FYI

Neila Seaman, MPA
Director
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA  50310
[log in to unmask]
515-277-8868



>From: Stephanie Weisenbach <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: [rural advocacy] Action Alert!!! Stop Pharmaceutical Corn from 
>being planted in
>Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:35:51 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>
>Action Alert: Call USDA TODAY to Stop Pharmaceutical Corn from Being 
>Planted in SE Iowa
>After the seed pre-emption legislation was signed into Iowa law, 
>biotechnology interests pushed forward and applied for a USDA permit to 
>grow pharmaceutical corn in SE Iowa at the Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant near 
>Burlington. This corn is engineered to produce anti-diarrhea drugs for 
>swine and potentially humans. (similar to Prodigene.) The corn is scheduled 
>to be planted this week approximately one mile away from conventional corn. 
>Iowa State University is the applicant for the permit and they are hiring 
>out Bill Horan as the farm manager from Rockwell City, who has a long 
>history with pharmaceutical crop interests. The application has not yet 
>been approved by USDA. The pen is nearing the paper as soon as possible to 
>make way for the seeds to be planted. A thorough analysis of the permit has 
>already been completed that is missing a critical component: PUBLIC 
>SCRUTINY and OUTCRY.
>Call USDA today!!!!
>Contact Neil Hoffman, Director of Environmental Risk Analysis at 
>301-734-6331
>
>It’s his job to review the permit, and the USDA has turned down permits 
>before. For more information about the contacts at USDA and permits visit 
>http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/brs_contacts.html 
>http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/ph_permits.html
>
>Talking points:
>
>    Pharmaceutical corn should not be allowed in Iowa, even if it is behind 
>layers of security at the Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant.
>    The applicants have ensured that conventional corn in the area near the 
>site was planted at least 28 days before the pharmaceutical corn will be, 
>avoiding cross-pollination risks. There is NO definite way of knowing that 
>other corn, including sweet corn, hasn’t been planted in that window of 
>time. This makes their entire application lose any credibility or 
>truthfulness.
>    Greater public comment is needed before approving such an application. 
>As with the pharmaceutical rice permit process in Missouri, several 
>stakeholders including the food industry, deserve a chance to review the 
>application and be heard.
>
>Background:
>
>Dr. Kan Wang from Iowa State University has applied to grow pharmaceutical 
>corn with the Horan Brothers last year in Colorado. The application was 
>approved and the corn planted. A few days later tornados swept through the 
>area and destroyed the planting. It is unknown what distance the seeds may 
>have traveled. This year, ISU didn’t apply to grow the corn in Colorado and 
>instead are preparing Iowa soil. See a newspaper article from the Boulder 
>Weekly pasted below.
>
>
>
>Spreading seeds of destruction
>Tornadoes stir concerns about GE corn contamination
>
>by Ian Neligh
>
>In Northeast Colorado, the cornfields of Logan County barely stir under the 
>heavy heat of the sun. Disturbed grasshoppers jump in clouds over old 
>pull-top beer cans and through the dry grass choking the roadside. In some 
>places the cornfields go on as far as you can see, and it’s all perfectly 
>silent. The only interruption to the calm comes from the semis cutting 
>through the waves of heat on distant Highway 76.
>
>Somewhere deep in these fields lies a secret–an experimental plot of 
>pharmaceutical corn that is hidden from the public. It was planted under 
>some controversy on June 4. Five days later a tornado roared through these 
>peaceful fields causing extensive damage in the surrounding areas.
>
>Though the Colorado Department of Agriculture reports receiving no official 
>complaints about the secret pharmaceutical crop in Logan County, several 
>organizations both in the region and in the United States are concerned 
>that the open-air planting may have resulted in cross contamination with 
>food crops in the area–a situation not helped by the ill-timed tornado that 
>may have spread the seeds across the countryside. The result, say some, 
>could be a public health threat.
>
>The corn, which is transgenic, would be harvested for production of an 
>experimental protein used as an edible vaccine for livestock. Both Dr. Kan 
>Wang, a University of Iowa State biopharm researcher involved in starting 
>the project, and the Horan Brothers Agricultural Enterprises, the company 
>being paid to take care of the plot, could not be reached before press 
>time.
>
>Dave Georgis, director of the Colorado Genetic Engineering Action Network 
>(COGEAN) and head of GMO-Free Boulder, says the industry and government 
>officials say that nobody has ever been injured by experimental 
>pharmaceutical crops, but he feels that is a fairly disingenuous thing to 
>say to the public because of the lack of long-term human studies in the 
>field.
>
>"What could happen [if these seeds spread]?" says Georgis. "Well, we don’t 
>know–and that’s the whole thing about it. When you’re messing with the food 
>supply, I think it’s an appropriate case to call into place the 
>precautionary principle, which is, ‘If you don’t know, then you don’t let 
>it loose.’"
>
>It’s the job of the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) to follow up 
>on public concerns about such projects and to ensure their safety. 
>According to CDA’S Public Information Officer Linh Truong, there have been 
>no official reports or concerns made by residents of Logan County about the 
>secret crop.
>
>"In the information I received, it was planted in early June," says Truong. 
>"What had happened is that when it was planted, I guess some storms came 
>through just a few days after it was planted. So nothing had even sprouted. 
>The concerns of anything spreading–we’re not worried about that."
>
>But Dale Reed, head of Western Colorado Congress (WCC), isn’t ready to 
>dismiss the situation so easily. The WCC was developed on the Western Slope 
>to try and mediate some of the problems that occur in Colorado farming 
>communities.
>
>"It would be academically interesting to know what happened," says Reed. 
>"Did [the tornado] hit that strip of genetically modified seeds, or did it 
>not? I expect we’ll find out in due time."
>
>Currently the WCC has enlisted legal help to file a Freedom of Information 
>Act request about whether the genetically engineered seeds spread and is 
>considering the possibility of legal action.
>
>If the tornado in Logan County did go over the area in question and 
>disturbed the genetically modified seeds, it’s uncertain how far the seeds 
>could have spread. According to Greg Romano of the National Oceanic and 
>Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) it would depend how big the tornado was.
>
>"If you’re talking a kernel, it could take them for a long ways out of 
>there. It’s not unusual for people find things a hundred or more miles 
>away," says Romano. "Even an F0 tornado, which is the weakest rating you 
>can give it, will lift dirt."
>
>The corn seeds were planted beneath a thin layer of topsoil, and the June 9 
>tornado was rated an F1.
>
>"This tornado is an example as to why the public must be notified as to 
>where these things are being planted," says Peter Jenkins, attorney and 
>policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C. "It’s 
>outrageous that this sort of thing could happen and the location be kept a 
>secret from the neighbors."
>
>The Center for Food Safety is a nonprofit public interest group pushing for 
>the regulation of genetically engineered crops in the United States. 
>Currently the organization is pursuing a lawsuit to force the USDA to 
>reveal more information about field tests like the one in Logan County and 
>to submit such projects to adequate environmental compliance before 
>approving them. Getting pharmaceutical companies to reveal the nature 
>and/or location of these crop experiments is going to be difficult, since 
>it is considered proprietary information and does not have to be disclosed 
>to the public.
>
>"We think this is ridiculous," says Jenkins, "because that is the kind of 
>information you need to have in order to determine whether something is 
>safe."
>
>For more information:
>
>Contact Stephanie Weisenbach at [log in to unmask]
>
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