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News Column

Paul C Hay, Extension Educator

Myths About Biotech Crops

The National Academy of Sciences recently released the report of a taskforce which was assigned to investigate the risks, benefits, and regulation of biotech crops currently in use in the United States. The taskforce was headed by Stanley Abramson an environmental lawyer in Washington D.C. The committee included ten noted scientists and an economist along with Abramson. The conclusion of the report was that no evidence exists to conclude that products on the market today pose any harm. Mr Abramson categorized the misconceptions the group looked at into six areas or myths about biotech.

First Myth: Genetically modified crops are not regulated. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) all have a part in an in-depth regulatory process. The EPA regulates the use of the Bt and other proteins, The USDA reviews the plat itself, and the FDA has jurisdiction over the safety of the entire product. No comparable oversight exists for conventional produced plant materials.

Second Myth: There is no data to support genetically modified crops. Research information is required by all three agencies and lots of it. And its all open to public review. It takes four to seven years to do the required testing and get all the documentation.

Third Myth: The public is excluded from the review and regulatory process. The public has full disclosure to data, decisions, and regulatory changes through notices in the Federal Register. Comments are taken in public hearings, via websites, and by oral or written testimony.

Fourth Myth: The only benefits to biotech are to the developer of the crop. The reduced environmental exposure by thousands of tons of insecticide formerly sprayed from plane and ground rigs for control of cotton boll worm and corn borer is powerful evidence of a benefit of biotech crops.

Fifth Myth: There is harm to the environment from genetically modified crops. The committee found no incidence of documented harm to health, safety, or the environment despite 14 years of intense governmental, academic, commercial, and public scrutiny.

Sixth Myth: That none of the biotech crops are labeled. This is erroneous. If the crop showed any significant differences from the conventional crop for protein, vitamin, energy value, etc., the full information would have to be provided and labeled accordingly.

The fact is that we a blessed in this country with a vigorous governmental regulatory system. This system is based in science. This system has a positive, healthy, and challenging relationship with commercial and academic based scientists. This system provides to the United States citizens what they expect and demand, the cleaned and the best quality food in the world today.

View other Gage County News Columns & News Letters: http://gage.unl.edu/news/news.htm

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Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture.
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