WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES:
1.Ventria cancels move to Northwest Missouri - Dec '05
2.Northwest seals biopharming initiative - Dec '04

COMMENT

The collapse of the Ventria - Missouri deal (see item 1), by which the biotech firm was supposed to relocate to Northwest Missouri State University, follows major opposition to Ventria's proposal to grow GM pharma rice in Missouri's rice-growing region.

When the Ventria deal was first announced, it was claimed that 2,000 acres of Ventria crops would be grown in Missouri in 2005, with Missouri farmers eventually growing more than 70% of Ventria's U.S. field production (item 2). However, Missouri farmers and rice buyers united in opposition to the idea of even Ventria field trials being held in the State.

Major Missouri corporations, including Anheuser-Busch and Riceland Foods, also strongly opposed Ventria's plans, with Anheuser-Busch at one point vowing to boycott Missouri's 30 million-bushel rice crop if pharma plants were grown anywhere in the state.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5094

As a result of all the opposition, no pharma rice trials took place in Missouri in 2005. Missouri has also significantly scaled back its financial support for the project.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6034

The latest set back for Ventria, which has also run into major opposition in California and other US states, follows hard on the heels of the closure of GM pharma firm Large Scale. Large Scale led the way in trying to produce pharmaceuticals in crops but its founder and chairman has admitted that the supposed economic advantages of pharma crops simply aren't proving attractive to the pharmaceutical industry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6081

The news about the collapse of the Ventria - Missouri deal also comes on the heels of news of a report released by the US Department of Agriculture's inspector general that blasts USDA for lacking even "basic information" on where GM pharma field tests are or on what is done with the pharma crops once they are harvested. "Current (USDA) regulations, policies and procedures do not go far enough to ensure the safe introduction of agricultural biotechnology," the report says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6086

And earlier in December a report from a leading agricultural economist warned that states like Missouri were lining up to grow pharma crops in large part because "proponents have touted the crops as an engine of rural economic development and farmer prosperity". The reality the report argues is very different. Aggregate farmer benefits are actually "likely to be small and rural community benefits may be much more modest than often portrayed."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6034

Compare and contrast that assessment with what one of the main proponents of the Ventria - Missouri deal was claiming at the time the deal was announced: "Farmers [growing Ventria's pharma crops] will make more than two times what they've ever dreamed of making in the past." (item 2)

Northwest Missouri State University President, Dean Hubbard also claimed the deal "has the potential to transform this rural economy," and enhance Missouri's quality of life. (item 2)

The hype didn't stop there. State Rep. Brad Lager also claimed (vaguely!), "This has the possibility to change a lot of things and really impact us for the better". (item 2)

The University's President is still optimistically spinning the future (see item 1) despite the collapse of his much cherished deal. Missouri's farmers, however, have decidedly not bought into the pharma dream.
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1.Ventria cancels move to Northwest Missouri
Colombia Tribune, December 31, 2005
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Dec/20051231News011.asp

KANSAS CITY (AP) - A California-based company specializing in plant-made pharmaceuticals announced yesterday that it won't be coming to Northwest Missouri State University.

Ventria Bioscience had planned to remove proteins from genetically modified rice at a facility under construction at the university. The proteins could be refined for use in medicines to fight diarrhea, dehydration and other illnesses.

The company, based in Sacramento, Calif., was to anchor the Missouri Center of Excellence for Plant Biologics on the university's campus in Maryville. The school planned the center with the hope that it would stimulate the rural economy and provide students with opportunities in biotechnology fields.

But the university's president, Dean Hubbard, said demand for Ventria’s product had increased much faster than anticipated. Within the next two years, the company would need 10 times more capacity than could be provided at the protein extraction facility under construction, Hubbard said. The school and Ventria had planned to build a larger extraction facility in a second phase of construction, but money for that project couldn’t be raised quickly enough.

"We were struggling because they needed to do extraction much faster than we had originally expected, and we simply couldn’t meet those deadlines in terms of construction and funding," he said.

Hubbard said that Ventria's withdrawal does not signal an end to the Center for Excellence.

"We developed a concept before we knew Ventria existed," he said. "That concept is as viable today as it was then. What we simply will do is go to one of the other companies we’ve had discussions with and find another anchor client that can fit into what we do."
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2.Northwest seals biopharming initiative
By Sarah Swedberg
University News Editor
The Northwest Missourian, December 3, 2004
http://missourianonline.com/news/university/2004/fall/1202/biopharming.php

A partnership between a California-based company and Northwest Missouri State could provide a seed for area fa