How are these crops regulated?

Given that the companies who are promoting this technology have a long track record of creating products harmful to human health and environment and assuring the public of their safety, and the concerns of prestigious scientists the world over, it seems like this should be a highly regulated technology. The industry promises us that it is. But after researching this, we have found that very little regulations are in place to keep this new technology in check.

The US Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency share the job of regulating genetically engineered organisms on the national level. Unfortunately, no comprehensive rules have been developed to regulate these crops, so they are cobbled into existing legislation that was created before these foods and crops were on the market. As a result, there are huge inadequacies in regulation. For example, there is no mandatory, independent pre-market safety testing of genetically engineered foods; there is no food labeling; there is no clear liability for harm; there are very few limits on what and how genetically engineered organisms are released into the environment.

Here in Hawaii, we have found that there is very little oversight of the field trials of GE crops. The EPA has only done two sets of inspections in the whole state since GE crops first arrived on the islands. Their representatives tell us that in fact the EPA has not yet developed a “compliance strategy“ for genetically engineered crops, despite the fact that their agency has been in charge of monitoring these crops for years. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture tells us that they have no set schedule for inspections of field sites and that they are understaffed and under-funded. They also tell us that the federal agencies do not communicate among each other or with local inspectors, which makes it hard to know who is doing what inspections and what they are finding.

Publicly owned state lands are also being leased to these companies with almost no oversight. In deciding if these experiments should be done on our publicly-owned land, the state has no criteria for determining the safety of genetically engineered crops and do no follow up to be sure these crops are being grown safely. The state land board says that the EPA and USDA are keeping an eye on these inspections, while the EPA and USDA admit that they do not have the resources to adequately monitor these fields and that current regulations are not adequate to ensure our safety.

Find out more:
	What is genetic engineering?		How is genetic engineering different from traditional crop breeding?
	What crops are being genetically engineered?		Who is doing genetic engineering? Why are they doing it?
	How are these crops regulated?		What impact will genetic engineering have on Hawaii's farmers?
	How do genetically engineered crops and foods affect our health?		What effect will genetic engineering have on Hawaii's environment?
	Where are these experiments being conducted?		What are pharmcrops?