GMW: Biotech foods: A cat that won't stay bagged

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GMW: Biotech foods: A cat that won't stay bagged

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:14:00 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Yet another editorial from a US paper laying into US regulation - this

time over the GM rice fiasco. Here are some others:

 

MORE RECENT EDITORIALS FROM U.S. PRESS

Biopharming gone awry - Denver Post

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6920

Mother Nature Is No Lab

- Hartford Courant

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6920

A straw in the wind -

Register-Guard

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6931

Escaped bentgrass sounds

a warning - Minneapolis Star Tribune

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6920

 

EXCERPT FROM STAR TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BELOW: Bayer will now seek

retroactive USDA approval to sell Liberty Link 601.

 

That may be of some help to American rice producers, who have seen

prices plummet since Johanns' announcement. But it won't do much to boost

their credibility, or the USDA's, with foreign customers. That will

require a regulatory system that can be trusted to do what it claims --

under leadership that treats its customers' concerns with respect and

candor, and discloses screwups without rationalization and delay.

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Editorial: Biotech foods: A cat that won't stay bagged

Another unapproved product finds its way into marketplace.

Star Tribune, August 27 2006

http://www.startribune.com/561/story/636485.html

 

WHO BUYS THE RICE

 

The U.S. rice crop is valued at nearly $1.9 billion. About half is

exported. Of exports, about 80 percent is long-grain rice. Mexico is the

largest single importer.

 

Last year, U.S. sales of long-grain rice to EU countries totaled about

198,000 metric tons, worth $67 million. Japan hasn't bought long-grain

raw rice from the United States since 1998, but last year bought

235,000 tons of short- and medium-grain rice, as well as 17,000 tons of

processed products that may be made with long-grain rice.

 

In a global marketplace that dislikes genetically modified (GM) foods,

America's agricultural exports must rely on trust above all -- trust

that GM varieties are safe to eat, preferable to grow and strictly

regulated.

 

On the first point, the scientific support is pretty strong. On the

second, which is about philosophy as much as science, it looks to be an

uphill fight. And on the third, well. . . can't we go back to talking

about safety?

 

That seems to be the approach at the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

whose response to the latest regulatory breakdown -- inexplicable mixing

of biotech rice into regular stocks -- can only make matters worse,

trustwise, with skeptical export customers.

 

Friday before last, Secretary Mike Johanns announced that Bayer

CropScience had found " trace amounts " of its engineered long-grain

variety in

U.S. bins holding rice from the 2005 crop. Although this GM rice was

" regulated " -- fedspeak meaning " unapproved for market release " --

Johanns stressed that both his department and the Food and Drug

Administration had found it to pose no threat to human or

environmental health.

 

The announcement didn't mention that Bayer had notified USDA of its

discovery on July 31, three workweeks earlier. Johanns acknowledged the

timing at a press conference, explaining that USDA had withheld the

information while trying to validate a test that producers, shippers and

customers could use to detect the Bayer rice, an herbicide-resistant

variety known as Liberty Link 601. Oh, and they were reviewing safety

data,

too -- not a time-consuming task, since the basis for declaring the 601

variety safe is only that its special protein is the same inserted into

two earlier Bayer strains that were " deregulated " years ago.

 

Anyway, the testing is all about protecting sales, not safety. It was a

sure bet that Japan and the EU countries would ban raw rice or

processed foods contaminated, in their view, with the Bayer strain.

Saving this

billion-dollar export market required a way to certify shipments as

GM-free.

 

Alas, three workweeks wasn't enough time for USDA to prepare answers to

such questions as how the Bayer rice, field-tested between 1998 and

2001, could turn up in the 2005 harvest. Or how many rice bins, in how

many states, contained the modified strain. Or whether any of the GM rice

had reached U.S. supermarket shelves.

 

Some of this information has surfaced subsequently. According to

Riceland Foods, the nation's largest rice marketer, the 601 strain was

detected " across the rice belt " in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,

Missouri

and Texas. Moreover, Riceland also said it had been investigating the

matter since January, when a customer discovered GM rice in an export

shipment. How it got there remains a mystery, but a solution has emerged:

Bayer will now seek retroactive USDA approval to sell Liberty Link 601.

 

That may be of some help to American rice producers, who have seen

prices plummet since Johanns' announcement. But it won't do much to boost

their credibility, or the USDA's, with foreign customers. That will

require a regulatory system that can be trusted to do what it claims --

under leadership that treats its customers' concerns with respect and

candor, and discloses screwups without rationalization and delay.

 

To comment on this editorial, go here

http://online.startribune.com/forum/index.php?t=threadt & frm_id=86 &

 

 

 

 

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