Would You Like Drugs in Your Rice?

Digitus1337 writes "Wired has the scoop on a new type of rice that was just approved for production by a narrow vote. 'Ventria believes growing drugs that produce proteins like lactoferrin and lysozyme in rice could be a cheaper way to develop drugs than building and maintaining expensive manufacturing plants... Opponents say growing the crops in open fields endangers organic and conventional crops, as well as human health...'" Update: 03/30 23:15 GMT by T : That should probably read "growing rice that produces proteins like lactoferrin and lysozyme."

Comments

You mean like this?

[FreeLinux]

Do you mean like this project in Cornwall England? It will be the world's largest greenhouse at roughly 160 acres when completed and will cost 79 million pounds to build minus cost overruns. That's $145,000,000US by today's exchange rate and that's just to build it. It will cost millions more to operate.

Operating standard rice paddies in just about any of the rice growing states (Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, California, Florida) would cost a tiny fraction of that. And growing rice in China, the rice production capital of the world, would cost a tiny fraction of what it would cost in the US.

There are certain situations where technology is the wrong answer and to a great extent, agriculture is one of those situations.