Open field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice containing human genes are being carried out in the heart of the California's traditional rice growing region, according to Greenpeace. The experiment is being carried out to produce pharmaceuticals.

Volunteers from the international environmental group marked out the field with giant syringes to highlight the risk of growing drug-producing GM crops outdoors. No special effort to protect the environment and the food chain had been made.

The nature of all of the compounds produced by these GM rice plants in Sutter County has been kept secret from the public but Greenpeace has identified two of the proteins produced in them as human lactoferrin and human lysozyme, commonly found in human breast milk, bile and tears.

Charlie Kronick, GM Campaigner for Greenpeace UK said
"There is no excuse to allow drug producing crops to be grown in the fields where they can contaminate the environment and food chain. This rice and all the other GM 'pharm' crops should be banned and permits for future open field trials must be revoked,"

According to the information submitted by the company Applied Phytologics Incorporated (API) to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), eight of the nine compounds produced in its field trial come from humans, in other words from rice engineered with human genes. The USDA imposes virtually no safety requirements specific to pharmaceutical crops. Despite Greenpeace's demand both the company and the California Department of Food and Agriculture failed to act upon the risk.

While the industry is already conducting open-air trials (1) of pharmaceutical rice, wheat, corn and barley, few regulations to protect public health and the environment are in place. The conventional rice at risk of GM contamination in California is exported mainly to Japan and Turkey. According to information available to Greenpeace, field trials with drug producing GM crops have been also taken place at least in Canada and France. Twenty companies world-wide are known to produce pharmaceutical through GM crops.

The incident also cast further doubt on US export markets. Only last year a genetically modified variety of corn not approved for human consumption, StarLink, contaminated over 300 supermarket products, resulting in mass food recalls both in the US and in its trading partners.

Editors notes:
(1) Field trials of crop plants producing pharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes, and other non-food proteins, conducted from 1992 through the present. Source: United States Department of Agriculture. Field test releases in the United States.

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has confirmed to Greenpeace that it has no plans to release genetically modified (GM) so-called "Golden Rice" into the environment. Field trials are unlikely to take place within the next five years.

IRRI scientists told Greenpeace that various genetic elements in the "Golden Rice" need to be changed or removed, in particular its gene construct and an antibiotic resistance gene (1-2). IRRI received the first grains of the GM rice variety for breeding purposes earlier this year.

IRRI scientists also admitted that many uncertainties related to the "Golden Rice" still need to be addressed before this crop could be released. These include environmental risks as well as health and nutritional questions. IRRI also confirmed that the currently available "Golden Rice" only produces very low levels of beta-carotene, the source of vitamin A. They also agreed with Greenpeace that the best solution to vitamin A deficiency is a diverse diet.

Greenpeace welcomes the fact that the world's leading public rice research institute is more honest in its assessment of the benefits of "Golden Rice" than other advocates for the GM industry.

"There are cheap and proven solutions and technologies available to fight against vitamin A deficiency," said Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Campaign Director. "The main problem is lack of political will to see these solutions through and the inadequacy of resources to enforce them. The GM industry's propaganda that keeps pushing 'Golden Rice' as the solution for vitamin A deficiency is irresponsible. It is using the misery of mothers and children who suffer from this deficiency for its own commercial gain."

When asked by Greenpeace, IRRI scientists admitted that there might even be naturally occurring rice varieties that contain beta-carotene or other vitamin A precursors. However, very few studies have been conducted so far on whether such natural pro-vitamin rich rice varieties exist.

Notes for Editors:
(1) "Gene construct" refers to genetic material or genes incorporated into a genetically modified organism. The IRRI scientists believe that another type of gene construct needs to be used to increase/promote the level of beta-carotene production in the "Golden Rice".

(2) Antibiotic resistance genes are used as a marker to check if the genetic modification has been successful. 'Golden Rice' currently still contains a hygromycin antibiotic resistance gene. There is broad agreement that these marker genes should be phased out because of potential health risks.

(3) IRRI has recently initiated a project to search for rice varieties with naturally high vitamin A content.

(4) Greenpeace briefing paper "Vitamin A: Natural Sources vs Golden Rice" and "The false promise of GM rice"

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255

 

Genetically modified "Golden Rice" containing provitamin A will not solve the problem of malnutrition in developing countries, according to Greenpeace. The Genetic Modification (GM) industry claims vitamin A rice could save thousands of children from blindness and millions of malnourished people from vitamin A deficiency (VAD) related diseases. However a simple calculation based on the product developers' own figures show an adult would have to eat at least twelve times the normal intake of 300 grams of rice to get the daily recommended amount of provitamin A.(1)

Syngenta, one of the world's leading genetic engineering companies and pesticide producers, which owns many patents on the "Golden Rice", claims a single month of marketing delay of "Golden Rice" would cause 50,000 children to go blind.(2)

Greenpeace calculations show however, that an adult would have to eat at least 3.7 kilos of dry weight rice, i.e. around 9 kilos of cooked rice, to satisfy their daily need of vitamin A from "Golden Rice". In other words, a normal daily intake of 300 gram of rice would, at best, provide 8% percent of the vitamin A needed daily. A breast-feeding woman would have to eat at least 6.3 kilos in dry weight, converting to nearly 18 kilos of cooked rice per day. (3)

"It is clear from these calculations that the GM industry is making false promises about "Golden Rice". It is a nonsense to think anyone would or could eat this much rice, and there is still no proof that it can provide any significant vitamin benefits anyway,"

Said Greenpeace Campaigner Von Hernandez in the Philippines, where the first grains of the genetically modified rice had been delivered to the International Rice Research Institute last month for breeding into local rice varieties.

