The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is close to approving a request to grow up to 3,200 acres of genetically engineered (GE) pharmaceutical rice.  The rice, developed by California-based Ventria BioScience, is set to be grown and processed in Kansas, after the company was chased out of other states, including Monsanto's stomping grounds, Missouri, and Ventria's home-state, California. Ventria has developed three varieties of rice, each engineered with a different modified human gene to produce one of three recombinant human proteins. Two of them -- lactoferrin and lysozyme -- are bacteria-fighting compounds similar to natural versions found in breast milk and saliva. The third makes recombinant serum albumin, a blood protein used in medical therapies.
 
Drug-producing food crops grown out-of-doors pose great risks to public health and the economic well-being of farmers because they are likely to contaminate the food supply.  In fact, while Southern rice growers were still reeling from last year's contamination of long-grain rice with an unapproved GE variety,  a second variety of rice was found to be contaminated with a second unapproved GE line this month, throwing the rice market into further turmoil.  As a result, Southern rice growers are facing a severe shortage of uncontaminated seed for planting this spring.  Incredibly, USDA appears poised to approve Ventria’s request even though the pharmaceutical substances in Ventria’s drug-producing rice have not been approved by the FDA.
 
Tell USDA enough is enough, and to reject this risky proposal!
 
Please take a moment to send your comment today - we need to have your comments by March 28th to get them to USDA by the close of the comment period on the 30th!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Docket No. APHIS-2007-0006 Regulatory Analysis and Development PPD APHIS Station 3A-03.8 4700 River Road, Unit 118 Riverdale, MD 20737-1238

I am writing to urge the USDA to deny the application by Ventria Bioscience to grow up to 3,200 acres of genetically engineered, pharmaceutical rice in Kansas (Docket #APHIS-2007-0006).

Pharmaceutical and industrial food crops are likely to contaminate the food supply if grown outdoors--especially in tornado-prone Kansas, where winds could easily blow pharma rice seeds into neighboring fields of corn, soybeans, or wheat. Contamination poses potentially serious risks to human health and threatens farmers who may be held liable for contamination. Experience shows that neither the USDA nor biotechnology companies can be trusted to prevent contamination.

Already the rice industry is reeling from two recent contamination episodes. Approving this experimental rice will only further threaten the fragile US rice market, and endanger the health of the public.

I urge the USDA to deny this and all other applications for outdoor production of pharmaceutical and industrial food crops and to institute a ban on this practice altogether.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 25, 2007