October 4, 2000 / The Associated Press / Philip Brasher
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. federal judge has, according to this story, dismissed a lawsuit by critics of agricultural biotechnology who want the government to require labels on foods made with genetically engineered crops.
The story says that the lawsuit challenged the Food and Drug Administration's 8-year-old policy that considers gene-altered crops to be essentially the same as those produced by conventional breeding methods and thus not subject to the same regulatory controls as food additives.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, in a ruling Sept. 29, was cited as saying the biotech critics failed to prove that FDA violated procedural and environmental laws in establishing the policy or that the agency should mandate labeling of the foods, writing in her ruling that unless the agency decides biotech ingredients are materially different from conventional products, it "lacks a basis upon which it can legally mandate labeling, regardless of consumer demand."
The story explains that the FDA policy was established in 1992 in the last year of the Bush administration and has been defended vigorously by the Clinton administration. FDA officials announced this spring that they would propose mandatory safety reviews of new gene-altered products but they insist they still believe the foods are safe. Such reviews are now on a voluntary basis.
The lawsuit was filed in 1998 by several anti-biotech organizations, including The Center for Food Safety, and a group of scientists and religious leaders.
Andrew Kimbrell, an attorney who handled the lawsuit, was cited as saying the groups don't plan to appeal the decision and will instead wait to see what rules FDA proposes for the mandatory reviews, adding, "Genetically engineered foods have gone virtually unregulated in the United States."
Kimbrell was further cited as saying anti-biotech groups also are likely to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency as it decides in coming months whether to renew registrations for several varieties of corn that have been genetically modified to resist insect pests.
Michael Phillips, who directs agricultural issues for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, was quoted as saying the decision "reinforces the integrity of the system, which is based on sound science, at a time when this system is under discussion."
On the Net: http://www.fda.gov
Center for Food Safety: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
Biotechnology Industry Organization: http://www.bio.org
