Table of Contents

REGULATORY NEWS

Climate Change Challenges, GE Crop Controversies, and a "GE Food" Label Law
Phill Jones

In their June 20, 2016, Nature Climate Change article, University of Leeds researchers sounded a warning about a threat to agriculture. Lead author Andy Challinor and his colleagues explain that breeding and cultivating a new crop variety can require up to 30 years of effort. Considering the rate of temperature increase in the tropics, a new crop that is finally ready for cultivation by farmers will be grown in temperatures that are warmer than the temperatures in which the crop was developed.
USDA Embitters Farmers of GE Sugarbeets
During May, the USDA announced that it would allow an additional 200,000 tons of raw cane sugar into the United States, a move to supplement sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugarbeets. A grower of 7,000 acres of sugarbeets finds that the GE food labeling debates overlook the fact that GE sugarbeets are cultivated in a more environmentally-friendly way, compared with conventional sugarbeets.
Consumers Come Up Short in Their Knowledge About GE Crops
Brandon R. McFadden, assistant professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Florida and Jayson Lusk, an agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State University, wondered about the information that supported consumers' beliefs about GE food and a demand for mandatory labeling. They performed an online survey that was completed by 1,004 participants. "Results suggest consumers think they know more than they actually do about GM food," McFadden and Lusk wrote in their report.
A "Bioengineered Food" Labeling Law
On July 1, 2016, Vermont became the first state to require that food produced by genetic engineering must be labeled as such. Although the law has been in effect since July 1, the state government did not plan to enforce the law until 2017. This strategy is just as well; the federal government nullified Vermont's labeling effort.

Food and Drug Administration, HHS
Notice of availability of a draft guidance for industry (GFI) #187 entitled "Regulation of Intentionally Altered Genomic DNA in Animals."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry (GFI) #187 entitled "Regulation of Intentionally Altered Genomic DNA in Animals." This draft guidance revises GFI #187 entitled "Regulation of Genetically Engineered Animals Containing Heritable Recombinant DNA Constructs" (current GFI #187). The Agency is seeking comment on the draft revised GFI #187, including the nomenclature that best describes these animals and on any existing empirical evidence indicating that certain types of genome editing may pose minimal risk.

RISK ASSESSMENT RESEARCH

Pesticide Use Related to GE Crops and Farmer Health in China: Evidence and Implications
Chao Zhang and Ruifa Hu

Although glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used on genetically engineered (GE) herbicide tolerant crops, is considered to be one of the least toxic pesticides1-2, there is still a growing public concern about the safety of glyphosate and even GE crops3-5. It is important to evaluate the effects of different pesticides used with GE crops on farmer health. Our recent study estimated the dose effect of agricultural uses of different pesticides used with GE crops on farmer health.