Biotech rice company moves again

By Jim Wasserman
Sacramento Bee, CA, April 30, 2005  
http://www.ncsu.edu/news/dailyclips/0505/050205.htm#DJ7 

A tiny Sacramento biotech firm that aims to revolutionize the production 
of medicine by growing it in rice said Friday it will end its quest to 
grow the crop in Missouri and instead plant a 5-acre experiment in North Carolina. 

Ventria Bioscience also is exploring growing experimental rice in South America 
and Puerto Rico, said Scott Deeter, chief executive officer of the 12-year-old 
company. 

Deeter cited opposition from "a pretty loud few" among Missouri rice farmers, a 
lengthy new approval process by federal agriculture authorities and a May 20 
planting deadline for the decision to temporarily back off growing rice in Missouri 
this year.

"We didn''t want to go through the process. We didn''t have time to do that," 
Deeter said in a telephone interview Friday.

But he promised to return to Missouri next year.

North Carolina represents the third move for Ventria after hostile receptions 
in Missouri and California for its biotech rice. Though Deeter calls the rice 
a "phenomenal product that can make a difference in the world," farmers in both 
states expressed fears it would infiltrate the conventional rice fields and scare 
consumers.

Ventria wants to use the rice as a means to making lysozyme and lactoferrin, two 
proteins that could be used to develop anti-diarrhea drugs.

Many inside California''s $500 million rice industry worried that cross-contamination 
could endanger exports to Japan.

St. Louis-based beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. threatened earlier this year to 
boycott Missouri rice if Ventria were allowed to plant pharmaceutical rice in the 
state, but it backed down this month when Ventria said it would plant the rice 120 
miles from the state''s rice belt.

That change in location triggered requirements for time-consuming new approvals from 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Deeter said the firm''s newest 5-acre site is in eastern North Carolina and is 
affiliated with North Carolina State University. But he said the plot, which has 
federal Agriculture Department approval, is not on the university''s Raleigh-based 
campus.

Activists who oppose pharmaceutical rice experiments hailed Ventria''s Missouri 
announcement and pledged to shift their opposition campaigns to North Carolina.

"We''re pretty convinced, with extreme weather conditions and human error, these 
pharmaceuticals are eventually going to get into the food supply," said Jane 
Rissler, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt expressed disappointment with 
Ventria''s decision.

"At this point we''re hopeful Ventria will consider Missouri again for planting 
pharmaceutical rice," said spokeswoman Jessica Robinson. "It''s very important to the 
governor to bring pharmaceutical crops and companies like Ventria to Missouri."

Deeter said Ventria will grow "breeding stock" for the experimental rice in four Missouri 
locations this year and continue design work for a processing facility to extract 
proteins from rice. The firm is leaving California this year and moving to a new 
headquarters at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville.