Companies and researchers engaged in biopharming – genetically modifying crops to produce drugs and industrial chemicals – need to take a step back if the process is to safely move forward, according to a report.
The technology could lead to cheap and abundant production of much-needed vaccines and medical treatments, as well as valuable plastics and polymers, said a panel of six academic experts commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based environmental advocacy group. But unless regulations are tightened and new agricultural oversight systems put in place, the scientists fear that plant-made chemicals could turn up in consumers’ corn flakes. The Union is calling for an immediate ban on biopharming research and production in food crops in open fields, to avoid contamination of the food supply.
Biopharming, which is still in an early and largely experimental phase, uses plants such as corn and soybeans to produce non-food chemicals and proteins that could be harmful if eaten. These valuable ingredients are extracted, purified and processed into drugs, vaccines or industrial enzymes; the plants themselves are destroyed.
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