Scientific Panel Issues Warning about Biotech Crops

PHILIP BRASHER / Des Moines Register 21jan04

Washington, D.C.—A panel of scientists cautions against genetically engineering food crops to make industrial and pharmaceutical products because of the difficulty of controlling the biotech plants.

A report issued Tuesday by the National Research Council could further hurt Iowa's hopes of developing a lucrative industry producing human and animal drugs from biotech versions of corn.

The report, which was requested by the U.S. Agriculture Department, says that a plant or animal used for food would be a "poor choice" for industrial uses unless it is raised "under stringent conditions of confinement."

The council is the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences and its findings and recommendations are widely recognized by people on all sides of complex scientific issues.

"Risky applications of genetic engineering - such as producing vaccines or other drugs in food crops - should not be allowed," said Gregory Jaffe, a biotech specialist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

Biotech companies have stopped growing pharmaceutical corn in Iowa since the discovery in 2002 that a biotech company, Prodigene Inc., had failed to control pharmaceutical crops in Iowa and Nebraska.

Biopharming could save drug companies a lot of money, because of the potentially low cost of mass-producing compounds in a crop like corn, but food companies are worried that a pharmaceutical crop could contaminate their products.

The USDA last year tightened regulations on cultivation and inspection of pharmaceutical industrial crops to prevent further contamination incidents. The rules require the biotech fields to be isolated from crops grown for food or animal feed.

Donald Duvick, a retired Iowa State University plant breeder who served as a reviewer of the study, said it will be difficult to get companies to grow pharmaceutical corn in Iowa as long as the crop is not approved for human food. "If there's a zero tolerance, there's just not much choice," he said.

The study looked at a variety of issues surrounding the problems of containing genetically modified plants, animals or bacteria. Scientists have long raised a variety of concerns, including that weedkiller-resistant crops could cross with weeds and produce new versions of weeds that are difficult to kill.

"Confinement won't be warranted in most cases, but when it is, worst-case scenarios and their probabilities should be considered," said T. Kent Kirk of the University of Wisconsin, the chairman of the scientific panel that wrote the report for the council.

More research is needed into methods of containing biotech products, the report said. One way to prevent unwanted genes from spreading is to design the plant or animal so that a specific trait cannot be activated without use of a chemical spray, the report said.

Corn is popular with biotech companies because it is easy to engineer and can produce large amounts of designer proteins. However, biotech cornfields also can be difficult to control because the pollen spreads widely on the wind. Other crops being studied for use in pharmaceutical or industrial compounds include safflower, rice, barley, tobacco and lettuce.

The USDA had no immediate comment on the study's recommendations.

"We realize that the science is always changing, and we're always looking for input on our regulations," said Meghan Thomas, a spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Lisa Dry of the Biotechnology Industry Organization said the USDA's existing regulations should be adequate to address the concerns raised by the study about the use of food crops for pharmaceutical and industrial uses.