Contact Legislators to Stop USDA from allowing looser GE regulations

[Guest guest]

(http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/)

 

 

 

 

 

USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on GE and Pharmaceutical Crops

 

In the waning months of the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of

Agriculture (USDA) has joined the ranks of federal agencies rushing through new

regulations that weaken protections for human health and the environment. USDA

has released a proposed rule that would significantly weaken oversight of

all genetically engineered crops, and which continue to allow companies to

grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals.

The USDA began this process over four years ago by promising stricter

oversight. Unfortunately, improvements considered early on have been

dismissed,

and the proposed rule now has the same gaping holes as the policy it is

replacing, and creates a few new ones, as well. For instance:

* USDA has created a huge loophole allowing biotech companies to assess

their own crops to determine whether USDA should regulate them. And the

criteria

are open-ended, very subjective, and will certainly reduce USDA’s oversight

of GE crops.

* The proposed rules could also allow companies to grow untested GE crops

with no oversight whatsoever: “Over time, the range of GE organisms subject

to

oversight is expected to decrease...,†a move which USDA itself admits will

make contamination of conventional/organic crops with untested GE material

more likely.

 

* To add insult to injury, USDA has proposed to write into law its “Low

Level Presence†policy, which excuses it from taking any action to remove

untested GE crops from conventional or organic food, feed and seed. This

contamination often occurs through cross-pollination or seed dispersal, and has

cost

farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and lowered profits.

* USDA rejected options that would have banned outdoor cultivation of

pharmaceutical-producing GE (food) crops, the only way to ensure that untested

drugs don’t end up in our food, despite strong support from citizens and the

food

industry.

* USDA has refused to propose any controls on pesticide-promoting GE crops,

despite increasing pesticide use and an epidemic of resistant weeds that have

been fostered by these crops.

* Finally, USDA snuck in a last-minute “correction†that bars state or

local regulation of GE crops more protective than its own weak rule. CFS

strongly opposes such preemptive language that would bar local or state

authorities

from putting meaningful regulations or restrictions on GE crops in place that

best suit their communities. This last-minute change should be cause to

extend the public comment period.

The USDA is treading dangerous new ground here. The structure of the new

proposal opens loopholes that can be exploited by biotech companies and expose

consumers to more untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods.

After denying requests for an extension to the short comment period given

for the proposed rules, USDA’s comment period closes on Monday. Sign our

petition to the USDA today and demand stronger—not weaker—regulations for

genetically engineered crops.

The comments to FDA can be ignored by the bureaucratic appointees. Send a

copy to your congressmember and Senators.

Your congressmember can be found at

_www.house.gov_ (http://www.house.gov)

put in your zip code to fin your congress member,

Your senators are at _www.senate.gov_ (http://www.senate.gov) every state

has 2 senators.

Send your representative and senators copies of your comments. Make a copy

of your comments by selecting the comment text and pu;; down the edit tab and

click on copy. Then paste the text onto the page to write your lgislators.

Ask your representative to contact Agriculture Commmittee Chairman Collin

Peterson and ask that he stop USDA from loosening the regulations on

Genetically

Engineered foods in the last hours of the Bush Administration. And

introduce laws to reverse any that are implemented.

Ask your Senators to contact Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom

Harkin and ask that he stop USDA from loosening regulation of Genetically

Engineered foods in the last hours of the Bush Administration. And introduce

laws to

reverse those that are implemented.

 

 

Full Petition Text:

 

 

Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023

Regulatory Analysis and Development

PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8

4700 River Road Unit 118

Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.

 

Re: Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023, Importation, Interstate Movement, and

Release into the Environment of Certain

Genetically Engineered Organisms.

 

I am very concerned about the risks genetically engineered crops--especially

those engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals--pose to human

health, family farmers, wildlife, and the environment. I urge USDA to close the

gaping loopholes in its proposed rules, and put stronger--not

weaker--regulations in place. In particular:

 

1)Please follow the advice of the National Academy of Sciences and make

genetic engineering the trigger for USDA oversight so that ALL experimental GE

crops are properly regulated. This approach is scientifically sound,

administratively efficient, and more protective of public health, the

environment, and

the interests of farmers. Eliminate loopholes that exempt any GE crop that

has not undergone a determination of non-regulated status from USDA regulatory

oversight.

 

2)Please do NOT incorporate the " Low Level Presence "

policy in the final rule. Instead, make zero presence of

experimental GE crops in food and feed your management goal, and gear your

implementing regulations to achieve it as fully as possible. In particular,

make all field trials of experimental GE crops subject to strict gene

containment standards at least as stringent as those now applied to

pharmaceutical-producing GE crops.

 

3)Please reconsider your " business as usual " pharma crop policy, and instead

adopt one of two alternatives you proposed in the Draft Environmental Impact

Statement - a simple ban on outdoor cultivation of all

pharmaceutical-producing crops, or at least pharmaceutical-producing food crops

- to best protect

public health and the environment.

 

4)Please regulate as necessary pesticide-promoting,

herbicide-tolerant GE crops in order to address the rise in pesticide use

these crops have fostered, and to mitigate the growing threat posed by

herbicide-resistant weeds to farmers and the interests of American agriculture.

 

5)Remove any preemption clause that bars state and local authorities from

enacting laws or regulations to control GE crops as they best see fit.

Signed by:

[Your name]

 

 

 

 

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Maintainer: _Center for Food Safety (office)_

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