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Biggest environmental regulatory failure in the US since the early 1990s

Dr Doug Durian-Sherman has written a blog (excerpt below, item 1) on the wave of new GM crops that are evading environmental regulation due to some huge loopholes at USDA. This means that many new GM plants will not receive any meaningful environmental regulation or even public disclosure. The latest example of this is engineered loblolly pine, which is not yet commercialized, as far as we know.

Other such crops include the Simplot GM potato, made with RNAi (RNA interference or gene-silencing) technology. The risks of this technology are poorly researched and understood, but they could be very serious, as a panel of independent scientists consulted by the US EPA warned.

The US authorities’ failure to regulate these new GMOs has received some coverage in the press, but some of it has been misleading. For example, a New York Times story (Andrew Pollack, By ‘editing’ plant genes, companies avoid regulation) cited an anonymous USDA source suggesting that the agency was using what regulatory authority was available to it. However, as the blog explains, the USDA has clear legal authority to regulate these crops, but is choosing not to use it.

This development probably represents the biggest environmental regulatory failure in the US since the early 1990s. It could herald massive international market rejection of US food and feed exports.

Meanwhile the Center for Food Safety has already uncovered a GM pine tree of a native type that may be growing without regulation in the US (see item 2 below).

1. The next phase of genetic engineering: A flood of new crops evading environmental regulation
2. New genetically engineered tree to avoid federal oversight completely
3. Austrian Environment Agency report on new plant breeding techniques

1. The next phase of genetic engineering: A flood of new crops evading environmental regulation

Doug Gurian-Sherman
Civil Eats, 27 Jan 2015
http://civileats.com/2015/01/27/the-next-phase-of-genetic-engineering-a-flood-of-new-crops-evading-environmental-regulation/
[excerpt only]

You may have heard of the new genetically engineered Simplot potato. It was made with a new GE technology called RNAi (RNA interference), a technology for which many important gaps remain in our understanding.

In fact, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently asked a panel of independent scientists for advice about this technology, which alters the function of genes in the plant, the scientists wrote a detailed report [PDF] that warned the agency of risks that could sometimes result in harm.* And, they noted that current regulations were not well designed to address these risks.

But those concerns didn’t keep the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—the agency with the greatest responsibility to prevent environmental impacts of GE plants—from approving the Simplot potato. Nor have they deterred the USDA from charging ahead with allowing the companies making potatoes that have some of the same properties as Simplot’s, made through a process of “genome editing,” to avoid environmental regulation altogether simply because they do not contain plant pest genes or otherwise fit USDA’s narrow definition of a “plant pest.”…
[Read on here]

2. New genetically engineered tree to avoid federal oversight completely

Centre for Food Safety, January 26, 2015
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/3713/new-genetically-engineered-tree-to-avoid-federal-oversight-completely#

A genetically engineered (GE) tree may already be planted in field tests, and eventually be commercialized, in the U.S. without having gone through any regulatory oversight or environmental risk assessment. On January 13th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) quietly posted its August reply to a letter from ArborGen, a biotechnology company that is developing GE forest trees for plantations, confirming that USDA will require no regulation of ArborGen’s GE loblolly pine.

This failure to regulate a GE tree is unprecedented.  Other known GE forest trees in the U.S. are being grown in USDA-regulated field trials, and none has been approved for commercial planting. USDA regulation is important because it ensures that risk assessments are carried out to determine whether or not the GE tree will harm the environment before a decision on its commercialization.

Loblolly pine is an important native tree, common throughout the diverse forests of the Southeast. These pine forests are a key habitat for more than 20 songbirds and many other animals, including the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Loblolly pine is also the leading commercial timber species in the Southeast, where forests and plantations supply both lumber and pulp for paper and energy.

The ArborGen GE loblolly pine contains novel genes that are currently undisclosed.  Seeds and pollen of GE loblolly pine travel over a distance of many miles, and will disperse the novel genes well beyond any ArborGen GE field test site or plantation into natural forests where GE trees could potentially survive and spread.

“Forests are complex ecosystems, and GE trees could be very disruptive,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety. “Instead of protecting our precious natural forests, USDA is allowing ArborGen to make a complete end-run around the regulatory system with this GE pine.”

ArborGen’s GE loblolly pine is engineered to have more dense wood, though little else can be determined from the company’s letter to USDA. According to Dr. Martha Crouch, a biologist working with Center for Food Safety, wood density can impact how quickly decomposition occurs, changing nutrient cycles. Wood density also influences insects and fungi that are important for birds and other forest creatures. And genetic engineering can cause unintended changes, such as altering the nutrients in seeds upon which so many animals depend.

“Even seemingly small changes in characteristics of a key forest tree can have cascading impacts.

These impacts need to be studied and weighed, with ample public input, before allowing a private company to profit from a GE tree that could harm our forests,” said Dr. Crouch.

USDA’s failure to regulate ArborGen’s GE pine is based on an overly narrow interpretation of its authority under federal law.  USDA normally requires regulation of GE plants only if “plant pests” – certain bacteria and viruses – were used in the development process.  Yet the Department has ample authority to expand its scope of regulation, and should do so because most risks posed by GE plants have nothing to do with whether or not plant pests were used to develop them.

“Genetic engineers no longer always need to use techniques based on viruses and bacteria that infect plants, so they can potentially bypass regulation altogether.  Unfortunately, the hazards cannot be so easily bypassed. USDA's refusal to regulate puts the environment at risk,” said Dr. Crouch.

“We are outraged at USDA’s complete abandonment of regulatory authority,” said Kimbrell. “This GE tree has the potential to contaminate natural forests and impact whole ecosystems. We are exploring legal options to stop the dissemination of ArborGen’s unregulated GE loblolly pine, and to see that it and future GE trees are subject to the serious regulation and transparent risk assessment the public deserves.”

3. Austrian Environment Agency report on new plant breeding techniques

GMWatch comment, 27 Jan 2015

The Austrian Environment Agency has produced a useful report on new plant breeding techniques that GMO companies and their allied lobbyists would like to see evade GMO regulations, and the risks associated with their use. Techniques covered include cell fusion, oligo-directed mutagenesis, so-called “genome editing” methods like zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR-Cas, cisgenesis, and grafting of non-GM plant scions onto GM rootstocks.

The report, New plant breeding techniques and risks associated with their application, is fairly technical, as the subject matter demands, but the risks are clearly explained and understandable by the non-specialist.