Sludge Watch ==> What's Bred in the Lab - Should Stay in the Lab

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is a story on how genetically engineered rice has contaminated 
shipments of rice to countries that don't allow GE rice.
It shows that industry is failing to maintain the safety and security of its 
experiments.  And it is also a sludge issue.

Many university biosafety staff are unaware that the material sent to the 
sewers can end up in home gardens and farmfields.
If laboratories are putting their experiments down the drain, who knows what 
impact that has at the sewage plant and at the farm field?

......................................................................

Wild rice
08.nov.06
Information Systems for Biotechnology
Phill Jones, Information Systems for Biotechnology
On August 18, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced that commercial 
long grain rice contained trace amounts of an unapproved, genetically 
engineered (GE) rice called LL601. The government became aware of the 
contamination after Bayer CropScience notified the US Department of 
Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration in July.
Federal agencies characterized the contamination as minor - equivalent to 
six rice grains out of 10,000 - and one that posed no health risk. Yet US 
rice growers, who export half of their rice, watched overseas customers 
quickly raise trade barriers. Bayer soon found itself a defendant in three 
class action lawsuits filed on behalf of rice growers in Arkansas, 
California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas.
Fallout from the LL601 contamination appeared before the end of August. 
During September, the LL601 controversy gained steam.
LL601 Makes Serial Appearances
Aventis CropScience, a company bought by Bayer in 2002, developed GE plants 
that synthesize the phosphinothricin-N-acetyltransferase (PAT) protein. The 
PAT protein confers tolerance to glufosinate-ammonium herbicide. LLRICE62 
and LLRICE06, two lines of PAT-producing GE rice, have been deregulated in 
the US; they have been deemed safe for use in food and safe in the 
environment. These lines have not been commercialized.
Under USDA permits, farmers and researchers performed field trials of 
Aventis' LL601 rice between 1998 and 2001. Development ceased in 2001. The 
LL601 story should have ended then.
In July 2006, Bayer notified the USDA and FDA about the reappearance of 
LL601. USDA officials reported in August that LL601 had been found in 
samples taken from storage bins in Arkansas and Missouri. By the time that 
Johanns made his August 18 announcement, the FDA had concluded that the 
presence of LL601 in the food and feed supply poses no safety concerns, 
while the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had decided that 
the GE rice should not create a threat to the environment.
These assurances did not help US rice farmers. Officials in Japan and Norway 
immediately suspended imports of US long grain rice. The European Union, one 
of US rice growers' biggest customers, quickly adopted a costly screening 
procedure. Now, an accredited laboratory would have to certify a US shipment 
of long grain rice as free of LL601 before it could enter the market. The EU 
Commission also required Member States to randomly test products already on 
the market.
Dr. Andrew Wadge, the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency Director of 
Food Safety, explained that "The presence of this GM material in rice on 
sale in the UK is illegal under European health law, even at extremely low 
levels. This is why we are taking steps to test American long grain rice and 
ensure future imports are GM free."
According to the UK Food Standards Agency, screening procedures would remain 
in place for at least six months. This measure would add to the cost of all 
long grain rice varieties at a time when the market price of US rice dropped 
about ten percent.
Trade relations between the European Union and the United States felt the 
strain. The US stressed that trace amounts of LL601 posed no health risk. EU 
officials complained that the US took more than two weeks to warn Europe of 
the contamination after Bayer informed federal authorities. Europe needed to 
set up protective measures to prevent an illegal incursion of unapproved GE 
rice. Tension escalated with the finding that LL601 had already entered the 
European Union, where no GE rice is allowed to be grown, sold, or marketed.
In mid-September, Greenpeace International reported trace amounts of LL601 
in US parboiled long grain rice sold at Aldi Nord, one of Germany's leading 
supermarket chains. The German Agriculture Ministry later confirmed the 
presence of LL601 rice. The European Federation of Rice Millers found that 
