EPA Announces New Biotech Corn Rules

January 17, 2000

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced additional rules on farmers wanting to plant genetically altered corn this year. The agency's concern is protecting non-targeted insects, such as the monarch butterfly, and producers will have to expand field monitoring as an early warning system.

Among the provisions, which are the responsibility of seed companies:

--Farmers must plant a minimum "structured refuge" of at least 20% non-Bt corn;

--For Bt corn in grown in areas where cotton is produced, farmers must plant at least 50% non-Bt corn;

--Companies, or registrants, must expand monitoring in the field as an early warning system to detect any potential resistance and "communicate voluntary measures that will protect non-target insects, particularly the monarch butterfly";

--Sales and planting restrictions in some areas will be imposed for some products.

EPA says the seed industry has agreed to the conditions.

Monsanto, one of the biotech seed manufacturers, has said "our plant biotechnology products are compositionally and nutritionally equivalent to existing varieties...and safe for humans, animals and the environment. The Bt family of proteins, which confer insect protection, were subjected to extensive short and long term toxicology testing prior to their approval for use in microbial Bt products."

However, the company added, "Biotechnology is still an evolving science, and we expect tht the testing methodology will continue to develop rapidly and provide increased assurance of the safety of these new food and feed products."

Also in a statement released prior to the latest EPA decision, The Environmental Defense Fund focused on a November conference at which some scientists questioned whether industry research on environmental protection was adequate.

"Most of the reports were preliminary, sample sizes were sometimes small, and some research methodologies were questionable," said EDF scientist Rebecca Goldburg. The EDF statement said industry-funded field studies "suggested that not all strains of Bt corn may be equally toxic and that corn pollen was likely to be dangerous only to those monarch larvae feeding on milkweed close to the corn fields. But experts agree that many issues remain unresolved."