G. T-DNA insertional mutagenesis for functional genomics in rice. Plant J. 2000, 22(6), 561-70.
• The USDA wants organic rice-growers to disregard any cross-pollinations between this crop and theirs: “USDA is the final authority on organic certification in the U.S. But it is taking steps to undermine this standard, as is clear from the USDA/APHIS draft environment assessment of LLRICE601 on behalf of Bayer: ‘The presence of a detectable residue of a product of excluded methods alone does not necessarily constitute a violation of the National Organic Standards.’ In practice, planting genetically-modified seed would render the organic crop non-organic and require it to be sold as conventional. But the USDA/APHIS goes on to state: ‘The status of the organic operation depends on the operator’s foreknowledge of the origin and status of the seed planted.’ In other words, what the operator does not know, does not count. So organic farmers are encouraged to maintain their ignorance. Unfortunately, their customers do not hold the same view.”USDA has not stipulated a requirement that rice fields contaminated with genetically modified rice should be identified, knowing full well that pollen flow will pollute neighboring organic fields, as well as non-organic fields. The polluted ‘organic’ crop may be deemed organic in the U.S. but it is unlikely to be so considered in export markets. Approval of transgenic rice should be accompanied by a clear recognition of liability in case of contamination.”
  • Source: USDA/APHIS Draft Environmental Assessment In response to Bayer CropScience Petition 06-234-01P seeking Extension of Determination of Non-regulated Status for Glufosinate Resistant rice, Oryza sativa, event LLRICE601 06-234-01p_pea 06-234-01p_fr_pc_pet 2006 http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/not_reg.html

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Rant, Sustainable Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.