Down on the Pharm

A district judge in Hawaii concluded that the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) broke the law when it allowed hundreds of acres in the state to be planted with crops genetically modified to produce human hormones and ingredients for vaccines against AIDS and hepatitis B--a practice known as biopharming--without first conducting an adequate study of the risks such plants posed to native endangered species. The judge wrote the the agency showed "utter disregard" for what was a "clear congressional mandate." The ruling has prompted environmentalists for a moratorium on such open-air tests.

In a separate story, EPA scientists have found genetically engineered grass growing in the wild in Central Oregon. As the New York Times reports,

genetically engineered grass, called creeping bentgrass, is being developed by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and Monsanto for use on golf courses. It contains a bacterial gene that makes the grass resistant to the herbicide Roundup, known generically as glyphosate. The goal is to create a product to allow groundskeepers to spray the herbicide on greens and fairways to kill weeds without hurting the grass.

The product has not yet been approved by the Agriculture Department.

Ecologists worry about the possibility that genes which render plants resistant to herbicide could make their way into related wild species, thereby creating difficult to control "superweeds."