USDA approves plan for genetically modified rice in Kansas
1:26 p.m. Thursday, May 17, 2007
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The Agriculture Department has approved a plan to grow genetically modified rice in Kansas, despite opposition from the U.S. rice industry and food safety groups.
The decision allows California-based Ventria Bioscience to plant up to 3,200 acres of the rice near Junction City.
The rice is engineered to contain human proteins and then harvested to make special pharmaceutical drugs.
The U.SD.A. says the plan is safe because there are no commercial rice farms in Kansas.
The company will take special precautions to prevent the rice from mixing with edible crops.
The rice industry says it is still reeling from the accidental release last year of another strain of genetically modified rice in Arkansas and Missouri.
Kansas officials support the plan.
Opponents call the crop "Franken-rice" and say designing food crops to produce pharmaceuticals is a bad idea.
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