Riceland, the world's largest rice miller and marketer, has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deny Ventria Bioscience's request to grow about 200 acres of the rice in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Mississippi counties in Missouri.

1.Riceland Stands Against Genetically Modified Rice in Southeast Missouri
2.Bootheel farmers gain allies in rice war
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1.Riceland Stands Against Genetically Modified Rice in Southeast Missouri
Associated Press, March 29, 2005

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Stuttgart-based Riceland Foods wants federal regulators to deny a request by a competitor for a permit to grow genetically modified rice in southeastern Missouri.

Riceland, the world's largest rice miller and marketer, has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deny Ventria Bioscience's request to grow about 200 acres of the rice in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Mississippi counties in Missouri.

The Missouri Farm Bureau supports Ventria, which recently announced it was moving from Sacramento, California to Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville.

Riceland says there is no level of acceptance among consumers, in the U.S. or abroad, for genetically modified rice.

Ventria Bioscience says it wants to grow about 200 acres of rice engineered with human genes to produce human proteins that could be used to make pharmaceuticals for gastrointestinal health. The company wants to plant in March or April.
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2.Bootheel farmers gain allies in rice war
By Bill Lambrecht (excerpt)
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
03/24/2005
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/0C693165FEEA697B86256FCF00166551?OpenDocument

Food companies opposed

The opposition by Missouri growers gained muscle when Arkansas-based Riceland Foods, the world's largest miller and marketer of rice, said this week that it would ask the Agriculture Department to turn down Ventria.

The Food Products Association, a Washington-based trade association that represents the nation's major food companies, also was preparing to submit comments opposing Ventria.

The American food industry, fearing contamination of products, has continually pressed the government for stricter regulation of the fledgling pharmaceutical food crops industry. Two years ago, after pharmaceutical seed fouled corn and soybeans in Iowa and Nebraska, the Agriculture Department imposed new rules that included more inspections, dedicated equipment and buffer zones.

But neither the Food Products Association nor the Grocery Manufacturers of America - each of which represent companies with $500 billion in annual sales - believes the government has gone far enough.

"If they're going to use food crops, then just put them in greenhouses and avoid any problems," said Jeffrey Barach, the Food Products Association's vice president of special programs.

Bill Freese, a Washington-based analyst for Friends of the Earth, a global advocacy group, argued that the Food and Drug Administration or other federal agencies should be reviewing pharmaceutical food crops for human health impacts.

Last year, Ventria announced plans to relocate to Missouri at an unspecified time and forged an alliance with Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville after receiving offers of state subsidies to help finance its research.

Ventria President Scott Deeter said the company wanted to eventually grow more than 20,000 acres of plant-made pharmaceuticals in Missouri. He said the fears of Missouri rice growers were misplaced, given his company's plan to use what he referred to as an entirely closed system of production with a plant that pollinates itself.

Deeter said he was confident that Missouri political leaders will hold firm in their support, despite pressure from skeptics.

"Without political leadership, a small minority of activists and noninterested folks can derail something like this. Luckily, as far as we can tell, that leadership is in place," he said.

In his statement, Bond urged the federal government to "permit the science-based process, not a political process, to yield a decision on safety and then honor that decision."

Talent said he had concerns about how rice farmers would be affected, but referred to the technology as "very innovative and exciting."

Emerson, in whose district the pharmaceutical rice would grow, said that the Agriculture Department "has the expertise to make the tough calls on issues like this one."

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