Other companies are betting that gene-altered plants will cut the costs of making chemicals used in plastics, detergents and construction materials. Biopharming raises many questions familiar from the debate about genetically engineered foods. The main fears are that adding foreign genes to plants will prompt allergic reactions in people who eat them, and that the genes might cause unwanted changes in soil, in insect populations and in the broader environment. But in transforming plants to grow things that people do not normally consume, biopharming may raise additional concerns. When you talk about something like a vaccine or chemical that could spread to the environment, I would say that it raises the concerns to a higher level.
Some groups see genetic manipulation as an unacceptable exploitation of nature.
Federal regulators say they are keeping a watchful eye on biopharming, requiring permits when new crops are grown in open fields. To prevent pollen from carrying modified genes to new plants, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires farmers to separate gene-altered plants from conventional crops by several hundred feet. The agency sometimes asks growers to remove the pollen-bearing parts of the plant as well. The facility would have to be dedicated to pharmaceuticals. Still, a debacle last year involving one type of genetically engineered corn gave a black eye to regulators and to biotechnology companies and has sharpened scrutiny of their work.