GM contamination warning triggers call for ban on US rice

[Judi Lynn]

GM contamination warning triggers call for ban on US rice

John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday August 22, 2006
The Guardian

Environment groups yesterday urged the European commission to follow Japan and restrict imports of American rice after the US government admitted that an illegal and untested genetically modified strain had contaminated the food chain.
The announcement said conventional long-grain rice had been contaminated by a GM rice that was grown at experimental sites between 1998 and 2001. However, there was no indication as to how widespread the contamination had been, how it occurred or why it had taken until now for the disclosure to be made. The UK imported 82,625 tonnes of US rice in 2004.

Adrian Bebb, GM food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: "This is a complete scandal. The EU must immediately suspend US rice imports until consumers can be guaranteed protection from untested and illegal foods."

The contamination source is apparently a trial GM rice called LLRICE601, produced by the German-based biotechnology company Bayer. The rice is engineered to withstand the herbicide glufosinate, but it has not been approved for human consumption anywhere in the world.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1855528,00.html

[acmavm]

1. Gee, how'd that stuff get in there. Sneaky damn rice.

[w4rma]

2. US beef is already banned around the world due to Republicans forcing

no testing for mad cow. I suppose it was only a matter of time before calls for other types of food, due to lax regulations by Republicans again, were banned also.

[SpiralHawk]

15. Now republicons are forcing mutant rice and crap down the gullets

of people around the globe. No wonder they get slapped down by the "Godless Red Commies" that Marvin and Neil Bush are so tight with....

[BadgerKid]

3. Also read about "golden rice"

Golden rice is a variety of rice (Oryza sativa) produced through genetic engineering to biosynthesize the precursors of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) in the edible parts of rice.

...

Neither (Ed. golden rice ) variety is currently available for human consumption. Although golden rice was developed as a humanitarian tool, it has met with significant opposition from environmental and anti-globalization activists.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice

[NYC]

11. Thanks for the golden rice information.

I had no idea. It's impossible to keep up with what is being done to food.

[BadgerKid]

22. I'd read of it a few years ago

while browsing a bookstore. I'm delighted wikipedia mentioned it.

[NYC]

12. I have golden rice in my closet.

Perhaps it is a different variety? It is definitely golden rice, and it is from Thailand.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Problem came to light on Saturday

Apparently was buried in one your newspapers. Yes - since then Japan has banned imports and the EEC has it under discussion.

Here's yesterdays stuff on the subject:
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1954989

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Awwww - I was kinda hoping it was a ban on Doctor KindaSleazy!

.
.
.

THAT could do the world a whole lot of good!

[hpot]

6. Monsanto contaminates corn and now this?

We won't have natural foods to eat when the GM corporations are finished f'in up everything.

[soothsayer]

16. Death to Monsatan! and all their ilk! Don't forget soy----that was

one of the first frankenfoods they created, methinks.

[Dirk39]

7. Hello from Germany,

I guess it's much much worse than this:


"INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE
Rice prices may double, hurting Kellogg, Busch
Posted online: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

Send Feedback E-mail this story Print this story
HO CHI MINH CITY, HONG KONG, BEIJING, AUG 14: The world may soon pay more than ever for its most abundant food— rice."

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137305



I heard this for the first time a few days ago in a podcast, produced by an american, who did immigrate from U.S.-fascism to France a few years ago.


It might not just be G.M. contamination, as worse as it is, it might be about wheat, rice, potatoes etc. in general. Along with the rising prices for energy.

Apart from (still) privileged middle-class people in Europe, who desperately try to protect themselves from U.S. crap: it's not just about the (remaining) rubbish, the U.S. is trying to forcefeed down the throats of the rest of the world, to turn us into stupid ugly obesed uneducated prozak eating idiots, who consume themselves to death. Hey, we LOVE the american dream!!!


It's about food in general.
When people have a hard time, to pay for the rice, they need to survive, not many will ask for GM-ingredients anymore...

