keep your genes to yourself please, says the rice industry

The LL601 rice contamination scandal has been a costly wake-up call for the US rice industry. If you need any further proof for that claim read the comments sent today to the US Department of Agriculture by the USA Rice Federation on Ventria’s proposed field trials of pharma rice. (see my previous comments on cannibal rice for more background.) http://www.usarice.com/industry/communication/Final_Ventria_Kansas_comments.pdf
The USA Rice Federation asks “in the strongest possible terms that the permit for Ventria’s pharmaceutical rice be denied.”

The rice industry has gotten the message. In their comments to USDA they write that:

If Ventria’s pharmaceutical rice were to escape into the commercial rice supply, the financial devastation to the U.S. rice industry would likely be absolute. There is no tolerance, either regulatory or in public perception, for a human gene-based pharmaceutical to end up in the world’s food supply.

One further piece of evidence of the serious economic impact the contamination has had on the industry is this table showing the top ten export markets for US rice and the trade restrictions placed by those countries on US rice imports. http://www.usarice.com/industry/communication/exportimpact.pdf

The fallout from the LL601/604/60? contamination scandal must be considered a serious set-back for the genetic engineering industry globally. While ISAAA in its yearly report touts the ongoing expansion of global acreage planted to GMOs, the fact is that the industry has been limited to a few crops that are not primarily grown for direct human consumption: soy, corn, cotton, canola. The bulk of genetically engineered corn (maize) goes to feed animals in industrialized countries.

Rice was to be the next genetically engineered (GE) crop to be introduced worldwide (after Monsanto’s wheat was roundly nixed by the wheat growers of North America). The industry was salivating over the almost certain introduction of genetically engineered rice in China, which would have opened the door to the rest of Asia. Chinese authorities dealt a hard blow to these hopes when they announced at the end of 2006 that commercialization of GE rice was another 2-3 years away, at least. Even the Chinese, with their huge internal market, were put off by the international repercussions of their own rice contamination scandal over the last two years.