Author: Philip Brasher
Publication: Des Moines Register
Date: Monday, October 20, 2003

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Agriculture Department is setting up a new enforcement unit to ensure that biotech companies are properly managing field trials of genetically engineered crops.

The unit will enforce rules that were tightened earlier this year after a company engineering corn for use in pharmaceuticals, ProdiGene Inc., mismanaged field trials in Iowa and Nebraska.

The unit has a staff of 33 that eventually will grow to 50, not including federal inspectors who already are stationed in states. The director has not been named.

Bobby Acord, administrator of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Friday said compliance "has been very high" but that "it is imperative that the safeguards in place to protect America's agriculture continue to evolve."

The USDA is responsible for regulating tests of genetically engineered crops. Since the ProdiGene incident, there has been particular concern about crops designed for use in drugs or industrial products.

Under new cultivation rules, fields of pharmaceutical and industrial crops will be inspected seven times over a two-year period to ensure there is no contamination of conventional crops.

"It's heartening to see USDA continuing to take steps to ensure the safety of the food supply," said Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America.

But food makers want the government to establish broader regulations to ensure pharmaceutical and industrial crops do not get inadvertently mixed with grain intended for food use, she said.

In addition to announcing the new unit, the USDA released enforcement records indicating the department cited 115 infractions between 1990 and 2001 on 7,402 field tests of various biotech crops.

Eight of the violations resulted in fines, ranging from $500 in two incidents to $250,000 in the ProdiGene case, the only one involving pharmaceutical or industrial crops.

Four of the cases, with fines totaling $43,300, were brought against biotech leader Monsanto Co. The largest of those fines, $25,000, was levied in 2001 for Monsanto's failure to properly isolate a field of biotech cotton. The universities of Tennessee and Georgia also were fined in connection with that case, as was the seed company Delta and Pine Land.

The USDA said it had cleared Des Moines-based Pioneer Hi-Bred International in connection with a field trial in Hawaii of genetically engineered corn. The USDA investigated the company after the Environmental Protection Agency fined Pioneer $72,000 in connection with its management of a second test plot.