Beer giant threatens boycott over 'medicinal' grain

According to this story on CNN, brewing giant Anheuser-Busch is threatening not to buy rice from Missouri if Sacramento based Ventria Biosciences plants a 200 acre plot of GM rice designed to produce human medicine. Seeing as AB is the nation's largest rice buyer, Missouri rice growers has cause for concern.

The sloppy and hastily-assembled Ventria website shows that their primary products are lactoferrin and lysozyme, pretty standard human proteins that have a variety of useful properties. By adding the genes to rice, Ventria can cheaply produce a pants-load of otherwise expensive proteins. Ostensibly, these proteins would then be used to create expensive drugs making Ventria's board of directors filthy stinking rich. CNN calls this process Biopharming, but I'm pretty sure they made that up.

A-B's concern is that the GM rice will cross-pollinate and contaminate other rice crops. Off hand, I don't know what effect lactoferrin and lysozyme would have on beer, but unwanted proteins are a legitimate concern. However, unlike maize which naturally cross-pollinates, rice and barley are self-pollinating crops that are highly unlikely to pollinate other crops.

I'll be honest here, I haven't read the USDA proposal [PDF] and I don't know that much about the pollination habits of rice. Normally, I'm in favor of GM foods which provide a tangible benefit, but in this case, I understand A-B's need to protect their product. Additionally, Vintria's interest is not the direct aide of humanity, but profit.

The powers at play here are the rice growers, Ventria and A-B. Judging by the Ventria website and the fact that they are not a publicly traded company, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that A-B will squash Ventria much like a rhinoceros squashes cockroach.