Now’s your chance!
In the waning months of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a proposal to completely overhaul regulation of genetically engineered (GE)crops. The plan significantly weakens USDA oversight.
The proposed rules would virtually ensure that contamination of organic and conventional crops will become even more frequent, and even excuses the Agency from taking any action to remedy such contamination. The rules would continue to allow the dangerous practice of producing drugs and industrial chemicals in food crops grown in the open environment, and in many cases even allow the biotechnology industry to decide whether their GE crops are regulated at all.
You can comment on this rule and make your voice heard. The public comment period, noted below, has been extended until June 29.
Over four years ago, USDA promised stricter oversight of genetically engineered crops; unfortunately, improvements considered early on have vanished and the regulations have instead become weaker. The proposed rule now has even more gaping holes than the regulations it is replacing. And it creates a few new loopholes as well, resulting in more public exposure to untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods. Instead of tightening controls to protect the public and the environment from contamination and harm, what USDA has offered further endangers your right to choose the foods you and your family eat and farmers’ right to their chosen livelihoods.
As currently proposed, the rules allow biotech companies to self-assess the safety of their own experimental GE crops to determine whether USDA should even regulate them. The proposed criteria are open-ended, subjective, and would substantially reduce USDA’s oversight of a wide range of GE crops. Most egregiously, it is not genetic engineering that triggers regulation under the rules; the developer would make that initial decision. This is a clear abdication of regulatory responsibility. The proposed rule would also allow companies to grow some GE crops with no oversight whatsoever.
To make matters worse, USDA published the proposed rules before providing to the public the full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on this matter, as required by law. Clearly, there is something wrong with this picture.
We are calling on the Obama Administration to reject the irresponsible “anything goes” biotech policy, and to put in place rules that will create real change in the regulation and oversight of GE crops. And we are requesting a moratorium on commercial planting of any new GE crops until such comprehensive regulations are in place.
The comment period has been extended to June 29, 2009. Please send your comment to USDA today – the Agency is listening, let’s demand better oversight of GE crops to protect citizens, farmers, wildlife, and the environment!
Take action now at: http://ga3.org/campaign/Aphis3
