ScienceNOW / 21 March 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a new sign that the battle over biotech food is
heating up in the United States, a coalition of 54 consumer, farming, and
environmental organizations today petitioned the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to require mandatory safety testing and labeling for
bioengineered crops--neither of which is required at the moment. In the
meantime, the groups want FDA to remove all transgenic products from
supermarkets.
By law, the agency has 180 days to respond; if FDA doesn't come around, the
coalition promises to go to court. "This is not howling in the wind," says
Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, the lead
petitioner.
Meanwhile, to counter the "nonsense" and "unfounded attacks" coming from
opponents, almost 1900 scientists have signed a probiotech petition posted
on the Web by Channapatna Prakashthat, director of the Center for Plant
Biotechnology Research at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Among the signers
are two Nobel laureates, geneticist James Watson and green revolution
pioneer Norman Borlaug.
Prakashthat says the petition, which urges policy-makers to use "sound
scientific principles" in biotech regulation, will eventually be sent to
world leaders.
--MARTIN ENSERINK
(posted without permission)
