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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: [grazersedge] Bio tech issues
  • Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 10:27:52 -0600

Given our current threads about green washing, corporate titans etc. I thought this was very interesting. One way things changes is when industry's get battling over their respective and conflicting interests. One might look to inserting a little leverage in these battles to turn the outcomes in a more favorable direction.
M
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 19:36:17 -0600
From: Rick Williams <mrfarm@frontiernet.net>
Subject: [grazersedge] Biotech issues
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Ag department likely to tighten rules on biotech corn, official says
The USDA is facing pressure from food processors over checks on biotech
crops.
By PHILIP BRASHER
Register Washington Bureau
12/05/2002


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Washington, D.C. - The Bush administration is likely to tighten its
oversight of pharmaceutical crops to prevent them from contaminating the
food supply, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Wednesday.

"We don't want to stifle growth (of the biotech industry) but we have to
have a strong and credible regulatory system," she said.

Her department has been under heavy pressure from food processors to
strengthen both planting restrictions and the monitoring of the biotech
crops, primarily corn, which are bioengineered to produce vaccines and other
pharmaceutical products.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization announced last month that its member
companies would no longer grow the crops in Iowa and other areas of the Corn
Belt.

However, the group ran into criticism from Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the
incoming Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and on Tuesday
backed off the ban.

The group said it would adhere to whatever restrictions are implemented by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Veneman would not discuss specifics of what new regulations her department
might impose. In August, the USDA proposed new guidelines for biotech
companies that included a number of recommendations for keeping the crops
out of the food supply.

Among the ideas: Alter the color of the biotech plant or leaf pattern, or
grow corn for pharmaceutical or industrial use only in areas where corn is
not grown for human or animal consumption. That proposal is similar to the
policy jettisoned by the biotech group this week.

Veneman, speaking to a conference sponsored by the trade magazine Farm
Journal, pledged that the department would take action against companies
that violated its biotech regulations.

The USDA is threatening to fine one firm, ProdiGene Inc., for allegedly
failing to manage former test sites in Iowa and Nebraska and has impounded
500,000 bushels of soybeans thought to be contaminated with bits of biotech
corn plants.

A settlement with ProdiGene could be announced as early as today.

"We need to be sure we have the regulatory system in place so we don't
undermine consumer confidence," Veneman said.

Trade groups representing the food industry were guarded Tuesday in their
reaction to the biotech industry's decision to drop its ban on growing
pharmaceutical corn in the Midwest.

But the groups said they will push the industry and the Bush administration
to impose restrictions on the crops that will ensure they don't get into the
food supply.

The companies do not want a repeat of the debacle two years ago involving
StarLink corn, which resulted in massive food recalls when the unapproved
grain was found in taco shells.

"Our position remains, there must be 100 percent assurance of containment.
Period," said Jim Bair, vice president of the North American Millers"
Association.

Rhona Applebaum, executive vice president of the National Food Processors
Association, which represents companies such as Campbell Soup and Kraft
Foods, said her industry wanted a "100 percent guarantee" that the biotech
crops won't contaminate the food supply.

The concerns of the food industry have not stopped biotech companies from
pursuing new uses for the technology. Syngenta AG, a Swiss agrochemicals
giant, announced a deal Wednesday with U.S. drug developer Diversa Corp. to
speed development of plant-based drugs.

Syngenta executive David Lawrence said the alliance would keep the company
on the industry's cutting edge.





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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM




  • [permaculture] Fwd: [grazersedge] Bio tech issues, Mark, 12/06/2002

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