Anti-Hay Fever GM Rice May Gain Japanese Trust

Hate hay fever? A new variety of transgenic rice is being developed in Japan to curb the sneezing, and it is expected to help the body's immune system develop a tolerance to allergy-causing pollen. The problem is that it would take long before the genetically modified (GM) rice becomes commercially available. GM technology is still viewed with deep suspicion by many consumers in Japan, where no GMO crops are commercially grown despite increasing a growth in global acreage.

Still, some industry officials say a biotech crop with health-enhancing characteristics may offer one of the best chances for acceptance of GMO crops in a country that boasts one of the world's longest average life spans. "Those are the kind of products that may find greater acceptance, at least in the context of the Japanese consumers," said Randy A. Hautea, director at the South East Asia Center of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.

Japanese researchers have been working on the project since about 2000, and the next major step would be to test on humans the effectiveness of eating the transgenic rice. Read the news article at http://www.growersforwheatbiotechnology.org/html/news.cfm?ID=385.