The Rice With Human Genes

The rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein Foods, the first mingling of human-origin genes and those from plants. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already signalled it plans to allow commercial cultivation. The rice's producers, California-based Ventria Bioscience, have been given preliminary approval to grow it on more than 3,000 acres in Kansas. The company plans to harvest the proteins and use them in drinks, desserts, yoghurts and muesli bars. The news provoked horror among GM critics and consumer groups on both sides of the Atlantic. GeneWatch UK, which monitors new GM foods, described it as "very disturbing". Researcher Becky Price warned: "There are huge, huge health risks and people should rightly be concerned about this." Friends of the Earth campaigner Clare Oxborrow said: "Using food crops and fields as glorified drug factories is a very worrying development. "If these pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers' plates, the consequences for our health could be devastating. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0306-10.htm [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 8, 2007]

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