Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
establish a regulatory framework that would allow for commercializa-
tion. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have become active quite
early in the process. Support for this technology has come from cer-
tain growers' organizations, such as National Corn Growers Associa-
tion (2001) and medical patients' alliances, such as IAPO (2005).
21
Con-
fronted with strong pressure from the food industry, environmentalists
and consumer organizations, regulators are however proceeding slowly
and with care.
22
Given the preference of some PMP developers for maize and other
food crops as production platforms in the United States, the key pol-
icy issue obviously is the risk of contamination, that is, that pharm
crops would end up in the food or feed chain.
23
Environmentalists and
consumer organizations are highlighting health and environmental risks
and the food industry is - on top of that - also concerned about the
impacts of perception - recalling the consequences and costs of recent
cases of accidental contamination (see further below). These concerns
had been amplified by initiatives to grow pharm maize in the corn-belt
region.
21
See www.ncga.com/news/CC/volume10/ccVol10n03.html.
22
B. Cassidy & D. Powell, Pharmaceuticals from Plants: The ProdiGene Affair (2002),
www.extension.iastate.edu/grain/pages/grain/news/newsarchive/02biotechnews/021202
bionews.html; N. C. Ellstrand, Going to “Great Lengths” to Prevent the Escape of
Genes that Produce Specialty Chemicals. 132
Plant Physiology
1770-1774; H. Miller,
Will We Reap What Biopharming Sows? 21
Nature Biotechnology
480-481 (2003); H.
Kamenetsky, GM Crop Controls. New USDA Pharming-test Rules Leave Biotechs
Unfazed, Food-Protection Groups Unsatisfied,
The Scientist
, March 10, 2003, available
at www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030310/05.
23
California Council on Science and Technology, A Food Foresight Analysis of Agri-
cultural Biotechnology: A Report to the Legislature for the Food Biotechnology Task
Force (2003), available at www.cdfa.ca.gov/exec/pdfs/ag biotech report 03.pdf; A. S.
Felsot, “Pharm Farming.” It's Not Your Father's Agriculture. 195
Agrichemical and
Environmental News
1-23 (2002); Pew Research Center, Pharming the Field: A Look
at the Benefits and Risks of Bioengineering Plants to Produce Pharmaceuticals, avail-
able at http://pewagbiotech.org/events/0717/ConferenceReport.pdf.
