21 January 2000

U.S. Calls for Biotech Regulatory System in Europe

The Hague - U.S. officials say there is no great public anxiety over biotech foods in the United States due to an extensive system that ensures the new foods are safe and called for the creation of a similar system to regulate biotech foods in Europe.

Ambassador David Aaron, under secretary of commerce for international trade, told research and policy experts gathered at a biotechnology conference in The Hague January 21 that 13 years of experience with biotech products in the United States has resulted in no food safety risks beyond those of their "natural" counterparts. "Not a single ailment has been attributed to biotech foods," Aaron said. "Not one! Not a sneeze, not a rash, not a headache."

The remarks of Aaron and other officials were made at a two-day international conference entitled "Biotechnology: The Science and the Impact," organized by the U.S. Embassy in cooperation with the Dutch Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Economic Affairs.

Aaron said that the key to the U.S. regulatory system for biotech food is that it is transparent, science-based, politically independent and responsive to new scientific evidence. He said U.S. law requires companies to ensure that bioengineered foods pass a rigorous approval process through three different federal agencies. If they don't, they don't go to market, he added.

"The fact is that in the United States, bioengineered foods go through more extensive and intensive food safety and environmental evaluation than any other food in human history," Aaron continued. "As a result, our public has a high degree of confidence in the system and subsequently in their food - be it bioengineered or not. There is no great public anxiety despite the furor in the EU (European Union) and the best efforts of some advocacy groups in the U.S."

Also, Aaron said, the U.S. agencies that regulate biotech foods consistently revise their regulations in response to evidence from the field and scientific research. "For example, because of the success and the unexpectedly rapid increase in planting biotech pest resistant crops, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has just increased its refuge requirements for most Bt corn varieties."

Aaron was referring to new EPA restrictions on the cultivation of Bt corn, which has been endowed with a gene that allows the corn to make its own insecticide. Among the new restrictions, which were released on January 14, is a requirement that farmers plant 20 to 50 percent of their acreage in conventional corn. Some experts have warned that large-scale plantings of Bt corn may be causing the evolution of so-called "superbugs" - insects resistant to standard insecticides.

Aaron went on to say that the European Union's product approval system for agri-biotech foods "has effectively broken down. For over two years, no products have been approved. That amounts to an eternity when we consider how rapidly biotech products are developing."

Aaron said that a big part of the problem is that there is no truly EU-wide approval system for biotech foods, but instead approvals are carried out by the member states. "The information required for product approval is not uniform throughout Europe," he said. "And this makes it difficult for all the member states to accept with full confidence that all the necessary testing has been performed."

"The lack of public trust in Europe on biotech foods...are not so much related to biotech foods per se, but a lack of trust in the EU system to regulate any foods," Aaron said. "This has been exacerbated by a number of scares from mad cow (disease) to dioxins in chicken and even AIDS-tainted blood."

Aaron said that a October 1999 survey by the EU's Environmental Directorate found that chemicals and pesticides in food and drinking water were one of the top concerns of European citizens. "European farmers apply pesticides at two times the rate of U.S. farmers and biotechnology could significantly reduce the application of harmful pesticides, yet public and official confusion have curbed the availability of such products in Europe."

Isi Siddiqui, special trade adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, said that European Commission President Prodi recently signaled his commitment to establishing an independent European regulatory authority modeled on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - which Siddiqui called an encouraging sign. The European Commission has also issued a white paper that calls for establishment of an independent, transparent, science-based food safety regime.

"But any such resolution will be a long time coming," Siddiqui said. "And in the meantime, we're still in the middle of a divisive conflict on biotechnology, one that's creating serious transatlantic tension and a polarization that is counterproductive at best and destructive at worst."

Aaron said that a U.S.-EU high level group on biotech recently met for the first time to address market access concerns. "We also are forming a private sector eminent persons group on biotechnology to advise the U.S. and EU on biotech matters - including ethical and moral issues," he said. "Both groups will be reporting to the next U.S.-EU Summit in June."

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