Court Delays Test of Altered Bacteria by UC
Environmentalists obtained a court order Monday temporarily blocking the start of an experiment to test the ability of a genetically altered bacteria to protect potatoes against frost.
The experiment had been scheduled to begin in Siskiyou County on Wednesday. But Sacramento County Superior Court Judge A. Richard Backus issued a temporary restraining order to delay the project pending an Aug. 22 hearing on arguments.
Opponents of the University of California experiment said it had not been adequately evaluated for its environmental impacts.
In setting the hearing date, Backus noted that neither defendant in the case--the UC Board of Regents or the state Department of Food and Agriculture--could cite any adverse effects posed by delaying the start of the experiment.
Scientists had planned to treat potato plants with Ice Minus, the name given the genetically altered bacteria. The test would have been the first authorized release of man-made, genetically altered bacteria into the environment.
Scientists planned to conduct the tests in a small plot at the university’s agricultural station in Tulelake, four miles south of the Oregon border.
The suit contesting the experiment was filed by the Sacramento-based Californians for Responsible Toxics Management, Jeremy Rifkin’s Foundation on Economic Trends of Washington, D.C., and four residents of Tulelake.
University representatives have said the experiment poses no risk to humans, crops or other living things and that it has been widely reviewed.
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