Title: The Illusion of Care: Regulation, Uncertainty, and Genetically Modified Food Crops
Abstract: Examining the degree to which environmental concerns have or have not been incorporated into the registration requirements of Bt crops, it becomes clear that the regulatory process suffers from many ills. In approving these genetically engineered crops for market, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repeatedly disregarded significant but unresolved scientific questions about these GM crops. Seed companies agreed to environmentally protective measures in their crop registrations, but assumed no responsibility for implementing those measures. Instead, the implementation burden fell exclusively on growers who, as third parties to the genetically modified organisms' registrations, were not directly subject to regulatory jurisdiction. No regulatory framework existed (or, for that matter, exists) to monitor and enforce these registration restrictions. I suggest that these defects grow directly from ill-advised fragmentation of the regulatory role and a squeamish unwillingness to engage in necessary, but politically charged, direct regulation that might slow the development of a high-tech industry. These serious regulatory deficiencies call into question the soundness of the entire biotechnology regulatory process, a question ultimately much broader than any particular GMO.
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 14
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot