National Farmers Union Position on GMOs

U.S.-EU biotech committee established

NFU Press Release 16jun00

GMOs have created a series of ethical, environmental, food safety, legal, market, and structural issues that impact everyone in the food chain. Consumer and producer concerns need to be addressed. NFU acknowledges concerns that biotechnology is being used as a trade barrier; we respect all nations’ sovereignty and urge open dialogue in trade negotiations relating to biotechnology. We support:

1. a moratorium on the patenting and licensing of new transgenic animals and plants developed through genetic engineering until legal, ethical, and economic questions are explored;

2. legislation to exempt farmers from paying royalties on patented farm animals and technical fees on seeds which have been genetically modified;

3. ending further use of tax dollars in developing terminator technology, e.g., a gene to insure that seed will not reproduce;

4. prohibiting the development and selling of seed that is sterile;

5. the right of farmers to plant seed derived from proprietary organisms on the their own land;

6. holding patent holders or owners of GMO technology strictly liable for safety, health and environmental affects; farmers should not to be held liable for food safety, human health or environmental problems, including cross pollination, related to the use of GMOs as long as generally accepted crop production practices are followed.

7. making all data used in the analysis of the health and environmental effects of GMOs public record, and implementing criminal penalties for withholding data;

8. development of a paper verification system and a storage and marketing plan to aid farmers with non-GMO grains; and

9. appropriate labeling of products that contain GMOs in a manner that informs consumers.

INFORMATION ON BIOTECH COMMITTEE: The US members of the US-EU Biotechnology Consultative Forum are:

Norman Borlaug, professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M University and winner of the Nobel Prize, 1970, for work on the "Green Revolution"

Gordon Conway, president of the Rockefeller Foundation Rebecca J. Goldburg, senior scientist at Environmental Defense

Cutberto Garza, vice provost at Cornell University and chairman of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies Institute of Medicine

Jennie Hunter-Cevera, president of the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute

Terry Medley, director of regulatory and external affairs for E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.

Christopher Roland Somerville, director of The Carnegie Institute's Department of Plant Biology at Standford University

Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Food Institute of the Consumer Federation of America

Ryland Frederick Utlaut, past president of the National Corn Growers Association

LeRoy B. Walters, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University

The EU members of the Consultative Forum are:

Derek Burke, former professor of microbiology at Warwick University and retired chairman of the British Advisory Committee on Novel Foods

Susan Davies, principal policy adviser of the Consumers' Association

Noelle Lenoir, chairman of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technology of the EU

Dan Leskien, adviser to Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit on intellectual property rights and plant genetic resources in developing countries, and permanent biotechnology adviser to Friends of the Earth

Mans Lonnroth, managing director of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, and former state secretary at the Swedish Ministry of the Environment

Ruud Lubbers, professor for globilization and sustainable development at the Catholic University Brabant (Tilburg University), and former prime minister of the Netherlands

Pedro Puigdomenech Rosell, research professor at the department of molecular genetics at the Instituto de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona

Leonardo Santi, president of the Advanced Biotechnology Center in Fenoa, Italy, and chairman of the National Committee for Biosafety and Biotechnology, Presidency of Cabinet of Ministers, Rome

Luis Vasconcelos e Souza, president of the Portuguese Association of Maize Producers and vice president of the European Association of Maize Producers

Eduard Veltkamp, senior vice president for business research foods at Unilever Research Laboratory, Vlaardingen, the Netherlands

MOST RECENT ACTION: A US-European Union Biotechnology Consultative Forum has been established to advise the respective governments on issues related to biotechnology, primarily those related to trade.

BACKGROUND: Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has introduced legislation to require labeling for food products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., has introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Some are considering legislation to address GMO liability issues.

PENDING LEGISLATION: H.R. 3377 has been referred to both the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Commerce.

source: http://www.nfu.org/index.cfm?category=legislative&title=issues&id=48