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will crop biopharmaceuticals persist in the wild



Hello MaryEllen Marucci,
Thank you for the very important question.
First, it seems to me organic farming cannot afford to wait and let
nature take its own course. Gene polluted crops cannot be sold as
organic and the market is limited even in North America.
Intense crop  biopharmaceuticals production in an area such as Kamloops
potentially spreads its genes to canola and its wild weedy relatives.The
first product released for production ,  the  heart drug, which acts
somewhat similarly to heart drug used in the rat poison ,warfarin,  can
effect browsing predators including human. The protein product is likely
to pollute surface and groundwater as crop plant roots and leaves
decompose and the debris from drying plant parts will be breathed by
animals including people.A consultant , hired by the Canadian
government, believes that the biopharmaceuticals will not pollute but
that consultant provided only opinion with little or no data. Only
bureaucrats and politicians are dim enough to swallow the opinion.
Turning to your main question about selection value of the
biopharmaceutical crops should they grow feral. In the case of the heart
drug the blood toxin might  poison both vertebrate and invertebrate
browser thus providing a powerful selection against browsing pests
including humans.
Hope my comments helped. Sincerely, joe


MaryEllen Marucci wrote:
At first glance it would seem that the genie is out of the bottle and
Pandora has done it again.  But someone on a chat site made an interesting
comment on subject.
He wondered how many generations of this mutant would stay stable before it
disintigrated.  My very limited knowledge about how that works left me
wondering if this will just play out and the old forms having proved their
stability will win out?

Any ideas on this>

----- Original Message -----
From: "jcummins" <jcummins@UWO.CA>
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 2:43 PM
Subject: can organic canola be grown in North America?



Recent studies indicate that canola pollen is spread for more than a
kilometer. In Canada canola production is greatest in Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba with significant production in Ontario and
Quebec. Organic canola producers will find it difficult to impossible to
produce unpolluted GM free canola on the prairies. Organic production
may migrate to eastern British Columbia but recently biopharmaceuticals
transgenic canola was introduced into eastern British Columbia to avoid
possible pollution of the GM crops for food production. Organic canola
production may face a dilemma caused by the biopharmaceutical canola
producers following the organic producers pressed on by the GM canola
food giants.However, birds that poop and cars and trucks with canola
seed in wheel wells have not been studied for  transgene spread that
spread genes over the mountains and maybe should?
The item below is a comment on biopharmaceutical canola production in
Kamloops, British Columbia.
http://biotech.acadie.net/english/agr.html
Canola can be engineered to produce other valuable substances such as
human health care products. Hirudin, an anti-coagulant important in
major surgery, is produced at the University of Calgary and SemBioSys
Genetics, by targeting a product from the canola seed. To achieve this
goal, a gene from the common leech has been introduced into the canola
plant. Kamloops, British Columbia, has been chosen to grow
Hirudin-producing canola in order to keep separate the major canola
production areas on the Prairies.




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