GT Gets Served!

Oh, it is on.

Apparently, Russ Klein (who is hence forth to be nick-named "Squeaky"-- referring both to that proverbial wheel and to the edgy cleanliness of his new mustachios) took one look at GeneThug's rabidly ranted response to Russ' post favoring U.S. PIRG's anti-corporate position (who'd a thunk?) on genetically modified foods, threw his hands into the air, and ran squealing (oh, there's a nice one-- "The Squealer," referring both to his conscientious watchdogedness and to the sound he reportedly makes in bed after a good how's-yer-father) straight to none other than U.S. PIRG's very own Clean Water and Food Safety Advocate, Richard Caplan. Caplan's bio can be viewed here.

Never one to turn down a fight, even when up against sniggering little men wearing latex gloves, Richard responds with his own bit o' thuggery as follows:

The post by GeneThug presents a fundamental misunderstanding of law and policy, which is not unusual for a scientist. Because something is merely titled the Coordinated Framework does not make it a functioning, adequate framework in reality. Nor does googling it and proving its existence, alas, help to make it work in practice. On the FDA's own web site, for example, the agency admits it "does not conduct a comprehensive scientific review of data generated by the developer [of a genetically engineered food]." Is that supposed to make us feel good? If the agency charged with food safety oversight is not doing food safety oversight, how coordinated of a framework is that?

A recent report titled "Holes in the Biotech Safey Net" by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group that actually supports genetically engineered crops, found that, according to coverage of the report in the Wall Street Journal, another outspoken proponent of genetically engineered crops, that "makers of genetically modified crops have avoided answering questions and submitted erroneous data" on the safety of their products to the FDA. Does that sound like a coordinated framework?

Biotech companies, despite the groundless assertion in this post, are self-regulated. They have been self-regulated, and they remain self-regulated.

Perhaps the article "Biotech Food: From the Lab to a Debacle," would be of use to GeneThug, as it quotes the former head of FDA oversight on genetically engineered crops for 15 years as saying, "The U.S. government agencies have done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do and told them to do," and the authors of the article describe the current situation as an "unusually generous policy of self-policing." Interesting that GeneThug also fails to note that the National Academy of Sciences has called federal oversight of genetically engineered crops "unscientific" and "inadequate." Interesting that GeneThug calls the PIRG post factually inaccurate while factually inaccurately stating that genetically engineered crops are regulated by FDA, when in fact the agency operates under a Statement of Policy from1992, before any genetically engineered crops were even on the market, and in fact has no regulations in place.

None.

Do your homework, GeneThug, and then rant away. Until then...

--Richard Caplan