Over 100 U.S. ag groups plead with USDA to change its biotech regulation proposals

Jun 21, 2017

USDA released its list of proposed changes in January

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

More than 100 organizations representing American farmers signed a letter written to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, asking him to reconsider proposed changes to USDA’s biotechnology regulations.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) began announcing proposed changes in January, one of which applies to GE plants.

“APHIS is proposing a regulatory program in which it first assesses GE organisms to determine if they pose plant pest or noxious weed risks,” APHIS said in a February release. “If APHIS concludes that a GE organism does not pose a plant pest of noxious weed risk, then APHIS would not require a permit for the importation, interstate movement and environmental release (outdoor use) of the GE organism.”

However, if APHIS determines a GE organism does pose certain risks, permits will be needed.

And many ag groups are concerned by those parameters.

“The proposed system shifts regulatory burden from commercialization stages to research and development phases of product innovation,” the June 19 letter says. “Each new GE plant variety will have to undergo complex risk assessment and public comment before a single plant can even be planted in a small-scale field trial.”

Letter signees include the American Farm Bureau Federation, CropLife America, National Association of Wheat Growers and National Corn Growers Association.

I n separate comments, organizations representing grain processors and exporters suggest the changes could disrupt trade agreements.

“For APHIS to (consider these changes) without first engaging in broad international discussion and collaboration with regulatory authorities in important U.S. export markets and securing international acceptance and the buy-in of our trading partners would be a horrific mistake and must be avoided,” says a June 19 letter signed by five organizations, including the National Grain and Feed Association and the North American Export Grain Association.

Both groups want to continue a dialogue with the USDA on the issue, the letters say.

The public consultation period ended June 19.

Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.