(From previous page)

Plant biotechnology has grown out of recombinant DNA research that began in the early 1970s. The special nature of recombination has been debated since that time. In recent years, government regulators on the American and European continents, under pressure from well-funded lobby representing the biotechnology industry, have chosen to ignore the special nature of recombination. They have chosen instead to base regulations on existing frameworks for toxic chemicals and pathogenic organisms. Ignoring the special nature of recombination is likely to have costly, if not terminal, environmental consequences. A worst-case example includes the complete cloning of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) on an E. coli plasmid. When the plasmid is used to transform animal cells, intact HIV viruses are released from the cells. A careless (but legal) release of HIV bacteria to the environment would allow the plasmid to transfer to Salmonella as well as E. coli. Thus, numerous mammals and birds could contain HIV bacteria which could transform the animals, which would in turn produce HIV particles unable to target the animals T-cell receptors but easily transmitted to humans. When all the animals are HIV carriers, human survival would be marginal. The special concerns of recombination in plant biotechnology include the viruses and bacteria used in crop plant construction and gene flow between related crop plants and weeds in the field.

Currently most experts agree that virus diseases such as influenza gain strength for epidemics by alternating between animal hosts (pigs and ducks) and man. Epidemics begin when rare combinations appear in large closely associated populations such as Asia. CaMV can propagate in plant and insect hosts following recombination. It may not be outlandish to predict that CaMV may recombine with related Hepatitis B or for that matter HIV to create a most powerful disease. The salient feature being large number of people or animals consuming large numbers of virus genes incorporated into crop plants making up a major part of human and animal diet.

The use of CaMV promoter is seldom an issue in reviews of safety of gene tinkered crops. Few people have raised the important issue and more often than not their concerns are ignored by government officials "protecting" public safety. This omission may be a fatal one because it has potentially the most damaging impact, and the one perceived at the beginning of gene splicing.

As Bill Mollison said: "the time for evidence is over, there is only time for action", or in the more eloquent words of Kant: "It is often necessary to take a decision on the basis of knowledge sufficient for action, but insufficient to satisfy the intellect". In this case I think we even have the latter.

If we campaign wholeheartedly for a ban we are on solid scientific ground. We can appeal directly to people to help, and show them why it is important. The campaign for labelling is making the issue of a life-threatening technology appear to be merely an issue of civil rights. This is playing right into the hands of the biotech corporations. I would like to see a debate about how to stop them, not about how to allow them to carry on. No-one has the right to choose something that threatens the lives of others. These new organisms must be stopped. The democratic process is being subverted by powerful corporations who are taking direct action with no mandate. How should we react?

Andy
http://wwww.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/earthfirst.html (1997 URL)
South Downs EF!
Prior House, 6 Tilbury Place, Brighton BN2 2GY, UK

The company which produced Dolly, the cloned sheep, and genetically modified sheep, is introducing this frightening technology to New Zealand. Semen from transgenic rams is being used for breeding at a farm at Whakamuru, near Mangakino, 140km south of Hamilton. the farm is owned by PPL Therapeutics (NZ) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scotland-based PPL Therapeutics Plc, which is commercially linked to the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, cloners of Dolly.

The company intends to develop a flock of 4000 transgenic milking ewes, producing the human protein hAAT in their milk. They aim to have this flock manufacturing by the turn of the century, building a complex with milking and purification plants. The hAAT protein, human alpha-1-antitrypsin, is being tested for use in treating cystic fibrosis, atopic dermatitis, and emphysema. PPL wishes to produce hAAT commercially in New Zealand to remove concern about possible transmission of bovine spongiform enecephalopathy, "mad cow" disease, if British sheep are used.

The original plan was to produce the flock using 'conventional' breeding methods - artificial insemination and transfer of embryos. Now they are planning to clone in order to create more of these sheep quicker. To this end a PPL senior research assistant, Angela Scott, arrived in New Zealand in May, beginning work at Massey University, who provided her with a laboratory.

The head of pathology and public health at Massey, Professor Colin Wilks, said that in terms of animal health risks there were none. However, Ian Williams, who led the Roslin Institute cloning team, admitted that clones were often born abnormally large and died soon after, and that all attempts to eliminate this problem had failed. "You have to sometimes have an increase in size which is sufficiently great to threaten the well-being of both mother and offspring", he said.

Commenting on health risks to people, Professor Wilks said the human side of things was well taken care of - not very reassuring. A drug, currently in testing (probably on animals, leading to misleading results), is to be produced in New Zealand using the new techniques of genetic manipulation and cloning of which the long term effects are unknown and unpredictable. These technologies should be stopped now as they enter the country.