"Frankendrugs" with Human Genes
Spliced into California Rice Fields

OUTDOORS 'PHARMING' OF DRUGS RISKS CONTAMINATION

London/Washington, 7th September, 2001 - Open field trials of genetically
engineered (GE) rice containing human genes are being carried out in the
heart of the California's traditional rice growing region, according to
Greenpeace. The experiment is being carried out to produce pharmaceuticals.
Activists from the international environmental group marked out the field
with giant syringes to highlight the risk of growing drug-producing GE
crops outdoors. No special effort to protect the environment and the food
chain had been made.

The nature of all of the compounds produced by these GE rice plants in
Sutter County has been kept secret from the public but Greenpeace has
identified two of the proteins produced in them as human lactoferrin and
human lysozyme, commonly found in human breast milk, bile and tears.

'There is just no excuse to allow drug producing crops to be grown out in
the fields where they can contaminate the environment and food chain by
spreading their genes to wild relative and to conventional crops growing
near by. These pharmaceuticals can be produced in other ways. This rice and
all the other GE pharm crops out there should be banned and permits for
future open field trials must be revoked,' said Kimberly Wilson, Genetic
Engineering Campaigner for Greenpeace USA.

According to the information submitted by the company Applied Phytologics
Incorporated (API) to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), eight of the
nine compounds produced in its field trial come from humans, in other words
from rice engineered with human genes. The USDA imposes virtually no safety
requirements specific to pharmaceutical crops. Despite Greenpeace's demand
both the company and the California Department of Food and Agriculture
failed to act upon the risk.

While the industry is already conducting open-air trials (1) of
pharmaceutical rice, wheat, corn and barley, few regulations to protect
public health and the environment are in place. The conventional rice at
risk of GE contamination in California is exported mainly to Japan and
Turkey. According to information available to Greenpeace, field trials with
drug producing GE crops have been also taken place at least in Canada and
France. Twenty companies world-wide are known to produce pharmaceutical
through GE crops.

The incident also cast further doubt on US export markets. Only last year a
genetically engineered variety of corn not approved for human consumption,
StarLink, contaminated over 300 supermarket products, resulting in mass
food recalls both in the US and in its trading partners.

For more information: In the USA, Kimberly Wilson, Genetic Engineering
Campaigner, Greenpeace USA, +1.415.297 1032 (mobile);
Isabelle Meister, GE Campaigner, Greenpeace International, Tel: +4114474195
or +41 79 418 4455; Greenpeace International Press Office, Teresa
Merilainen, Tel: +31205236637

Photos and video available from Greenpeace International: John Cunningham,
Mob: +447803929860 (for photos); Mim Lowe, Mob: +31653504721 (for video)

More information on www.greenpeace.org

Notes to the editors:

(1) Field trials of crop plants producing pharmaceuticals, industrial
enzymes, and other non-food proteins, conducted from 1992 through the
present. Source: United States Department of Agriculture. Field test
releases in the United States. { HYPERLINK
http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/cfdocs/fieldtests1.cfm
}http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/cfdocs/fieldtests1.cfm