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farm lunacy paid for by Canadian taxpayers
Turns out that the advertisement mentioned below was sponsored by the
Canadian Taxpayers by way of the Agriculture Department of Canada! Eek,
they have still refused to say where the anticoagulant drug hirudin was
grown in test plots using canola in western canada, but admit that it
has been done. To a large degree the Canadian news media support such
lunacy as is being promoted by the government of Canada.It is clear that
such efforts directly effect organic farming because the biopharms
have been pushed out of the commercial food production areas and tend to
move into areas prefered for organic farms who locate to escape pollen
pollution from transgenic crops. Agricuture Canada is behind the grimy
scheme to locate in developing countries and seems to push location of
pharms to areas of organic farming.
Wow, I am shocked, Joe
EDMONDS INSTITUTE ALERT
Contact: Beth Burrows, 425-775-5383
____________________________________________________________
Brokering Iffy Biotech to Out-of-the-Way Farmers
Opportunities on the Web: Shifting the Risks of Biopharming
Taking a "Dirty Industry" South?
__________________________________________________________
Edmonds, Washington, Wednesday, February 12. The Edmonds Institute, a
public interest, non-profit known for its work on biosafety, today
warned about use of the Internet to find farmers in out-of-the-way
places willing to grow pharm crops. "With bioengineered piglets going
unapproved to market, with experimental crops contaminating 150 acres of
corn and half a million bushels of soybeans, with an engineered corn
unapproved for human consumption turning up all over the world, at a
time when the environmental and human health problems posed by the
so-called pharm crops* desperately need the clear scientific light of
day, people are brokering contract pharming deals on the web, " cautions
Beth Burrows, Edmonds Institute President and Director.
Burrows is referring to "biopharming", the genetic engineering of
organisms, such as crop plants, to produce substances they don't
ordinarily produce, such as pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.
Because of the danger of contamination of our food and feed supplies,
"pharming" was the subject of a recent call for comment by the US Food
and Drug Administration.
"The web middlemen tells companies to 'contact us if you see anyone (on
our website list of growers) who might be in the right place to safely
contract grow your crop for you'," notes Burrows, "and then they tempt
farmers with the thought that, "(w)e would expect in order to get
exactly the right location and conditions, Pharmaceutical Companies to
lease land at up to 20 times 'commercial' rates for normal food crops."
Burrows adds, "The web brokers are offering what seems to be a perfect
deal. Perfect, until you begin to wonder whether they're not shifting
the risk and liability burden from pharmaceutical and manufacturing
companies to those much less able to address and bear the potential
health, environmental, and legal burdens of pharm crops."
Burrows points to Molecularfarming.com, a website that came to her
notice via Indusfarming, an electronic digest that originates in India
and focuses on the problems of agrarian peoples in the South Asia and
Indus basin region. Late January, an article in Indusfarming heralded
"Molecular farming. Contract growing opportunity".
The article announced a "global project, based in Europe," that aimed to
"enable the future SAFE production of Biopharmaceuticals, Biodegradeable
plastics, New Fibers and New Polymers in transgenic, NON-FOOD USE,
genetically engineered molecular crops ." The article acknowledged that
"there will be cross-contamination and Environmental risks" but foresaw
a "huge future industry" for contract farmers able to grow "molecular
crops" in greenhouses or in "'isolated', 'non-native', 'away from
related food crop'" places. The article announced a "free to join Global
Database of future potential growers, with the idea of introducing
Biopharmaceutical companies with crops to grow to contract growers and
farmers in safe locations."
Mentioning that they already "have a few Indian growers", the article
called attention to the project's website
<http://www.molecularfarming.com> and enjoined the reader to "explore
the potential for you."
Burrows points out that, "This is an inducement to exactly the kind of
'pharming' that FDA and all the rest of us are concerned about,* and
doing it in out of the way places doesn't guarantee the safety of
anything. "
Devinder Sharma, award-winning journalist and food system analyst based
in New Delhi, saw the same article Burrows did, and commented:
"This is shocking indeed...This is part of the global design to
translocate the dirty industry to the Third World. First, it was the
translocation of toxic and hazardous waste recycling to developing
countries (mainly South Asia and Africa). . .Then came the translocation
of the flower industry, one of the dirtiest farming systems...to India,
Kenya and Colombia...Now, it is the turn of bio-pharma crops. Even in
the United States, there is tremendous problems with bio-pharma crops.
So what do you do? Translocate this dirty industry to countries of South
Asia."
According to the website - Molecularfarming.com - its "worldwide
molecular farming database" was started in February, 2002. Since then,
"potential growers" for "pharm" crops have been found in Canada,
Ireland, Australia, Argentina, a dozen states of the USA, Scotland,
England, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Korea, Greece, Turkey,
Panama, Romania, Nigeria, and South Africa. The website owners also
"have leads to a farmer's group in the Baltic Sea Islands" and" a
contact for 147,000 acres in Guinea (in West Africa)."
Not surprised by the website, Sharma notes, "I am sure we will have a
number of 'farmers' waiting on line to encash this opportunity."
Burrows admits that the website "offers an attractive package" but, she
notes, "If you read it carefully, you see many, many safety problems. At
best, they are talking about hoped-for solutions. They talk 'protection'
but it's mostly talk about protection from gene flow in the field. That
is not the only problem, not even the only environmental problem, posed
by pharm crops."
In its recent draft Guidance for Industry regarding Drugs, Biologicas
and Medical Devices Derived from Bioengineered Plants for Use in Humans
and Animals, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised industry
to "consider the potential environmental impact of all aspects of the
manufacturing process, including but not limited to transport of seeds
and plants, growing, harvesting, processing, purifying, packaging,
storage, and disposal."
Looking at the molecularfarming website, Burrows worries that, "Aside
from the risks that may be engendered by handling these crops, what
about the risks from transporting these crops or accidents while
processing these crops? Whose is the liability for the child in an out
of the way place that picks and eats one of these strange new crops? And
who is going to be sure that the farmer in out-of-the-way places are
told all they need to know about pharm crops and their problems and how
to handle them. Who is going to help those out-of-the-way farmers obey
whatever relevant laws may exist in their own counties? I find it
noteworthy that one of the key questions the website asks farmers is,
'Has your property public liability insurance?'"
Molecularfarming.com does offers its readers translations into Spanish,
Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese but
it admits that the translations are "not exact". Burrows wants to know,
"Exactly what things aren't exactly well-explained, and what about the
farmers who speak Hindi, or Parsi, or Arabic or Swahili? Who will
explain to them the implications of the deal they are being offered? The
unknowing farmers who find this website may not be so much bridging the
digital divide as walking a digital plank. "
Devinder Sharma warns further, "It is time the civil society wakes up to
these ecological dangers. We cannot allow the West to clean up its house
and even its backyard and turn us into a rubbish bin."
http://www.agcanada.com/ClassifiedAds/Wanted/Contractgrowers.html
Canada Agriculture Online
Friday, February 14, 20036:42:51 AM (Central Time)
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Wanted: Contract growers
Asking Price: $0
Ad Placed On: 12/2/02
Contact: brian marshall (agcan@molecularfarming.com)
We need more contract growers to join the 30,000 acres we already have
from Canada on our Global Database. Our aim is the Environmentally SAFE
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