Global Policy Forum

By Stephen Leahy

Even as the United States sues the European Union in the World Trade Organisation for shunning genetically engineered crops, the George W. Bush administration has itself become the target of a lawsuit by groups seeking a ban on open field trials of plants designed to produce pharmaceuticals.

Even as the United States sues the European Union in the World Trade Organization for shunning genetically engineered crops, the George W. Bush administration has itself become the target of a lawsuit by groups seeking a ban on open field trials of plants designed to produce pharmaceuticals.

There have been more than 300 of such field trials in secret locations across the United States since 1991, said Joe Mendelson of the Centre for Food Safety, a member of the coalition that filed the suit. These genetically engineered (GE) plants contain human proteins, growth hormones, vaccines and industrial enzymes that have never been in the environment before, Mendelson told IPS.

"Government regulators haven't looked at what the impacts these might have on endangered species," he said. "The issue needs immediate attention."

The coalition plans to use the tough environmental provisions of the Endangered Species Act to prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from allowing the planting of bio-pharmaceutical crops in farm fields. While GE crops may not be the biggest threat to North America's endangered species, Mendelson stressed that the environmental impacts of this powerful new technology have not been properly investigated.

The European Union (EU) has instituted a moratorium on imports of GE crops -- prompting the United States to file its lawsuit with the World Trade Organization in May on the argument that the ban violated international trade rules. Bush has also accused the EU of perpetuating starvation in Africa by subsidizing agricultural exports -- something the United States also does -- and by objecting to the use of bio-engineered crops.

Fears of contamination are hardly unfounded, critics note. Last year, 500,000 bushels of soybeans were found to be inadvertently mixed with maize genetically engineered to produce an experimental drug. The soybeans were destroyed and the Texas-based biotech company ProdiGene was ordered to pay 3 million dollars in clean-up costs and fines. None of the contaminated grain ended up in the food supply, but the incident prompted the current lawsuit. "Just one mistake by a biotech company and we'll be eating other people's prescription drugs in our cornflakes," said Larry Bohlen, director of Health and Environment Programs at Friends of the Earth, a member of the coalition.

Many leading scientists agree that there is a need for greater caution on the issue of GE crops. "Current gene-containment strategies cannot work reliably in the field," the editors of the science publication Nature Biotechnology wrote last year. The prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences, among many others, has issued warnings that bio-pharmaceutical products could get into the food supply because USDA regulations are not strict enough.

Even the pro-GE food industry is worried. The National Food Processors Association recommends that open trials of bio-pharmaceutical crops be halted until the federal government imposes tougher regulations to prevent future incidents. "There should be no testing of this kind unless you can get 100 percent confinement and containment. The risk is too high," Rhona Applebaum, an association spokesperson, told the press.

The USDA responded to the criticism last March with new rules requiring wider buffer zones between bio-pharmaceutical crops and regular crops, better training for farmers, equipment dedicated to exclusively to bio-pharmaceutical crops, and more frequent government inspections. The day the USDA's new rules were released, the coalition filed its notice to sue. One reason was the USDA's spotty record of enforcement. Last April, an independent, peer-reviewed report commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts reported that the USDA did a poor job of enforcing its own rules on GE food crops. They also found the monitoring of unanticipated health or environmental problems to be very weak.

Tornados, thunderstorms and floods can also move pollen, seeds and even whole plants much further than the new buffer zones of a few hundred metres, to over a kilometre, the coalition says. Nor are separate harvesting systems a foolproof solution. The chances of human error are not insignificant, as the contamination case of Starlink corn proves. Moreover, there have been no environmental risk assessments of bio-pharmaceutical crops since 1998, they said. "The USDA should prohibit the planting of food crops engineered with drugs and chemicals to protect the food supply from contamination," Bohlen said.

While food supply contamination is the main focus of concern regarding biopharm, Joe Cummins, a genetics professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, told IPS there is a real risk that pharmaceutical proteins will spread into the wider environment, when tiny bits of plant material move through the air as dust, contaminating surface and groundwater. Animals and humans can accidentally ingest these, he said. At the very least, Cummins said these crops should be grown in controlled greenhouse settings.

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