WASHINGTON - The government's rules for permits and nature's rules for planting may combine to nip in the bud a quest to sprout pharmaceutical crops in Missouri. Missouri political leaders are pressing the Agriculture Department to shorten its permitreview so a California company can sow pharmaceutical rice in Missouri yet this spring. But the Agriculture Department has given no indication that it will relent, a threat both to the project at hand and to Missouri's hopes to establish itself as a leader in converting croplands to factories for drugs.
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