Rice growers seek answers to concerns over genetically modified rice

David Herbst of Scott County describes the Ventria variety of genetically modified rice that Ventria wants him to grow in Scott County. He said the 150-acre field will be separated from other rice fields by at least four miles in all directions [Click to enlarge]

"We're not opposed to the technology, but how will you convince our buyers?"

That was one of several responses to a presentation by Ventria chief executive officer and board chair Scott Deete, and prospective Ventria rice grower David Herbst, yesterday morning at the Eagles aerie.

Ventria is a company formerly located in California but according to Detter now recruited into Missouri. It has developed a genetically modified variety of rice rich in two proteins, lactoferrin and lysozyme. The two proteins have many uses in medicine, including as an additive to baby formula in areas with high death rates due to dehydration from diarrhea.

Ventria president and CEO Scott Deeter answers questions from rice farmers about the Ventria variety of genetically modified rice the company hopes to grow in Scott County. [Click to enlarge]

And mindful of the accidental contamination of corn approved for human consumption with the "StarLink" genetically modified variety, Deeter and Herbst endeavored to clear up misconceptions and misinformation, as well as allay concerns, of some 60 rice farmers who came to the meeting.

For one thing, the men said, all processing of the Ventria rice would take place on the particular farms where the rice is grown. "The rice doesn't leave the farm until it's been ground into a powder," said Deeter.

Herbst added the rice has been engineered to lose the ability to lie dormant, so that any that does not germinate immediately will die. Moreover, both men said that while the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires a 1/4-mile separation between genetically modified crops and unmodified ones, the Herbst farm would have the plot sited four miles -- 16 times the separatuion required -- from other fields.

"This is not for all rice farmers," Deeter said. "It's high-management."

That, he said, meant that after harvesting the Ventria variety, the farmer had to re-flood the field and then destroy the plants that sprout, to reduce as low as possible the chances of contamination to other crops.

Even with all the precautions, Deeter said, there were objections by environmental activist groups like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra club that have claimed the rice is not safe, that contaminations have occurred and "negative after negative after negative," as he put it. "It's a good way for them to raise money," Deeter said.

Far from contaminations having occurred, Deeter said, Ventria has received no infractions from the Department of Agriculture in six years. "And if they go looking in your combine after you get done cleaning it," he reminded the farmers, "and they find even one rice kernel, that's an infraction."

However, many rice growers expressed concern over perceptions, and real fears, of buyers that some countries that ban GM crops would use the production of any GM rice crop in Missouri as an excuse to ban all rice purchases from Missouri. "You are preaching to farmers here," said one grower. "We are looking at market loss, so you need to preach to the buyers."

Another farmer was more blunt. "You're messing with a $100 million market here," he said.

Still another was more conciliatory, while expressing the same concern. "If the buyers want it," he said, "you're welcome here."

The two proteins in Ventria rice were to be used in, among other things, baby formula to make them more chemically consistent with mother's milk (as a means to reduce the incidence of illnesses to which formula-fed babies are more susceptible. Even so, Deeter and Herbst took pains to point out the Ventria rice wasbeing grown as a food crop. In any case, Deeter noted, the Food and Drug Administration could be expected to approve the lactoferrin-modified rice by June, and the lysozyme-modified rice by the end of the year.

But farmers still expressed concerns about the rice. "What about the blackbirds?" asked one, referring to suggestions that birds that eat the rice but do not completely digest it could excrete it in areas where it could take root, thus contaminating other rice crops.

Deeter replied the likelihood of such occurring was probably nonexistent, because not even the strong-hulled red rice was being propagated in that way. "And the Ventria rice has a very tender (i.e easily digested) hull," he said.

"Besides," added Herbst, "it won't lie dormant. It'll either germinate immediately or it'll die. And if the conditions are not right to germinate it'll just die."

Other farmers, apparently interested in growing the rice otherwise, expressed concerns over the apparent need to dedicate all equipment used on the Ventria rice to just that crop. "That's going to be pretty expensive," one grower said in response to the observation by Herbst that combines and other rice handling equipment would be sold for salvage.

Still other farmers questioned why the rice had not been approved to be grown in California, and Deeter was quick to dispute the notion. "We grew with the approval of California, the US Department of Agriculture and the Rice Commission," Deeter replied immediately.

"Some groups just have their own agendas."

The California Department of Food and Agriculture did reject fast-track approval to grow the rice last April. But according to published reports, all the rejection means is that, as the Department of Food and Agriculture noted, "there appears to be no urgent need to plant the rice."

Ventria had sought to plant the rice on a 120acre plot by last May, presumably to make the most of the growing season. When it did not get the approval in April, the company looked elsewhere.

xlb@dailystatesman.com