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Poppy growers oppose GM ban
Posted: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 11:20 am
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The Tasmanian Poppy Growers Association says that extending the ban on GM crops in the Australian state will put the poppy industry at risk. Poppies produce morphine and other essential pharmaceutical compounds, and Tasmania leads the world in their production.

A joint parliamentary committee recommended last week that the State Government extend the moratorium on GM crops for another five years.

"It would be a terrific shame for Tasmania, because its poppies are such a great industry", said Lyndley Chopping, a spokesperson for the group. "They're an ideal industry with the high value and then for exporting the low volume crop."

In Australia, cultivation of poppy crops is restricted to Tasmania by ministerial agreement between the Commonwealth and the States. The industry is characterised by a high degree of vertical integration, with pharmaceutical companies contracting with individual farmers who are paid according to the alkaloid content of their crops.

A significant turning point in Tasmania's poppy industry was the development of mutant poppies that produce no morphine. They do, however, produce quantities of thebaine, which can be converted into codeine.

This raised the possibility that poppies could reliably produce a number of pharmaceutical compounds at low cost, if engineered to do so. It was already known that poppies also produce small amounts of other important compounds, such as the antispasmodic noscapine, the vasodilator papaverine, and antibiotics, such as sanguinarine.

In July 2000 the Tasmanian Government imposed a moratorium on GM plants and commissioned a study of the risks and benefits of this technology in poppy production.

The study found, among other things, that there could be real benefits in engineering poppies to produce increased amounts of pharmaceutical compounds which currently they produce only in minute quantities. At the time, it was thought that this might be accomplished by "using antisense DNA (genes in reverse sequence) to prevent expression of alkaloid genes in the plant."

It was later found that this could be accomplished using RNA interference technology. By silencing one of the last enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway leading to codeine and morphine, a poppy was produced that accumulates reticuline, a non-narcotic alkaloid intermediate that is well upstream of codeine.

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GMO (noun) 1. An acronym for the term, 'Genetically Modified Organism'. 2. A plant, animal or microbe with a genetic code which has been intentionally altered, such as through forced evolution (see selective breeding); through random mutations induced with radiation or chemicals (see mutagenesis); or through the selective transfer, promoting or silencing of specific genes (see genetic engineering). 3. Most generally, any descendant of a primordial urbiote. (See evolution.)

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GMObelus (noun, proper) A publication directing the attention of readers to the latest news and commentary regarding the development and use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture and related fields.

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