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Farmers want standards for raising biotech crops (Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 -- CropChoice news) --
ANNE FITZGERALD,Des Moines Register,
11/22/2002:
Ames, Ia. - Farmers should not be barred from raising
biopharmaceutical
crops in the Midwest, farmers and other agricultural
experts told federal
regulators Thursday.
This fall's contamination of conventional crops by so-
called pharmacorn was
not caused by the specialty corn's location in Nebraska
and Iowa, but by
growers' failure to follow protocols for producing it,
they said. Iowa,
which is campaigning to capture a piece of the burgeoning
business, should
not be shut out of the market because of that.
Keith Webber, a Food and Drug Administration official who
helped draft
proposed guidelines for producing and processing the new
class of crops,
said ultimate responsibility rests with the companies
contracting for their
production - ProdiGene Inc., a Texas biotech company, in
the case of the
recently revealed contamination.
"It is the permit holder who is responsible," Webber
said.
Federal regulators have allowed few details about their
investigation into
the dual cases of contamination. But in both instances,
volunteer
pharmacorn is the suspected culprit.
"I, as a farmer, am getting a black eye because of the
actions" of other
farmers, said Jim Andrew of Jefferson, who addressed
panelists at the
public forum held at Iowa State University.
He urged regulators from the FDA and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to
be more open with information about instances such as
those revealed
earlier this month to stem consumer concerns about food
safety.
Andrew also called for standards for farmers growing
specialty crops such
as pharmacorn, which is designed to yield pharmaceutical
ingredients.
Such standards would help prevent cross-contamination of
food crops by
specialty crops designed for nonfood uses.
"There should be some very clear standards that you
should have to meet to
even put that seed in the ground," Andrew said. | |
