July 2 (Reuters) – The White House on Thursday directed the three U.S. agencies that oversee biotech crop products to improve and modernize their regulatory “framework” to boost public confidence in a system that critics call a failure.
The order, announced in a statement by president Barack Obama’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, followed demands by consumers, food-related organizations and businesses for tighter U.S. regulation of genetically modified (GMO) crops, amid a nationwide debate over whether they should be labeled.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposed a rule in 2008 after being cited in a government audit for oversight lapses, and after high-profile GMO contaminations that led to food recalls and disrupted trade.
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Biotech crops are regulated through the government’s “coordinated framework” that involves APHIS, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
On Thursday the White House said “the complexity of the array of regulations and guidance documents developed by the three federal agencies … can make it difficult for the public to understand how the safety of biotechnology products is evaluated, and navigating the regulatory process for these products can be unduly challenging, especially for small