33 of 162 rice samples tested positive for LL601. By the end of September, 
random checks performed by national authorities in food and retail supply 
chains uncovered the presence of LL601 in at least nine EU countries.
A sense of control over the LL601 spread must have suffered with the 
discovery that some contamination had avoided detection. In August, two 
barge loads had passed through a Rotterdam port after testing negative for 
LL601. Spot checks, later performed by Dutch officials, contradicted those 
results.
The false negative results spurred the European Commission to announce that 
it intends to take further action to strengthen the testing of US long grain 
rice imports for LL601. In early October, the Commission stated that it 
hoped to negotiate with US authorities a common testing protocol for US rice 
exports. These efforts failed. On October 24, Member State experts endorsed 
a draft Commission Decision to impose new mandatory testing. According to 
the draft Decision, in addition to the certification requirement, all 
consignments of US long grain rice must be sampled and tested at the point 
of entry to the European Union by Member State authorities.
A Sticky Rice Dilemma
US agencies had company in finding that LL601 rice does not pose a threat. 
The UK Food Standard Agency, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Dutch 
authorities confirmed the food safety of the rice. The European Food Safety 
Authority announced that the consumption of long grain rice containing trace 
levels of LL601 "is not likely to pose an imminent safety concern to humans 
or animals." However, the agency accompanied this evaluation with a 
disclaimer that it had insufficient data to provide a full risk assessment.
If trace amounts of GE rice do not pose a food safety threat, its presence 
in the food supply does raise the question about LL601's escape. In late 
September, Bayer announced that the company could not explain how LL601 came 
to be present in commercial rice supplies. The storage bins that contained 
the originally-discovered LL601 held rice from a 2005 crop originating from 
several states.
>From 1999 to 2001, the Agricultural Center of the Louisiana State University 
conducted field research on LL601 in collaboration with Aventis. Analyses of 
the research station's rice revealed LL601 contamination in a 2003 sample of 
Cheniere long grain rice. The affected Cheniere rice plot had been used to 
grow foundation stock distributed to seed-producing farmers. Cheniere 
foundation seed grown in 2005 appeared to be free of LL601. Thirteen other 
varieties, currently in the LSU AgCenter's foundation seed program, also 
received a clean bill of health.
How did the Cheniere contamination occur? Some have suggested that LL601 
plants fertilized Cheniere plants to create a modified form of Cheniere 
plant with the PAT gene. Since rice self-pollinates, the chance of 
crossbreeding seems unlikely, however. Steve Linscombe, LSU AgCenter rice 
breeder and regional director, said that research protocols with LL601 
exceeded the USDA's requirements for isolating the GE plant from 
conventional rice plants. Others speculate that grains of LL601 mixed 
accidentally with Cheniere grains, and that future plantings of this stock 
produced both plants. Can this explain the LL601 contamination of only 0.06% 
reported by the USDA?
The role of the Cheniere contamination, if any, in contributing to the trace 
amounts of LL601 reported by Bayer CropScience has yet to be determined. The 
cause of the LL601 contamination remains unknown. The only certainty is that 
LL601's surprise reappearance has cast doubt over whether the agbiotech 
industry can control its engineered products.
Selected Sources
European Food Safety Authority (2006) EFSA's GMO Panel provides reply to 
European Commission request on GM rice LLRICE601. (September 15, 2006). 
Available: http://www.efsa.europa.eu.
European Union (2006) GM rice: Standing Committee backs Commission Decision 
on strict counter testing of US rice imports. (October 24, 2006). Available: 
http://europa.eu.
Food Standards Agency (2006) Testing to be carried out for illegal GM rice. 
(September 1, 2006). Available: http://www.food.gov.uk.
LSU AgCenter (2006) Liberty Link 601 found in LSU AgCenter foundation seed 
rice. (August 31, 2006). Available: http://www.lsuagcenter.com.
USDA (2006) Statement by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns regarding 
genetically engineered rice. (August 18, 2006). Available: 
http://www.USDA.gov.
Vogel, G (2006) Tracing the transatlantic spread of GM rice. Science, 1714 
(September 22, 2006).
Weiss, R (2006) A slight taint of biotech rice puts farmers' overseas sales 
in peril. The Washington Post, D01 (September 21, 2006).