Is that GM human rice growing in my garden?!
This month’s Mendel’s Garden #12 is now available for harvesting at the Behavioral Ecology Blog. Wonder if there’s any genetically modified rice growing. The Department of Agriculture has just approved the planting of GM rice in Kansas by Ventria Bioscience. The rice would be genetically engineered to produce lactoferrin and lysozyme.
Lactoferrin and lysozyme are both human proteins found in a variety of bodily secretions, including human breast milk, tears, and saliva. They’re believed to play a role in maintaining the gastrointestinal tract as well as helping to prevent infection. Lactoferrin and lysozyme would be extracted from GM rice for use in the treatment of diarrhea, dehydration, and other related illnesses, which disproportionately affect children.
The usual objections have been raised regarding crossbreeding between natural strains of rice and GM rice. But there are currently no commercial rice crops in Kansas so the USA Rice Federation is staying out of it. That’s not to say that someone couldn’t be growing rice in their own backyard (private rice paddies are quite common in Japan, for example). Within the rice genus Oryza, there are two cultivated and 22 wild species of wild rice. Is it possible for GM rice to crossbreed with a different species? And what would happen if they did?
Maybe nothing. Maybe something. No one knows. Meanwhile, there are an estimated 1.6 to 2.4 million annual deaths from diarrhea.* It’s a moral judgment I’m glad I don’t have to make.
*Learn more at the Enhanced Diarrheal Disease Control Resource Center.
HT: Angela
Tags: diarrhea, lactoferrin, lysozyme, genetically modified food, frankenfood, gm food, genetics, genes, genome, dna, diseases, illness, health, medicine, ventria bioscience
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POSTED IN: Genetically Modified Food, Genetics Blogging
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