GM Medicine Rice
The US Department of Agriculture appears to be in the final stages of approval for commercial planting of a variety of rice genetically modified with human DNA. This is the first of what is expected to be a large number of crops developed to produce medicine. This particular variety of rice will contain a medicine used to treat diarrhoea and dehydration. Future GM crops are planned for treating diseases like measles, cancer treatments and contraceptives.
What this means is if pollen escapes from these commercial farms and contaminates similar food crops, then our food will likely contain the same medicines. How likely is this to happen? The company producing this variety of rice says there is “no risk”. Consider that Europe recently discovered that supposedly non GM rice imported from the US was in fact contaminated with an unapproved GM variety, that had unknowingly escaped from a research facility. Because there is no regular testing, this contamination went undetected for unknown period, but was probably months or years.
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This is open for public comment at the USDA.
More rice news. A GM rice was found in commercial bins in Arkansas and Missouri, and the USDA has halted sale of this affected rice seed.