U.S. Policing of Biotech Crops Denounced

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003-06-18-06.asp

 

U.S. Policing of Biotech Crops Denounced

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC, June 18, 2003 (ENS) - Federal government agencies are failing to

monitor genetically engineered crops to protect the environment and public

health, according to two separate studies released today.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that according to its

review of government data farmers are routinely overplanting corn that is

genetically engineered (GE) to be insect resistant.

The corn growers are failing to comply with a government requirement to plant 20

percent of their acreage with non-GE corn as a refuge. The refuge is intended to

prevent the breeding of insects resistant to the pesticide produced by

engineered corn that contains a protein from the soil bacterium, Bacillus

thuringiensis (Bt).

The protein kills Lepidoptera larvae, in particular, the European corn borer.

Growers use Bt corn as an alternative to spraying insecticides for control of

European and southwestern corn borers.

Entomologists Larry Chandler (left) and Wayne Buhler check a corn ear for

insect damage. (Photo by Ken Hammond courtesy USDA)The data analyzed by the CSPI

was collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural

Statistics Service. The statistics show that 19 percent of all Bt corn farms in

Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska - about 10,000 farms - violated the Environmental

Protection Agency's (EPA) refuge requirements in 2002.

Thirteen percent of farmers growing Bt corn in those three states planted no

refuges at all.

" Noncompliance on this scale shows that current regulations aren't up to the

task, " said Gregory Jaffe, director of CSPI's biotechnology project. " Both the

EPA and the biotech industry must do more to make sure that farmers meet these

very basic obligations, so that the benefits of this technology won't be

squandered. "

Because of its pesticidal properties, Bt corn is regulated by the EPA, rather

than by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA).

In its report, " Planting Trouble, " the Center for Science in the Public Interest

recommends that the EPA determine farmers' compliance with its refuge

requirements using data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service,

rather than what the organization terms " the less reliable data " from the

biotechnology industry's telephone survey of farmers.

In a letter today, the CSPI urged EPA Administrator Christie Whitman to

implement the report's recommendations. The CSPI wants biotech firms to conduct

on farm inspections and to require farmers to document their compliance with

maps and seed purchase records.

Unlike some environmental or consumer groups, the CSPI does not oppose

agricultural biotechnology as long as it is appropriately regulated to safeguard

human health and the environment, but the Center has often faulted the biotech

industry for its disregard of government oversight.

" As biotech applications become even more advanced, and potentially more

dangerous, this kind of noncompliance will be even less tolerable, " Jaffe said.

Bt corn in the field looks identical to traditional corn. (Photo credit

unknown)In a separate report, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG)

criticizes the Agriculture Department's oversight of field experiments in the

United States. The report is critical of testing procedures used in monitoring

experimental genetically modified crops in the field.

USPIRG warns that nearly 70 percent of all field tests of genetically engineered

crops conducted in the last year contain secret genes classified as confidential

business information to which the public has no access.

A field test last fall of a genetically engineered crop designed to produce a

pig vaccine contaminated commercial crops, USPIRG reports. As a result, 500,000

bushels of soybeans had to be quarantined and were destroyed.

USPIRG quotes a 2002 National Academy of Sciences report confirming that the

federal government permitted commercial growth of a variety of genetically

engineered corn found toxic to monarch butterflies under field conditions.

If field experiments are not properly monitored, PIRG says the resulting genetic

pollution can put farmers' livelihoods and the environment at risk.

" Our environment is being used as a laboratory for widespread experimentation on

genetically engineered crops with profound risks that, once released, can never

be recalled, " said USPIRG environmental advocate Richard Caplan. " Until proper

safeguards are in place, this unchecked experiment should stop. "

Federal food law requires premarket approval for food additives, whether or not

they are the products of biotechnology, molecular techniques that are used to

insert genes from one type of organism into another - in this case the insertion

of a Bt gene into a corn plant.

The federal agency responsible for regulating foods, the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA), treats substances added to food products through

biotechnology as food additives only if they are significantly different in

structure, function or amount than substances currently found in food.

If a new food product developed through biotechnology does not contain

substances that are significantly different from those already in the diet, it

does not require premarket approval.

Currently, genetically modified foods in the United States do not require

special labeling to notify consumers that a food or ingredient is a

bioengineered product.

Testifying Tuesday before a House of Representatives subcommittee, FDA deputy

commissioner Lester Crawford said the agency has found no evidence that the more

than 50 bioengineered foods on the market today are unsafe to eat.

Lester Crawford is deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

(Photo courtesy FDA) " The evidence shows that these foods are as safe as their

conventional counterparts, " Crawford told the lawmakers.

" Bioengineered foods and food ingredients must adhere to the same standards of

safety under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that apply to their

conventionally bred counterparts, " he said.

Crawford told the subcommittee that scientists have been changing the genetic

makeup of plants since the late 1800s. Hybrid corn, nectarines, and tangelos, a

hybrid of a tangerine and grapefruit, are examples of such cross breeding, he

said.

Genetic engineering, by contrast, is the manipulation of an organism's genetic

structure by introducing or eliminating specific genes through modern molecular

biology techniques. A broad definition of genetic engineering also includes

selective breeding and other means of artifical selection.

Crawford did address one concern of biotechnology critics, the possibility of

allergic reactions to genetically engineered foods. " As to potential allergens, "

he said, " foods normally contain many thousands of different proteins. While the

majority of proteins do not cause allergic reactions, virtually all known human

allergens are proteins. Since genetic engineering can introduce a new protein

into a food plant, it is possible that this technique could introduce a

previously unknown allergen into the food supply or could introduce a known

allergen into a new food. "

Food and Drug Administration guidelines and a consultative process help food

product developers meet U.S. requirements for the bioengineered foods they

intend to market, Crawford said.

The FDA wants to assure that compounds in the engineered foods are safe for

consumption, that no new allergens or higher levels of natural toxicants have

been introduced and that there is no reduction of nutrients in foods being

developed for market, Crawford said.

One risk to farmers of improperly monitored field tests is loss of export

markets for their crops. Wheat, which has been authorized for more than 330

field tests of genetically engineered varieties, is of particular concern, the

PIRG report says. Many international trading partners have told wheat exporters

that they will stop buying U.S. wheat if any genetic contamination is detected.

Biotechnology is expected to be a major theme when world agricultural ministers

meet next week at the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science

and Technology in Sacramento, California.

 

 

 

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