Critics Skeptical of USDA Biotech Meetings

News Critics Skeptical of USDA Biotech Meetings AUTHOR:DANIEL GROSSMAN Date: FEBRUARY 08, 1988 WASHINGTON - The Department of Agriculture is hoping that a series of meetings this spring will demonstrate its desire to learn more about biotechnology research and strengthen its role in federal regulatory efforts. But some observers view the four regional conferences as a slick way to promote existing programs. "It seems like a lot of this business is a cynical way of getting public approval for doing what they want to do," said Robert Stevenson, director of the American Type Culture Collection, which maintains a germ plasma bank. Stevenson, who last spring attended a national conference on public conception of biotechnology that USDA sponsored, said he and others were disturbed by the uncritical attitudes toward USDA policies at that meeting. Ron Buckhalt, director of USDA's public liaison office, defended the upcoming conferences which will feature scientists, journalists, industrial leaders and government officials, "There is a need for an informed public," he said. 'That's what this is about." The first conference takes place February, 22-24 in Raleigh, N.C. It will be followed by similar sessions March, 28-30 in Reno, Nev.; April, 18-20 in New Brunswick, N.J. and May, 16-18 in Minneapolis. The sites are all land grant universities with extensive biotech research programs, except for Nevada, which is starting a major effort. Whether propaganda or education, the regional conferences are in part. a response to persistent criticism that USDA has lagged behind other federal agencies in supporting high-quality work in the field. In December its Office of Agricultural Biotechnology was moved up in the pecking order and now reports to the deputy secretary of agriculture. "We have to get moving to resolve some of tthe issues in biotechnology," commented newly appointed OAR director Alvin Young, formerly with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Fighting for Results USDA has been accused of supporting applied work that may not be consistent with current basic research. But public opposition to the release of new products into the environment threatens to limit the value of much of the work that USDA now supports. Fredrick Buttel, professor of rural sociology at Cornell University, said that agency attitudes toward biotechnology were shaped by a 1982 report that contained a thinly veiled threat to cut department funds if basic science did not receive greater attention. "That's one of the reasons why they moved so rapidly into biotechnology," he asserted. "Now, USDA's worry is to show results. They are fighting for the release of new organisms." USDA's regulatory program in biotechnology has also been under attack. A 1986 report by the General Accounting Office complained that "although USDA has displayed confidence and optimism towards biotechnology and has had time to formulate' an overall biotechnology regulatory structure, it has not done so." The Reagan administration is reexamining the role of its Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee, of which USDA is a participant, in regulat ing environmental releases. The Wrong Mission But many environmentalists do not believe that the Agriculture Department is capable of regulating biotechnology. "USDA is not an agency with an environmental mission," Jack Doyle, director of the Agricultural Resources Project of the Environmental Policy Institute, told a congressional commit tee in 1986 hearings. "Its mission is to maximize agricultural production, a goal that is often at odds with environmental protection." Doyle said that USDA hopes to establish itself as an effective regulator. "USDA is very sensitive to losing jurisdiction in the field of biotechnology," he remarked. Grossman writes on science policy in Washington, D.C.

Critics Skeptical of USDA Biotech Meetings

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