White House Calls for Review of GMO Rules

White House officials said last week that the administration will review and update its regulatory process governing genetically modified crops and other biotechnology products, describing the current system as outdated, confusing and unable to “foster public confidence.”

In a blog post from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House science adviser John P. Holden and his colleagues wrote: “While the current regulatory system for biotechnology products effectively protects the health and the environment, advances in science and technology since 1992 have been altering the product landscape.”

The post went on to say that the complexity of the current system “can make it difficult for the public to understand how the safety of biotechnology products is evaluated,” and “navigating the regulatory process can be unduly challenging, especially for small companies.”

The process begins by sorting out the bureaucracy. The administration will clarify the roles and responsibilities among the EPA, USDA, and Food and Drug Administration, and define which biotechnology categories fall under the authority of each agency.

Then the administration will seek public input and develop a strategy to ensure that the regulatory system is well-equipped to assess risks associated with products likely in the future biotechnology. This will include performing periodic horizon-scanning of new biotech products, coordinating support for the science that informs regulatory activities, developing tools to assist small businesses as they navigate the regulatory system, and creating user-friendly digital tools for presenting the agencies’ authorities, practices, and basis for decision-making.

Finally, the administration will commission an outside, independent analysis of the future landscape of the products of biotechnology.

The review relates to regulations for genetically engineered products for the environment, such as crops, animals and microbes, the New York Times reported. It would not affect the regulation of pharmaceuticals.

More than 90 percent of the corn, soybeans and cotton grown in the United States have foreign genes inserted into their DNA to make them resistant to herbicides or insects or both, the Times wrote. S