Neil Carmen, co-chair of the Sierra Club national Genetic Engineering
Committee (GEC), is quoted in this article.

Tom Mathews
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter Genetic Engineering Chair,
Member, GEC


Subj:   GMW: Pharma crop trials abandoned in US
Date:   9/8/2004 9:24:41 AM Central Daylight Time
From:    [log in to unmask] (GM WATCH)
Sender:    [log in to unmask] (GM WATCH)
To:    [log in to unmask] ([log in to unmask])




GM WATCH daily
http://www.gmwatch.org
---
Frio won't see genetically altered corn
09/08/2004
Elizabeth Allen
Express-News Business Writer
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA090804.6E.gmo.5e867802.html

After seeking permits to plant genetically engineered pharmaceutical corn in
Frio County, the College Station-based company ProdiGene abandoned its
efforts.

ProdiGene was seeking permits to plant up to several hundred acres of corn
that have been altered to produce animal proteins used in medicine.

The company chose Frio County in part because it is not a major
corn-producing county, lessening the
chances its modified corn would cross-pollinate with conventional corn,
according to information it
provided to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service.

But the APHIS Web site last week listed the two Frio County permit
applications as withdrawn, and a third that was approved will not be executed.

ProdiGene Chief Executive Officer John Reiher did not return phone calls
seeking comment.

The Sierra Club submitted a letter to the USDA opposing the project, and the
Organic Consumers
Association posted the letter on its Web site.

Problems with the project include incomplete scientific reviews and
insufficient public notice in Frio County, said Neil Carman, vice chairman of the
Sierra Club's genetic engineering committee.

"There's some major issues about the regulatory process," Carman said, adding
that much more stringent monitoring is called for because "gene-splicing
itself is inherently risky."

The environmental assessment did not reveal the location but said it was
three to four miles south of the Frio River and surrounded by open ranchland and
some vegetable farming. It stated that no other corn was grown commercially
within at least a mile around the site.

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