Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
what has been recorded for conventionally bred livestock, but it antic-
ipates that these rates are likely to decrease as the technology improves.
It also expects that human food products from both sources will have
similar nutritional value. However, EFSA cautions that food safety will
depend in part on removing unhealthy clones from the food chain as is
done with unhealthy conventional animals, and that there may be envi-
ronmental impacts. EFSA has also recognized concerns based on per-
sonal values and sought ethical guidance from the European Group on
Ethics in Science and New Technologies to aid its deliberations.
47
To sum up, FDA, EPA, and APHIS comprise a complex but relaxed
federal system for regulating the safety of GM crops and foods. Because
of their limited statutory mandates and eagerness to adhere to the free-
market, anti-regulation themes of the Coordinated Framework, these
agencies provide a loosely connected network of permissive regulators
with each acting in a manner that expedites the advance of GM crops
and foods and minimizes any obstacles created by uncertainties about
safety.
Common Law Liability
In most nations, the legal framework for governing technological risks is
dominated by regulatory programs that do risk assessments, enact rules
and standards, issue permits and licenses, and monitor and take enforce-
ment or other actions when needed to ensure compliance. However, the
governance framework in the United States and the United Kingdom
also includes an additional feature, a robust common law system that
functions independently of the regulatory programs with few exceptions.
47
See
Opinion of the European Group on Ethics for Science and New Technologies on
a request from the European Commission, available at http://ec.europa.eu/european
group ethics/activities/docs/opinion23 en.pdf.
See also
Scientific Opinion of the Scien-
tific Committee on a request from the European Commission on Food Safety, Animal
Health and Welfare and Environmental Impact of Animals derived from Cloning by
Somatic Cell Nucleus Transfer (SCNT) and their Offspring and Products Obtained
from those Animals, The EFSA Journal (2008) 767, 1-49.
