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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] USDA Proposes Further De-regulation of GMOs
  • Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:16:00 -0600


ISIS Press Release 08/09/07

USDA Proposes Further De-regulation of GMOs
*************************************

The proposed changes make the regulatory regime even more
permissive. Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

This article was submitted to the USDA on behalf of ISIS.
Please circulate widely to your policy-makers

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has proposed
changes to regulations on Introduction of Organisms and
Products Altered or Produced Through Genetic Engineering,
available for public comment before 11 September 2007 at:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main.

APHIS is seeking public comment on its draft environmental
impact statement (DEIS) presenting alternatives in a series
of questions. The questions and our answers are given below.

Question 1: Should APHIS continue to regulate GE
[genetically engineered] organisms solely on the basis of
potential risks as plant pests, or should they also be
regulated based on other potential risks such as those for
noxious weeds and biological control organisms?

Answer: APHIS should more realistically take into account
the risk of transgenic contamination of crops and weedy
relatives of the crops. The detrimental economic impact of
transgenic contamination as well as the toxic potential,
especially of pharmaceutical products or transgenic
biopolymers, must be evaluated. Crops modified with genes to
enhance energy production may genetically contaminate food
crops. Finally, transgenic contamination should be treated
as any other environmental pollution. APHIS should take into
account the strong evidence that transgenic contamination is
unavoidable [1] (GM Contamination At 21 km and Farther. No
Co-Existence Possible, SiS 35)

Question 2: Should a new system of risk-based permit
categories be designed to deal with new products and new
concerns?

Answer: It is imperative that crops such as food crops
modified to produce pharmaceutical proteins or crops
destined for energy production should be evaluated by
criteria that are different from those of food crops in
recognition that the transgenes pose unique dangers to
health. The same applies to



Read the rest of this article here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDAderegGMOs.php


Or read other articles on Genetic Engineering Regulation
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GE-regulation.php


========================================================
This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDAderegGMOs.php





  • [Livingontheland] USDA Proposes Further De-regulation of GMOs, TradingPostPaul, 09/07/2007

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