Splicing of human genes in food crops returning
Biotechnology companies are quietly pushing to splice more human genes into food crops after the practice was nearly abandoned last year, a Washington-based advocacy group says.
The news comes some 18 months after Texas-based Prodigene caused an uproar by accidentally mixing such crops with conventionally-grown plants in Nebraska.
At the time, giant food manufacturers called for tighter regulation of such experiments, and biotech titan Monsanto announced it was pulling out of the field.
The number of federal regulatory approvals and applications for these outdoor plantings – often called “biopharming” – have nearly doubled in the last 12 months when compared to the previous year, according to the Washington DC-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest.
“The biopharming industry seems to be back in business,” the group concludes in a report being released today
John Reiher, the company’s chief executive since August, would not say what was being spliced into the corn, how many acres were under cultivation or where exactly it was growing.
Other companies with similar applications approved this year include Hayward, California-based Planet Biotechnology and Ventria BioScience of Sacramento, California.
The US Department of Agriculture has approved seven of the 16 applications it received between May 2003 and April, with the nine pending applications all submitted in the last four months, the report says.
Its author, Greg Jaffe, says the USDA has denied only two such applications since 2000.
No human drug made from genetically-engineered crops has been approved for commercial use and most applications are for small outdoor plots of less than acre each, the USDA said.