He continued, "This whole project is actually based on what can only be characterised as intentional deception. We recalculated their figures again and again, we just could not believe serious scientists and companies would do this."

In addition, one of the main sponsors of "Golden Rice", the Rockefeller Foundation, has told Greenpeace the GM industry has "gone too far" in its promotion of the product. While upholding its principal support for the project, Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway, wrote to Greenpeace: " the public relations uses of Golden Rice have gone too far. The industry's advertisements and the media in general seem to forget that it is a research product that needs considerable further development before it will be available to farmers and consumers."(4).

"The European markets have resoundingly rejected GM products, consumers worldwide don't want them in their food, and the industry is desperate for alternative markets. "Golden Rice" has been presented as a quick fix for a global problem. It isn't, and the cash-driven propaganda about the product is swamping attempts to enforce existing effective solutions, and carry out further work on other sustainable, reliable methods to address the problem," added Hernandez.

Genetically modified rice does not address the underlying causes of vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which are mainly poverty and lack of access to a more diverse diet. For the short-term, measures such as supplementation (i.e. pills) and food fortification are cheap and effective. Promoting the use and the access to food naturally rich in provitamin A, such as red palm oil, will also help addressing the VAD related sufferings. The only long-term solution is to work on the root causes of poverty and to ensure access to a diverse and healthy diet. (5)

Notes to Editors:
(1) United Nations' World Health Organisation/Food and Agriculture Organisation and the US National Academy of Science recommendations on daily vitamin A intake.

(2) Dr. Adrian C. Dubock, of Zeneca Plant Science (now Syngenta): "The levels of expression of pro-vitamin A that the inventors were aiming at, and have achieved, are sufficient to provide the minimum level of pro-vitamin A to prevent the development of irreversible blindness affecting 500.000 children annually, and to significantly alleviate Vitamin A deficiency affecting 124.000.000 children in 26 countries." "One month delay = 50,000 blind children month." at a conference on "Sustainable Agriculture in the New Millennium" in Brussels, May 28-31, 2000

(3) Greenpeace briefing paper "Vitamin A: Natural Sources vs Golden Rice" and "The false promise of GM rice".

(4) Letter to Greenpeace UK , January 22nd, 2001

(5) Nutritionists have pointed out that numerous problems converge to cause vitamin A deficiency. In a recent letter to the New York Times, Dr. Marion Nestle noted that "conversion of beta carotene to vitamin A, and transport in the body to the tissues that use vitamin A, require diets adequate in fat and protein. People whose diets lack these nutrients or who have intestinal diarrheal diseases - common in developing countries - can not obtain Vitamin A from golden rice."

Further information:
Please Contact:
Greenpeace UK Press Office: 020 7865 8255

 

Publication date: February 2001

Summary
Peter Melchett wrote suggesting that it would be useful if I responded to the report by Dr. Vandana Shiva entitled "The Golden Rice Hoax". I am pleased to do so and I am also enclosing background information on Vitamin A deficiency disorders and the Foundation's role in the development of Golden Rice that you may find informative.

First, it should be stated that we do not consider Golden Rice the solution to the vitamin A deficiency problem. Rather, it provides an excellent complement to fruits, vegetables and animal products in the diet, and to various fortified foods and vitamin supplements...

Publication date: February 2001

Summary
News about a "Golden Rice" first appeared in August 1999, when scientists announced they had succeeded in genetically engineering a rice variety to contain Beta-Carotene (or pro-Vitamin A), a compound that our body can convert into Vitamin A.

The scientists said they hope that this genetically engineered (GE) rice would be an important tool to fight Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD), a malnutrition problem which affects millions of people in poor countries, especially children and pregnant women...

Publication date: February 2001

Summary
"The public relations' uses of Golden Rice have gone too far. The industry's advertisements and the media in general seem to forget that it is a research product that needs considerable further development before it will be available to farmers and consumers."

According to its developers, 'Golden Rice' will not be available for local planting until 2005 at the earliest. Other scientists point out that proper research and testing would probably take much longer. There are no published studies about human health, socio-economic and environment impacts. It is also uncertain if the traits engineered in the 'Golden Rice' would be 'stable', or if they could be 'silenced' by local environmental conditions.