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Overview
GM crops were first developed and grown in the USA, and the American government, anxious to support an industry which claimed GM technology could revolutionise global agriculture and generate vast revenues, did not require biotech companies to carry out environmental tests.
Field trials were conducted by the biotechnology companies, but their purpose was to assess whether GM crops could grow in certain locations under certain conditions, not to test for possible medium and long term contamination of the environment. The lack of regulation in the USA allowed US corporations to market GM crops quickly, producing a backlash in Europe. EU countries imposed a moratorium on GM imports on the grounds that safety issues had not been addressed or resolved. In the wake of BSE and Foot and Mouth disease, European consumers made it clear they expected the ‘security of food safety’ to be put before ‘security of trade and profit’.
In the USA the situation has been almost the reverse. The American people entrust the safety of the environment and food supply to their government, but in the case of GM crops the government transferred this responsibility to the biotech companies - stipulating only that biotech companies be held liable for financial compensation for damages caused by GM contamination. In America this has amounted to a massive and uncontrolled experiment - using the environment and human population as a laboratory.
GM-Crops in the USA Lack Regulation
Three American government bodies oversee the regulation of GM crops. They are the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). USDA oversees the environmental phases of crop production, the EPA regulates compounds that act as pesticides in crops, and the FDA regulates drug production and purity, clinical testing and commercialisation. The US regulatory system has approved only seven GM crops for commercial growing, but more than 100 other GM crop species, not approved for human consumption, have been grown in experimental GM ‘field trials’ posing unknown danger to the environment and human food supply.
Since 1987, GM field trials in the USA have been authorised at more than 40,000 sites, spanning over 200,000 hectares. These experimental field trials undergo no mandatory human health or environmental testing before outdoor planting, and are virtually unregulated. A biotech company wishing to grow a GM crop trial need only submit a 2 page ‘notification letter’ to the USDA with basic information about the crop, the genetic modification process, and the size and location of the field test. It is not mandatory – only voluntary - for Biotech companies to consult with the FDA on the potential human health impacts of GM field trials. As of 2002 only 10% of ‘notification’ field trial sites had been inspected even once by government regulators, and in no instances has the USDA tested fields neighbouring the GM test sites for escaped GM material. Biotech companies can withhold information about the genes present in their trial crops by calling them ‘Confidential Business Information’. In the years 1987-2002 the number of field trial authorisations containing ‘Confidential Business Information’ has risen from 0% to 69%.
The lack of regulation and the ability of biotech companies to withhold genetic information about their GM crop trials makes it very difficult to hold biotech companies accountable for GM contamination which results from their field trails. In spite of this, several contamination crises have occurred (see GM Contamination Crises in the USA) which cost the biotech companies and food retailers vast amounts of money on legal settlements and food recalls. Since then the biotech industry has lobbied the US government to limit their exposure to lawsuits from GM contamination from GM field trials. On August the 2nd 2002 a White House directive issued by its Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) told the USDA, the FDA and the EPA to create ways that contamination from ‘field tests could be found acceptable’. On November 19th 2004 the FDA proposed a “Guidance for Industry”, which, in effect, protects biotech companies from the consequences of GM contamination from experimental GM field trials.
(See www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2004/ANS01327.html.)
In short, this proposed ‘Guidance’ says: A GM crop developer voluntarily provides the FDA with answers to two pages of questions which might include the results of two superficial tests on their crop that takes as little as 20 hours to complete. If crop contamination is later discovered, companies can claim that they have complied with FDA requirements and the agency can declare that their prior ‘evaluation’ shows that the contamination will not cause harm. The biotech industry believes these ‘Guidelines’ will effectively free them from legal prosecution if their GM field trails contaminate the environment or the food chain - and they are urging the Bush administration to promote these guidelines to the rest of the world!
If the American government adopts this as a policy it could be argued that it is putting the interests of the biotech industry before those of its citizens right to eat safe food. Given the momentum of the GM-free movement, this ‘guidance’ may prompt some of the US states to defy the proposed FDA law and spur various campaign groups to mobilize citizens to take direct action. Such a radical move by the US might also have international repercussions, potentially increasing European concerns about American GM foods being imported into their countries, and widening the differences between the two trading blocks on GM issues to the point where the validity of international trade laws is thrown into question.
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