permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

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
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> 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