Contents
1. UCS victory: Funds for pesticide use survey restored!
2. Germany bans engineered corn, despite Monsanto objections
3. New FDA head Hamburg will tackle food safety
4. International agriculture aid shouldn't mandate GE research
5. What You Can Do: Tell the USDA to strengthen regulation of pharma crops
1. UCS victory: Funds for pesticide use survey restored!
UCS led other groups in a successful effort urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to resurrect a program for tracking pesticide use on U.S. food crops, which had been halted by the Bush administration. The pesticide use surveys, conducted by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), provide the only free, publicly available data on the agricultural chemicals applied to crops. Government agencies, environmental groups, academic scientists, and others use the data to evaluate the human health and environmental risks posed by pesticides and compare the amount of pesticides applied to genetically engineered (GE) versus conventional crops, among other purposes. As the first step in restoring the program, NASS will gather data on pesticide applications to fruit and nut crops this fall. If Congress approves the full funding specified in the president's 2010 budget, the agency will resume data collection for vegetables, major row crops, and pesticides applied to crops after harvest. Read our correspondence urging the reinstatement of the program. We thank the UCS activists who wrote letters to help convince the USDA to preserve this valuable program.
2. Germany bans engineered corn, despite Monsanto objections
Germany has banned the cultivation of a GE corn variety already banned by Austria, Hungary, France, Greece, and Luxembourg. The country's agriculture minister said that the corn, which is engineered to resist an insect pest, posed a risk to the environment. Although biotechnology giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of the corn variety, submitted an emergency court request to block the ban, it was rejected by the court in a preliminary ruling. The ban may affect trade with the United States to some extent but is mostly symbolic because Germany grows very little corn. Read more from The New York Times and Bloomberg.
| "Europeans are yet to be convinced that genetically engineered crops are worth the risk." ~ Doug Gurian-Sherman, Senior Scientist, Food & Environment |
3. New FDA head Hamburg will tackle food safety
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the new head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will have food safety at the top of her agenda. The growing crisis of contaminated food is worsened by the fact that foodborne pathogens are increasingly resistant to the drugs that doctors use to treat them. Commissioner Hamburg is well positioned to add antibiotic resistance to the food safety agenda. She coauthored a 2003 report for the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Emerging Infections that urged federally funded development of new antimicrobials and an FDA ban on the inappropriate use of clinically valuable drugs for growth promotion in animals. Read more about Dr. Hamburg and more about UCS's work on antibiotic resistance.
| "With Dr. Hamburg at the helm, the FDA may finally have the leadership it needs to take action on antibiotic resistance." ~ Margaret Mellon, Director, Food & Environment |
4. International agriculture aid shouldn't mandate GE research
Congress is considering legislation—the Global Food Security Act—that would authorize $7.75 billion in agricultural and rural development assistance programs for developing countries over five years. UCS strongly supports the overall bill but is calling on Congress to strip a provision that appears to mandate research employing GE as a condition of aid to developing countries. Our recent report, Failure to Yield, suggests that a preference for GE in research aimed at rapidly improving crop productivity is not justified. The report found that GE technology has not significantly increased U.S. food crop yields, despite nearly two decades of research, and recommended more emphasis on traditional breeding and ecological farming methods to increase global food production and improve nutrition, environmental quality, and the lives of farmers in developing countries. Read more about the Global Food Security Act (S. 384).
| "While the overall thrust of the bill is admirable, the bill should be technology-neutral and allow developing countries to choose the kinds of research that they believe will best meet their needs." ~ Karen Perry Stillerman, Senior Analyst, Food & Environment |
5. What You Can Do: Tell the USDA to strengthen regulation of pharma crops
The USDA is proposing to adopt new regulations that could significantly weaken restrictions on GE food crops that produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals (pharma crops). UCS is campaigning to ban the outdoor cultivation of these crops because of the likelihood that they will contaminate the food supply. Write to the agency today and demand that regulations for these dangerous crops be strengthened, not weakened. This is the last chance to submit letters before the comment period ends on June 29! New to the issue of pharma crops? View our narrated slideshow to learn the basics.
