In article .com,
"Jay" wrote:

On Mar 5, 10:28 pm, Penelope Periwinkle
wrote:
On 5 Mar 2007 19:04:31 -0800, "Jay" wrote:



On Mar 4, 4:13 pm, Penelope Periwinkle wrote:
On 4 Mar 2007 12:39:02 -0800, "Jay" wrote:

There are a series of articles

You're a slimey bottom feeder of a spammer, the kind of crud the rest
of us scrape off our shoes whilst glaring at the neighbor's dog.

You have been reported to your ISP.

Penelope
--
You have proven yourself to be the most malicious,
classless person that I've encountered in years.
- "pointed"

Is this your hobby or are you sick????

Razing nose-picking philistines who spam newsgroups with their
substandard and overpriced products whilst hiding behind fake email
addresses?

That sir, is my honor.

Now run along back to your crummy little store, there's a good boy,
before I get cranky and chastise you harshly.

Penelope

--
You have proven yourself to be the most malicious,
classless person that I've encountered in years.
- "pointed"

Human genes in your food?
By SEAN POULTER - More by this author » Last updated at 22:25pm on 5th
March 2007

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The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved
for commercial production.

The laboratory-created rice produces some of the human proteins found
in breast milk and saliva.

Its U.S. developers say they could be used to treat children with
diarrhoea, a major killer in the Third World.

The rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein Foods, the first
mingling of human-origin genes and those from plants. But the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has already signalled it plans to allow
commercial cultivation.

The rice's producers, California-based Ventria Bioscience, have been
given preliminary approval to grow it on more than 3,000 acres in
Kansas. The company plans to harvest the proteins and use them in
drinks, desserts, yoghurts and muesli bars.

The news provoked horror among GM critics and consumer groups on both
sides of the Atlantic.

GeneWatch UK, which monitors new GM foods, described it as "very
disturbing". Researcher Becky Price warned: "There are huge, huge
health risks and people should rightly be concerned about this."

Friends of the Earth campaigner Clare Oxborrow said: "Using food crops
and fields as glorified drug factories is a very worrying development.

"If these pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers' plates, the
consequences for our health could be devastating.

"The biotech industry has already failed to prevent experimental GM
rice contaminating the food chain.

"The Government must urge the U.S. to ban the production of drugs in
food crops. It must also introduce tough measures to prevent illegal
GM crops contaminating our food and ensure that biotech companies are
liable for any damage their products cause."

In the U.S., the Union of Concerned Scientists, a policy advocacy
group, warned: "It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors.

"There would be little control over the doses people might get exposed
to, and some might be allergic to the proteins."

The American Consumers Union and the Washingtonbased Centre for Food
Safety also oppose Ventria's plans.

As well as the contamination fears there are serious ethical concerns
about such a fundamental interference with the building blocks of
life.

Yet there is no legal means for Britain and Europe to ban such
products on ethical grounds.

Imports would have to be accepted once they had gone through a
scientific safety assessment.

The development is what may people feared when, ten years ago, food
scientists showed what was possible by inserting copies of fish genes
from the flounder into tomatoes, to help them withstand frost.

Ventria has produced three varieties of the rice, each with a
different human-origin gene that makes the plants produce one of three
human proteins.

Two - lactoferrin and lysozyme - are bacteria-fighting compounds found
in breast milk and saliva. The genes, cultivated and copied in a
laboratory to produce a synthetic version, are carried into embryonic
rice plants inside bacteria.

Until now, plants with human-origin genes have been restricted to
small test plots.

Ventria originally planned to grow the rice in southern Missouri but
the brewer Anheuser-Busch, a huge buyer of rice, threatened to boycott
the state amid concern over contamination and consumer reaction.

Now the USDA, saying the rice poses "virtually no risk". has given
preliminary approval for it to be grown in Kansas, which has no
commercial rice farms.

Ventria will also use dedicated equipment, storage and processing
facilities supposed to prevent seeds from mixing with other crops.

The company says food products using the rice proteins could help save
many of the two million children a year who die from diarrhoea and the
resulting dehydration and complications. A recent study in Peru,
sponsored by Ventria, showed that children with severe diarrhoea
recovered a day and a half faster if the salty fluids they were
prescribed included the proteins.

The rice could also be a huge money-spinner in the Western world, with
parents being told it will help their children get over unpleasant
stomach bugs more quickly.

Ventria chief executive Scott Deeter said last night: "We have a
product here that can help children get better faster."

He said any concerns about safety and contamination were "based on
perception, not reality" given all the precautions the company was
taking.

Mr Deeter said production in plants was far cheaper than other
methods, which should help make the therapy affordable in the
developing world.

He said: "Plants are phenomenal factories. Our raw materials are the
sun, soil and water."

Is it just me? These last posting from Jay seem to be losing the focus
of rec.gardens.edible. I mean there are lots of crummy things going on
in the kleptocracy that we live in but it seems to me that we need to
take the hinayana approach here in rec.gardens.edible or the news group
will become everything about everything. So let's all rally around the
sunflowers and scratch at the dirt, and when your feeling feisty, we can
meet at rec.gov.throwthe*******sout or go google my hero, Jose Bové.

Hum, I see I have a penny change my two cents.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (more or less:-)