(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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