Washington, DC
January 20, 2004
Dr. Val
Giddings, vice president of agriculture of the
Biotechnology Industry Organization
(BIO) issued the following statement in response to today’s
National Academies
of Science (NAS) report titled “Biological Confinement of
Genetically Engineered Organisms.”
“Today’s
recommendation from the National Academies of Science that
regulators “decide whether and how to confine a ‘genetically
engineered organism’…” has formed the heart and soul of federal
regulation since the technology’s earliest days. Nearly 30
years ago scientists first came together at Asilomar to harness
this nascent technology to maximize potential benefits without
causing harm to any living thing. The conclusions in this most
recent report, commissioned by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), confirm that technology providers have a
variety of methods available to ensure confinement of organisms
modified through biotechnology when risk warrants it.
“The NAS panel has scanned the wide
variety of biotech-enhanced plant and animal organisms that can
provide societal benefits, including higher-yielding and
disease-resistant crops, medicines unavailable through other
means, or fish that reach maturity faster and with less impact
on the environment and water resources.
“At the request of USDA, this
forward-looking report acknowledges the need for flexibility in
the regulatory framework which has provided a safe and sound
approval process over the 16 years industry and academia has
been developing new products of agricultural biotechnology. It
is absolutely appropriate that as the biotechnology industry
matures, the regulations will be elaborated upon and modified as
we learn more through experience; this is the normal course of
science.
“As policy-makers
study this report to set a future course of regulation, the goal
should be to reinforce the three fundamental principles of
existing regulation: that all regulations are science-based;
that they focus on properties of the transferred gene, not its
origin in recognition that DNA is DNA; and that the level of
regulation is based on the level of risk to public health, not a
precautionary ‘doomsday’ approach.”
Press release on NAS report: Integrated,
redundant approach is best way to biologically confine
genetically engineered organisms
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) represents more
than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state
biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S.
states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the
research and development of health care, agricultural,
industrial and environmental biotechnology products. |
