“Pollen and seeds care not where the wind carries them. Herein rests
their mythical ability to cover every crevice of the planet.”

Kendall Hammoth 1892

So what happens when the wind carries the pollen and seeds from plants
that are genetically engineered to create drugs and chemicals not intended
for your consumption? This very concern is being addressed by a coalition
of health, consumer and environmental groups, including the Organic Consumers
Association—by filing a legal petition against the USDA. The petition
demands a moratorium on the planting of biopharm crops (experimental plants
genetically engineered to create pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals).
The legal action follows on the heels of a USDA mandated fine of several
million dollars against the Prodigene Corporation, for allowing its “frankencorn,”
genetically engineered to create a pig vaccine and a controversial AIDS
drug, to contaminate over 500,000 bushels of soybeans and several fields
of corn that were grown for human consumption. Despite the dire implications
of random drugs being mixed into the human food supply, the USDA’s Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service has granted more than 300 permits
for dangerously experimental biopharm crops to be grown openly in the
agricultural fields of 14 states since 2001. Experimental drugs—coming
to a dinner table near you?

Read All About It: USA Today 12/18/2002 http://organicconsumers.org/ge/122402_biopharm_crops.cfm

To learn more, visit OCA’s online library of GE Food articles: http://organicconsumers.org/gelink.html