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Answers

Question

Why do you oppose labeling GMO foods, and why do you conduct much policy work behind closed doors? If your products are so safe and fully tested, why all the secrecy? Why not just be open and honest with US citizens?

Submitted by: Candide


Answer

Expert response from Cathleen Enright

Former Executive Director of the Council for Biotechnology Information

Thursday, 08/08/2013 14:16

Thanks for your question. I addressed your exact question about labeling earlier so will focus on your questions about policy work and safety testing. 

 

As with any industry, we are interested in creating a favorable environment in which to operate.  We want to attract investors; develop innovative products, independently or in collaboration with other private- or public-sector scientists; make our customers (global farmers) happy; and obviously, develop products that return value to our customers, our society and our shareholders.

 

Some of the policies we work on are related to ensuring that: 1) The U.S. regulatory system for GMOs is predictable; 2) that we can provide our farmers with the seeds and tools they are seeking as quickly as possible; 3) there is funding available for public-sector research; 4) our intellectual property is protected so that we can recoup the significant investment we make in developing new seeds; and 5) consumers, and those in the food processing, manufacturing and exporting industries, have confidence in our products when purchasing the crops and food grown from them.

 

I am not sure what you mean by "conducting policy work in private."  We certainly have business-to-business meetings to discuss these issues.  We work with university scientists, scientific organizations, farmer customers, farmer organizations, food companies and NGOs; we also meet with members of Congress and the Administration, state legislators and regulatory officials.  We are open to collaboration and engage with a wide range of stakeholders. 

 

With regard to safety testing, please see my response to a similar question, visit our Public Review tab and stay tuned, as we will be providing more safety information soon.

 

We truly believe we have nothing to hide about GMOs—what they are, how they are made, what the safety information says and why we have the opinions we do, on labeling, for example. But until now, there was not a place for people to go to find out about this information. This is why we created GMO Answers.