[Pirateninfo] Atomically Modified Rice in Asia?

[joscha]

ETC Group
News Release
Thursday, March 25, 2004
www.etcgroup.org

Jazzing up Jasmine:
Atomically Modified Rice in Asia?

A nanotech research initiative in Thailand aims to atomically modify the 
characteristics of local rice varieties - including the country's famous 
jasmine rice- and to circumvent the controversy over Genetically Modified 
Organisms (GMOs). Nanobiotech takes agriculture from the battleground of GMOs 
to the brave new world of Atomically Modified Organisms (AMOs).

In January, Bangkok Post reported on a three-year research project at Chiang 
Mai University's nuclear physics laboratory,(1) funded by the National 
Research Council of Thailand, to atomically-modify rice. The research 
involves drilling a nano-sized hole (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter) 
through the wall and membrane of a rice cell in order to insert a nitrogen 
atom.  The hole is drilled using a particle beam (a stream of fast-moving 
particles, not unlike a lightening bolt) and the nitrogen atom is shot 
through the hole to stimulate rearrangement of the rice's DNA. 

Pipe Dreams from Particle Beams?  One of the attractions of this technique, 
according to the director of the Fast Neutron Research Facility in Chiang Mai 
where the research is being conducted, is that it does not require the usual 
(and controversial) technique of genetic modification, where genes are 
transferred between unrelated organisms or are removed or rearranged within a 
species.  "At least we can avoid it," Thiraphat Vilaithong, the Facility 
director said.(2) 

"We don't consider atomically modified rice any safer or more socially 
acceptable than genetically modified rice," explained Witoon Lianchamroon of 
Biodiversity Action Thailand (BIOTHAI), a civil society organization based in 
Bangkok. "It sounds like the same high-tech approach that does not address 
our needs and could cause severe hardships for Thai rice farmers."

According to BIOTHAI, scientists at Chaing Mai University have already used 
nanotechnology to modify the colour of a local rice variety, "Khao 
Kam."(3)  The word "Kam" means deep purple, and the rice variety is known for 
its purple stem, leaves and grains. Using nanotechnology, the scientists 
changed the colour of the leaves and stems of Khao Kam from purple to green. 
In a telephone interview, Dr. Thirapat Vilaithong told BIOTHAI that their 
next target is Jasmine rice. The goal of their research is to develop Jasmine 
varieties that can be grown all year long, with shorter stems and improved 
grain colour. 

The research at Chiang Mai is related to other types of "mutation breeding" in 
that the cell's DNA is manipulated to cause a change in gene function.  The 
difficulty lies in finding safe passage through a plant cell's wall and 
membrane without compromising the cell's ability to survive or allowing 
essential cellular contents to leak out.  Mutation breeding and nuclear 
physics have a long history, with most work coming out of a joint United 
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation/International Atomic Energy Agency 
programme in Vienna beginning in the mid-1960s.  Over the last 40 years, 
researchers there have bombarded plant cells with x-rays, beta and gamma 
rays, among other particles, to induce alterations in the genomes of crop 
plants.(4)  

The Bigger Picture: The project being undertaken at Chiang Mai's nuclear 
physics lab is a testament to Thailand's commitment to nanotechnology. In 
January, the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, ordered the establishment of 
a nanotechnology center to be headed by the government's National Science and 
Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).(5) In addition to the rice project, 
researchers in Chiang Mai are working to alter the surface of silk at the 
nanometer level to make it water- and dirt-resistant, hoping to give Thailand 
a competitive advantage over the world's other major silk exporters, which 
include India and China. Industry analysts predict that the nanotech 
revolution will someday allow researchers to engineer new materials and 
modify existing ones so that they exhibit whatever property is most desirable 
for a given application - strength, weight, electrical conductivity, colour 
could all be manipulated at the molecular level. In theory, production, 
including agricult
 ural production, would no longer be dependent on geography, labour or raw 
materials, rendering some natural resources obsolete - with especially 
serious disruptions for Third World economies. 

"Oops, There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant:" For example, consider the 
potential of nano-scale innovations to affect the market for rubber: 
researchers in the US are designing nanoparticles to strengthen and extend 
the life of automobile tyres as well as new nanomaterials that could be used 
as a substitute for natural rubber, especially in medical gloves. "If 
nano-designed tyres and other products require little or no rubber in the 
future, it will mean less demand for natural rubber with potentially 
devastating impacts for the livelihoods of rubber tappers and plantation 
workers worldwide," explains Jim Thomas, ETC Group researcher from Oxford UK. 
Malaysia and Thailand are currently the world's top producers of natural 
rubber.

