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Drugs Vs. Alcohol
Anheuser-Busch, which uses
Missouri-grown rice to make beer, was unhappy with the plans of Ventria
Biosciences. Ventria intended to plant fields in
Anheuser-Busch, worried that
the transgenic plants might end up in the food crops and, in turn, their beer,
announced that they would boycott
Growing Drugs
Plants such as rice and corn are considered ideal for "growing" drugs because they naturally produce large quantities of proteins. They can be made to produce proteins that affect humans by replacing some of their natural genetic code with human genes.
Using plants in this manner is considerably cheaper than other means used for this process, such as harvesting drugs from Chinese hamster ovaries. Plant use is estimated to cut manufacturing costs from $125 million to $4 million.
It has been predicted that the first plant-manufactured drugs will arrive on the market in 2006, and grow into a $2.2-billion-per-year industry by 2011.
Mixing With Food Crops
But there are fears that pollen from genetically engineered plants could be blown by the wind into fields containing food crops, producing contaminated hybrids, or that transgenic seeds could be carried hundreds of miles by birds.
In 2002, drug-producing
transgenic corn made by ProdiGene Inc. started appearing in soybean fields in
Tighter Regulation Needed
Consumer and environmental groups argue that a tighter regulatory framework is needed. Right now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the only federal agency that regulates drug-producing plants; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only steps in later, when the drugs themselves are tested. Many argue that, since the FDA's mandate includes protecting food, they should regulate the process at an earlier point.
Margaret Mellon, director of the food and environment program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, argued that the FDA needs to be given oversight over the whole process.
Said Mellon, "The FDA has
authority to oversee drug production. The question is: When does drug production
begin here? ... The FDA needs to get new authority from Congress to allow them
to regulate genetically engineered organisms. There needs to be a pre-commercial
review of the risks inherent in this type of
production." Business Week Online August 1,
2005 Dr. Mercola's
Comment: I recently discussed how hybrids between GM plants and wild
plants create weeds resistant to herbicides, and how GM crops can result
in insecticide-proof insects. Now we are presented with the frightening
possibility that medical drugs could end up in our food
supply. The effects of genetic modification on the environment and
on our health is unknown. Essentially, it is a massive and risky
experiment on the whole human race and the earth's
biosphere. And it isn't a question of whether or not GM
plants will mix with non-GM crops; they will do
so. We do not have control over the wind, the birds and
the soil. Even without the certainty of GM contamination, most people
are already eating GM foods without even knowing it. Genetically
engineered foods aren't labeled as such when they're sold to you in the
grocery store. But at least seven out of 10 items on the shelf have
been genetically modified. There are, however, ways to identify GM foods. If you want to steer clear of eating GM food for good, take
the following steps: ·
Avoid processed
foods. Some 75 percent of processed foods
contain GM ingredients. ·
Read produce and food
labels. GM soybeans and corn make up the
largest portion of genetically modified crops. When looking at a product
label, if any of the ingredients are corn flour or meal, dextrin, starch,
soy sauce, margarine, or tofu (to name a few), there's a good chance it
has come from GM corn or soy, unless it's listed as
organic. ·
Buy organic
produce. Buying organic is currently the best
way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified. Food that
is certified organic is by definition free from all GM organisms.
·
Look at produce
stickers. Those little stickers on fruit and
vegetables contain different PLU codes depending on whether the fruit was
conventionally grown, organically grown, or genetically modified. The PLU
code for conventionally grown fruit has four numbers, organically grown
fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine, and GM fruit has five
numbers prefaced by the number
eight.