Wake up to a drug-free breakfast

Farmers Weekly interactive
13 November 2002

By Stephen Leahy

EXPERTS are worried that drugs produced from genetically-modified crops
could find their way into American breakfast cereals.

Fears that food could be contaminated by GM crops grown for medicine have
prompted big changes in production methods in the United States.

One biotechnology industry group wants to bar its members from growing
"biopharma" crops in food-producing areas such as the American mid-west.

"Nobody wants pharmaceuticals in their cornflakes," said Andrew Baum, head
of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation taskforce that recommended the
ban.

Neither the US nor Canada have established regulations for growing
biopharmed crops, despite allowing test plantings of crops containing
proteins from animals and humans.

Some are designed to produce antibodies for treating diseases such as cancer
herpes, respiratory disease and Parkinson's.

While no human drug has yet been commercialised, some are beyond the test
stage.

Dozens of growers in the corn belt harvested an extra £25/t this year for GM
maize with an industrial enzyme.

Industry experts say 10% of US maize could be in industrial or biopharma
varieties in less than 10 years.

Huge cost savings are driving the interest in biopharming.

A traditional bioreactor plant for pharmaceutical proteins may cost over
£130m. Biopharming could cut capital costs to about £20m.

This would reduce production costs from £130/g to only £16, said Mr Baum.

But that may never happen for fear of a repeat of the StarLink debacle, in
which GM maize not intended for human consumption ended up on grocery
shelves.

That mix-up cost manufacturer Aventis and the farming industry millions of
dollars.

Had the maize been engineered to produce a potent drug the consequences
could have been far more serious, said Jane Rissler of the Union of
Concerned Scientists.

That is why BIO went well past proposed government rules of 400m separation
distances, two-week delayed seeding and suggestions for identity
preservation.

Although voluntary, BIO says that from next year its members will not plant
certain types of GM maize in the Midwest farm belt or some GM rape varieties
in Canada.

The measures are designed to prevent contamination through pollen transfer
or accidental mixing post-harvest.