Prime Minister Thaksin is placing special emphasis on research in 
nanobiotechnology, such as the atomically modified rice project, in an effort 
to distinguish Thailand from other regional nanotech research. Because living 
and non-living material are indistinguishable at the nano-scale - at this 
fundamental level, they are both simply atoms and molecules of chemical 
elements - physicists, genetic engineers and material scientists are 
exploiting this "material unity at the nano-scale" to combine biological and 
non-biological material in unprecedented ways.  While global investment in 
nanotechnology - both private and public - is estimated between five and six 
billion dollars (US) per annum, the focus on nanobiotechnology is 
significant.  Since 1999, venture capitalists alone have devoted over $450 
million to nanobiotechnology. 

The rice research in Thailand is just one small piece of the nanobio picture 
related to food and agriculture.  According to Helmut Kaiser Consultancy, 
some 200 transnational food companies are currently investing in nanotech and 
are on their way to commercializing products. The list includes many of the 
world's largest companies: Ajinomoto, Campbell Soup, ConAgra, General Mills, 
H. J. Heinz, Kraft Foods, McCain Foods, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Sara Lee, Unilever, 
and more.

Miracle Rice Re-visited? The United Nations has designated 2004 the Second 
International Year of Rice. Neth Daño, executive director of SEARICE in the 
Philippines, recalls that the first International Year of Rice was 
thirty-eight years ago in 1966, the year that the International Rice Research 
Institute (IRRI) launched the Green Revolution in Asia with the release of 
IR8, the first semi-dwarf rice variety. "The so-called 'miracle rice' 
required irrigation and a costly package of chemical fertilizers and 
pesticides that drove poor farmers deeper into debt," said Daño. "IR8 was not 
only highly susceptible to pests and diseases, it also introduced massive 
genetic uniformity, displaced poor farmers and their traditional rice 
varieties." 

"Will 2004 bring us full circle?" asks Kathy Jo Wetter, ETC researcher. "At 
what cost to farmers, food security and the environment are researchers now 
tinkering with atomically-modified rice? Will 2004 be remembered as the year 
that launched atomically-modified rice and the Nano-Rice Revolution?" 

Both ETC Group and SEARICE are members of the CBDC Programme (see box, below).

Later this year ETC Group plans to release an in-depth report on impacts of 
nanobiotechnology for food and agriculture, especially in the developing 
world. The report will also consider food industry applications, such as 
nanosensors embedded in food packaging and in food itself, "interactive" food 
and beverages - products that would change colour, flavour or nutrients to 
accommodate the individual consumer's tastes or health condition, and 
ultrasound-activated animal vaccines using nanoparticles, among many others.

For further information:

Jim Thomas, ETC Group, email: jim at etcgroup.org 
Tel: +44-1865 201719
Kathy Jo Wetter, ETC Group, email: kjo at etcgroup.org
Tel: 1-919-960-5223

Witoon Lianchamroon, BIOTHAI, email: biothai at biothai.net
Tel: +662 952 7953
www.biothai.org

(1) Ranjana Wangvipula, "Thailand embarks on the nano path to better rice and 
silk," Bangkok Post, Jan. 21, 2004.  Available on the Internet: http://
www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7266
(2) Ibid.
(3) Personal communication from Witoon Lianchamroon of BIOTHAI, 25 March 2004. 
Witoon spoke to Dr. Thirapat Vilaithong and other scientists at the Fast 
Neutron Research Facility in Chaing Mai by telephone.
(4) http://www.plantmutations.com/mutation_breeding.htm.  According to the 
FAO/IAEA Mutant Varieties database over, well over 2000 varieties have been 
released in 52 countries.  See http://www-infocris.iaea.org/MVD/
(5) Anonymous, "Prime Minister orders establishment of nanotechnology center," 
Pattaya Mail, Vol. XII No. 2, Friday January 9 - January 15, 2004. Available 
on the Internet: http://www.pattayamail.com/545/business.shtml.  See also, 
Jen Lin-Liu, "Thailand's leader plants the seeds for a future in nanobiotech, 
Small Times, Feb. 28, 2003. Available on the Internet: http://
www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=5588


The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly RAFI, is 
an international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC 
group is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity 
and human rights.  www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of the 
Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). The 
CBDC is a collaborative experimental initiative involving civil society 
organizations and public research institutions in 14 countries.  The CBDC is 
dedicated to the exploration of community-directed programmes to strengthen 
the conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC 
website is www.cbdcprogram.org.