Environmental groups call for suspension of 'bio-pharm' tests
Washington Post, August 16, 2006
Environmental groups called yesterday for a moratorium on open-air tests of crops genetically engineered to produce medicines and vaccines, referring to a federal court's conclusion last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture repeatedly broke the law by allowing companies to plant such crops on hundreds of acres in Hawaii.
USDA Inspector General fires warning shot at APHIS
Phillip B. C. Jones, Checkbiotech.org, March 10, 2006
"The USDA’s Office of Inspector General had doubts about whether the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s efforts to regulate GM plants have kept pace with the ever-increasing number of approved field test applications. To evaluate oversight of releases and movements of regulated GM plants, the OIG visited 91 planted or harvested field test sites in 22 states between May 2003 and April 2005." [pdf Report is here]
Lawsuit challenges open-air testing of genetically engineered "biopharm-crops"
EarthJustice, November 12, 2003
USDA Requires Permits for Industrial Biotech Crops
Randy Fabi, Reuters, August 5, 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3225423
"Biotech companies will have to obtain a federal permit before growing experimental plants engineered for industrial purposes like making paper, detergent and minerals, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Tuesday.
Until now, companies have not been required to get government permission before launching U.S. field tests of gene-spliced plants that are designed to produce industrial components or chemicals."
No paradise for pharming
Charles Q. Choi, The Scientist, July 30, 2003
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20020813/04/
"Attorney Isaac Moriwake of the environmentalist law firm Earthjustice told The Scientist that federal records show 14 permits for biopharming, or growing drugs with genetically altered plants, in Hawaii were issued between 1999 and 2002. However, the permits do not specify where test plots are, which genes are undergoing alteration, or what kind of substance is being produced."
Genetically engineered 'biopharm' crops in Hawaii
EarthJustice July 23, 2003
State sued to disclose details of open air testing to the public
Are the FEDs up to regulating Pharmaceutical Plants?
Agbiotech Buzz, Pew Initiative on Food and Technology, May 14 2003
Research group says better biotech regulation needed
Associated Press, The Miami Herald, April 24, 2003
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/5709096.htm
Biotech crops pose a threat, report says
By Mike Toner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/science/0403/25biofood.html
U.S. Not Prepared To Monitor Approved Biotech
Environmental News Service April 25, 2003
US Will Subsidize Cleanup of Altered Corn
Killing Plants that Cure Us
Justin Gillis, Washington Post, March 25, 2003
"The Agriculture Department's settlement with a Texas company that mishandled gene-altered corn, portrayed three months ago as a stringent crackdown designed to send a message to other potential violators, actually involved a no-interest $3.5 million government loan that means American taxpayers will effectively subsidize cleanup efforts."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29223-2003Mar25.html
Michael Fumento, Washington Times, March 23, 2003
'One of their spokesmen told a reporter that, "The environmental and human health risks associated with biopharm crops are substantial." Wrong. What's substantial is the ultimately hundreds of millions of deaths that drugs developed from these plants can prevent — if we can keep overzealous bureaucrats and green groups from permanently plowing them under.'
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20030323-90538124.htm
Biopharming Controversy Grows Despite New Rules
By J.R. Pegg, Environment News Service, March 11, 2003
GE medicine crops taking rootUPDATE 2-Medicine crops to stay in Midwest despite concerns
The New Zealand Herald, March 10, 2003
By Randy Fabi, Reuters, March 6, 2003
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2339906
Consumer Groups to Sue USDA for Medicine Crops
By Randy Fabi, Reuters, March 5, 2003
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2331265
Drug-producing crops facing legal lockdown
New Scientist, March 1, 2003