Henry I. Miller, Hoover Institution senior fellow and former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) official, recently pointed out that food crops that are genetically modified through gene splicing are much more heavily regulated than haphazard mutations created by traditional cross-breeding techniques. (See “Regulations on Biotechnology Hurt Innovation,” http://www.ncpa.org/iss/env/2003/pd073003e.html.)
Scientifically unjustified regulations discourage Research & Development, increase costs and delay or deny improved food products to consumers.
Furthermore, say Miller and Gregory Conko, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, as regulatory requirements for gene-spliced plants and foods have ratcheted up steadily for nearly 20 years, it has increased concentration in the agbiotech industry and reduced competition:
Academic labs still are the source of most new ideas in these related fields, but the progression from innovation in the laboratory to marketed product has become uncertain, as many speculative research projects on low-profitability organisms have become prohibitively expensive.
Source: Gregory Conko and Henry I. Miller, Biotech Woes…and the Culprits, Washington Times, June 24, 2003.
For text http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,03538.cfm
For more on Biotechnology http://www.ncpa.org/iss/env/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 5 August 2003