If you don't believe me, just read any paper with a business section, published within the last 14 days...

The most corrupt and criminal parts of the "neofeudal global corporate occupation forces" just started to invest into rice and wheat as they did into oil during the last years...

I'm too tired and stupid to start a rant about Coca-Republican-and-Pepsi-Democrat-Cola in India anyway...

It's so hard to decide if you prefer, being killed by the right-wing fraction of the ruling class or the other right-wing fraction of the global corporate occupation forces...

Dirk

[FloridaPat]

8. One of the laws in Iraq is the farmers there must use these kinds of

seeds. It's illegal for them to save seeds they've used for centuries. How many ways can a country be killed? The repubs sure are finding a lot of them.

[Eurobabe]

14. fascism in the form of food

n/t

[Sal Minella]

20. That one is the most horrifying of the 100 "Bremer orders" left behind

by Paul Bremer before he left -- how DARE we, or anybody, try to dictate to Iraqi farmers what sort of seeds they may plant, or must buy?

The Bremer order allowing exporting of profits with pathetically minimal taxes paid to Iraq, the one allowing all sorts of perks for foreign investment, others I couldn't even understand, were bad enough -- but to forbid the farmers from saving the seed they've bred to grow in that area, in that climate, for centuries -- if anyone wanted a perfect example of American corporate arrogance, this is certainly it.

[enough]

9. k&r

[leftchick]

10. and the majority of americans have no clue about this

all I saw on my tv was some blonde girl's supposed murderer.

[MrPrax]

18. and...AND

So...what happened to the blonde girl's supposed murderer.????

You can't just post a teaser and let us hang like that...

Oh yeah...basic human foodstuff...might be comtaminated, wiped out, mass starvation, yeah yeah...but what about the murderer!!!

(oh the majority of Canadians are clueless too...Canadian Idol finals happening...final four tonight...must dial phone number again...News?...what's that...)

But if rice is ban, what will they eat on Survivor?
Pfft...evil corporates screwing with our TV shows and making our news depressing...bastards

[Eurobabe]

13. Yes, by all means ban RICE

She's Kindasleazy anyhow.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. It was predicted. And they're worried about stem cell research when

we have corporations ready to poison the world.

[fed-up]

19. k/r n/t

[SlipperySlope]

21. How about some more facts to put this into context

I can't believe how over the top reporting on this topic is. What they say is true, but what the don't say is just as important.

Glufosinate resistant GE crops are already approved for human consumption. Resistance to glufosinate is conferred by engineering the crops to produce two additional proteins. There are hundreds of glufosinate resistant hybrid varieties on the market, and many of them are approved for sale in Japan and the EU.

Corn, soybeans, canola, are three major crops that already contain these proteins, are already considered safe, and are already sold around the world.

So, what happened, what is the news here?

Rice is a crop that isn't yet commercially sold in a glufosinate resistant form. From 1998 to 2001 Bayer did field testing of multiple varieties of glufosinate resistant rice. All the varieties were identified as "LLRICE" with a number appended. Two of these varieties showed commercial potential (LLRICE 62 and LLRICE 06) and they have been approved for use in food. Bayer has not yet chosen to offer them commercially though.

Of the varieties that Bayer did not pursue, one of them (LLRICE 601) has been shown to have entered the commercial rice pool in trace quantities. We don't yet know how big or small these quantities are.

So, we have:

* The glufosinate resistance genes are already in non-rice crops sold around the world.
* Two varieties of glufosinate resistant rice are already approved for human consumption.
* A third variety, which Bayer never pursued, has entered the food supply in trace quantities.

Was a mistake made? Sure. But the news is reporting this like this rice contains some substance which has never been eaten by humans before.

[tbyg52]

23. The news may have been exaggerated,

but that doesn't mean I want to eat any of this crap. Down with Frankenfood, and electronic voting machines too!