Buck In Brief

Plants That Produce Drugs

In Brief: Drug companies are experimenting with plants that have been engineered to grow blood thinners, contraceptives, and other chemicals -- in secret.

01/15/04

In a secretive and lax regulatory environment, well-known corporations such as Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, and some not so well known, like ProdiGene, are testing and growing genetically engineered, pharmaceutical-producing plants (often referred to as biopharm crops) on tens of thousands of open-field acres throughout the U.S. The chemicals these plants are designed to produce are far from innocuous. These pharmaceuticals produced by these "biopharm" crops include a blood clotting agent, a blood thinner, contraceptives, experimental animal vaccines, antibodies, and a potent abortion-inducing compound that was once considered for treating AIDS. Biopharm crops are also capable of producing industrial chemicals and enzymes.

None of these crops has been approved for human or animal consumption or for general release into the environment. But because the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allows them to be grown in open fields, the chance for contamination of humans and other organisms, including other plants, is high. That risk of contamination through cross-breeding is dramatically increased because food crops such as soybeans or corn are usually used to create biopharm crops. At the same time, scientific reviews indicate that the USDA's regulatory program is insufficient to provide assurance that contamination will not occur.

The National Academy of Sciences confirmed that there is a problem when it issued a study in 2001 that found that the environmental impacts of biopharm crops cannot be predicted and that these plants may contaminate human and animal food. As if to underscore the point, last fall the USDA was forced to quarantine 500,000 bushels of soybeans intended for human consumption because they had been tainted with corn genetically engineered to produce a pig diarrhea vaccine. The corn had sprouted from seeds left in the field the previous season. At about the same time the USDA ordered 155 acres of food crops in Iowa to be pulled because of potential contamination.

Other scientific reviews warn that:

• the pollen from genetically engineered crops may be dispersed by wind, insects, or birds and pass its genetic material on to wild or farmed plants;
• new compounds that spread into air, water, and soil could threaten public health by causing disease or provoking allergic reactions, such as life-threatening anaphylactic shock;
• these compounds may persist in the environment, accumulating in soil microorganisms, wildlife, and plants, and lead to major ecological disruption;
• for field workers, biopharm crops may cause harm through inhalation, accidental ingestion, and skin contact.

The USDA regulates biopharm agriculture and issues permits for field tests. Given the potential dangers, there should be stringent regulations in place to protect the safety of humans, animals, and ecosystems. Instead, the permitting process includes only minimal requirements for containment. In addition, the USDA has not prepared and circulated an environmental impact statement (EIS) as required by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and has not consulted with the Fish and Wildlife Service over the effects of biopharm crops on endangered species. Shockingly, the USDA also keeps secret from the public which crops are being grown where, kowtowing to the corporations and claiming that where crops are being grown (and who is being put at greatest risk) is "confidential business information." Farmers and members of the public don't know what is being grown in their own backyards, and the United States government is deliberately withholding from them information that may be vital to their health or own economic well-being.

Earthjustice is stepping into the breach to educate the USDA about its obligations to the public and to force it to do its job. Our Hawai'i office filed a lawsuit in November 2003 to compel the USDA to prepare an EIS for field tests, prepare a programmatic EIS on the regulation of biopharmaceuticals, consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service prior to field tests, and formulate a national policy for better regulating biopharmaceuticals. This effort is being led by our Hawai'i office because biopharm testing is exceptionally widespread, and especially risky, in the Islands. The over 300 endangered species in Hawai'i -- more than a third of all U.S. endangered species and more per square mile than anywhere else on earth -- could be catastrophically affected by biopharm field tests, yet there have been more there than in any state except Nebraska.

It seems truly appropriate that one of the most beautiful, diverse, and ecologically imperiled states in the nation should take this stand against the USDA's capitulation to the interests of corporate agribusiness at the expense of public safety and the environment. However, the fact that the second most "biopharmed" state is Nebraska should serve as warning to us all that it is not only Hawai'i's unique wildlife and plant species that the USDA is putting at risk but the very breadbasket of the nation.

Vawter "Buck" Parker, Executive Director
buckparker@earthjustice.org