The State - News from Jan. 16, 1986

Complaints from residents and environmentalists prompted Monterey County supervisors to set a Jan. 27 hearing on a planned experiment in which strawberry plants are to be sprayed with genetically engineered bacteria in an effort to ward off frost damage. Advanced Genetic Sciences Inc. of Oakland has state and federal permission for the test. But attorneys for the Foundation on Economic Trends, a Washington-based environmental group, said they would seek a federal court injunction to block it. The spray, Frostban, is a laboratory-made derivative of a naturally occurring bacterium.