US mulls backing GM 'medicine rice'

[T_i_B]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6422297.stm

Authorities in the United States have given preliminary approval to a plan to grow rice genetically modified to produce human proteins.

Rice plants including human genes involved in producing breast milk would be grown in the state of Kansas. Under the proposal, which received preliminary backing from the US Department of Agriculture last week, Ventria would plant rice over some 3,000 acres (1,215 ha) of farmland in the mid-western state.

The company behind the proposal, Ventria Bioscience, says the plants could be developed into medicines for diarrhoea and dehydration in infants.

Critics say parts of the rice plants could enter the food chain.

[pinniped]

1. WTF?

.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I believe I'll be shopping for brown rice in the Asian markets from now

on (assuming I'm not buying imported American rice wrapped in Korean writing).

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. You make a big assumption

That Asian markets are not already using GM rice.

[mainegreen]

3. Question: why does the FDA not have to approve this?

If you market a product as a cure for something, must it not be approved by the FDA?
Not that the FDA wouldn't approve something if the money was right.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Because this is food, not a drug

Merely making claims is not enough, thanks to that abomination of a law signed by Clinton which deregulated the "food suppliments" mega industry. If it is not marketed as a pharmaceutical, the FDA is powerless.

[Odin2005]

4. Good.

:hide: