It held five meetings, waited until after the election, gained consensus among all but one of its members, sent off a 61-page report to the Secretary of Agriculture and now is waiting for the reviews, which are starting to come in.
Its consensus report envisions crop coexistence in a nation with a diverse agricultural base built on organic, conventional and genetically engineered (GE) crops with farmers free to make their own choices about what to do with their land.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) came up with five recommendations aimed at a compromise that will help everyone get along, the most controversial of which is an insurance-based “compensation mechanism” that would come into play if economic losses were suffered by an organic crop from a GM or even conventional crop. Reaction to the AC21 report split along predictable lines.
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View the original article here: AC21 Wants USDA to Investigate Crop Insurance for Genetic Harm To Organic Crops
