While legislators say they believe that such regulation protects their states' economic and public safety interests, some scientists say that more restrictive regulations may inhibit industrial and academic scientists from doing research in these states.
"It becomes dismotivating and expensive for the business when there are too many differences across the states," says Jerry Barnett, director of government affairs for Monsanto Agricultural Co. in St. Louis. "It is not that we as an industry are opposing legislation at a state level, but we hope [the states] participate in what is a very comprehensive federal regulatory system."
It was 1984 when the Environmental Protection Agency issued its first permit for a release of genetically engineered "ice-minus" bacteria, which lower the temperature at which strawberry plants freeze, into Monterey County, Calif. Since then, about 200 more field tests of genetically engineered organisms have occurred in the U.S. with permission from three main ...
