Des Moines Register
Editorial: Bring on biopharming


> A policy switch will help, but it is no guarantee the industry will blossom
> here.
>
By <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]:%20Editorial:%20Bring%20on%20biopharming">Register Editorial Board</A>

12/05/2002

Iowa leaders, especially Senator Chuck Grassley, deserve credit for
pressuring a major biotechnology association into dropping its moratorium on
planting pharmaceutical or industrial corn in the Midwest.

Logic was on Iowa's side. If proper procedures are in place, there's no
scientific reason Iowa should be cut out of new industries from drugs or
chemicals extracted from gene-altered plants. But the voluntary ban was
issued anyway in October because grain handlers, grocery manufacturers and
others fear that consumers could lose confidence in food safety.

Iowa stood to lose out on a potential key to economic development. That
looked even more likely after news in November that experimental corn tainted
a batch of soybeans in Nebraska. Then came the turnaround.

A Dec. 2 letter to Grassley from Biotechnology Industry Organization
President Carl B. Feldbaum about the revised position suggests Iowa won't be
left behind: "We share your powerful personal interest in bringing the
economic benefits of this evolving area of biotechnology to Iowa. . . . We
pledge to work with you to help harness these new frontiers of biotechnology
. . . for the benefit of all your state's citizens."

The new statement from the association based in Washington defers to
federal-government guidance and regulation regarding crop biotechnology
products. It emphasizes it is safe to "biopharm" where food is grown:
"Detailed scientific and regulatory analyses confirm that plants that produce
pharmaceutical and industrial products can be safely planted, grown and
harvested in an agricultural region where all the appropriate production,
confinement and handling practices are implemented."

That is a fact, but Iowa is not out of the woods. Just because the
Biotechnology Industry Organization's member companies officially subscribe
to the new statement does not mean all the old concerns have disappeared. If
this state is to make the most of the vast and lucrative opportunities
biotechnology presents, it first must assure that food safety is never
questioned.

Companies may want to grow pharmaceutical-producing plants here, but a little
carelessness will persuade them otherwise. Iowa should develop its own strict
safeguards to prevent gene-altered corn from cross-pollinating conventional
crops or otherwise contaminating them.

Meanwhile, credit Senator Grassley for good work.



Erin E. Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]









- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]