EPA is proposing changes to the biotech crop approval process

The Environmental Protection Agency reportedly is proposing changes to the biotech crop approval process that are controversial as outlined in an article in Forbes magazine.

EPA has had the plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs) or “pesticidal substances produced and used by living plants.” The EPA's 2011 proposal would exempt cisgenic PIPs from the pesticide registration requirements if they resulted from the movement of DNA "between plants that could transfer the genetic material naturally."

The EPA proposed exemption of cisgenic PIPs would recognize that the insertion of DNA through bioengineering techniques does not necessarily create risks that require multiple repeated processes. The submission required for regulatory review normally includes huge amounts of data on the parental plant, the genetic construction, the behavior of the test plant and much more.

"The agency then conducts repeated, redundant case-by-case reviews before the initial trial; when trials are scaled up or tested on additional sites; and again if even minor changes have been made in the genetic construct. It then repeats those reviews at commercial scale,” the Forbes article explains.

"This approach, which has been repeatedly condemned by the scientific community, has discouraged the development of new pest-resistant crops, encouraged greater use of synthetic chemical pesticides, and limited the use of the newest genetic engineering technology mainly to larger developers who can pay the inflated regulatory costs. It has also handicapped public institutions in the U.S. in the development of plants that can handle the challenges facing present-day agriculture and forests,” the Forbes article further explains.