The following is an editorial summary.
Earlier this year, Barack Obama signed into law a provision which protects farmers who have planted GM crops from a retroactive ruling that their crops are “illegally approved.” This was the “Monsanto Protection Act.” Nature Biotechnology has written a retrospective piece evaluating claims by proponents and critics of the provision. An excerpt:
Claims made by people on both sides of this issue appear to be overblown. According to Andrew Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety, the claim that the provision would protect farmers is specious, as there has never been a ruling that demanded that because a crop has been declared illegal, it had to be torn up[…]
Critics of the ruling have declared that the new law could potentially allow the planting of crops harmful to human health. This too is unlikely, according to Greg Jaffe, director
of Biotechnology at Washington, DC’s Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Read the full paper here: US Congress moves to ‘protect’ GM crop plantings
Additional Resources:
- “Monsanto Protection Act? Separating the facts from the fury,” Genetic Literacy Project
The GLP’s executive director Jon Entine (quoted in the Nature Biotechnology story) wrote an analysis of the provision when it was first passed in March. You can read it here.
