D4-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, July 8, 2000 Corn Grower Leader Named To U.S.- EU Biotechnology Panel WASHINGTON, D.C. Na tional Corn Growers Associa tion (NCGA) Past President Ryland Utlaut is one of the 10 U.S. representatives recently named to the U.S.-European Union Consultative Forum on Biotechnology. During President Clinton’s trip to Europe late last month, the U.S. and the EU agreed to establish the Consultative Forum to review and assess the issues associated with biotech nology. The panel includes 20 emi nent individuals from outside government who represent a broad cross section of U.S. and European perspectives and in terests. Members will meet twice once in the U.S. and once in Europe prior to the Decem ber 2000 U.S.-EU summit. At that summit, the forum will present a consensus report as sessing biotechnology’s benefits and risks, focusing on factors such as economic development, food security, food safety, health, and the environment. Utlaut farms 3,500 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat in a family partnership near Grand Pass, Mo. He has been active for about 20 years in both the Miss ouri and National Corn Growers Associations. He serves as a member of the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee (APAC), which consults with the U.S. Trade Representative and the USD A on agricultural trade issues. Utlaut has represented NCGA at various international meetings, including the World Trade Organization ministerials in Geneva and Seattle. During the Seattle meeting, he had the opportunity to become acquain ted with Portuguese Association of Maize Producers President Luis Vasconcelos e Souza, his European counterpart, on the Consultative Forum. “Given the importance of biotechnology to the nation’s corn growers and all of agricul ture, 1 welcome the opportunity to serve on the Consultative Forum,” Utlaut said. “I look forward to working with the dis tinguished members of this panel to address the many issues surrounding biotechnology, and I’m hopeful that our dialogue will foster broader awareness and acceptance of biotechnolo gy’s many benefits.” Other U.S. members of the Consultative Forum, according to the U.S. State Department are; • Dr. Norman Borlaug, distin guished professor of interna tional agriculture at Texas A&M University and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the “Green Revolu tion.” • Dr. Gordon Conway, presi dent of the Rockefeller Founda- MCMTH K/CK . 1 '**%&**"''£ *j£tV3^ Lf*r * :■ Business ❖ News >».. v *Jg:jj Y tion and world-renowned agricultural ecologist. • Dr. Rebecca J. Goldburg, senior scientist at the Environ mental Defense Fund. • Dr. Cutberto Garza, M.D., vice provost at Cornell Univer sity and chair of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies Institute of Medi cine. • Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, president of the University of Maryland’s Biotechnology Insti tute. • Terry Medley, J.D., director of regulatory and external af fairs for DuPont. • Dr. Christopher Roland Somerville, director of the Car negie Institute’s Department of Plant Biology at Stanford Uni versity. • Carol Tucker Foreman, di rector of the Food Policy Insti tute of the Consumer Federation of America. • Dr. Le Roy B. Walters, di rector of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown Univer sity. EU members, as identified by the U.S. State Department, are: • Dr. Derek Burke, former professor of microbiology at Warwick University and retired chair of the U.K. Advisory Com mittee on Novel Foods. • Susan Davies, principal policy adviser of the Consumers’ Association. • Noelle Lenoir, chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technology, European Union. • Dan Leskien, adviser to Ges selschaft fur Technische Zusam menarbeit and permanent biotechnology adviser to Friends of the Earth. • Dr. Mans Lonnroth, manag ing director of MISTRA, the Swedish Foundation for Strate gic Environmental Research, and former state secretary at the Swedish Ministry of the Envi ronment. • Dr. Ruud Lubbers, professor for globalization and sustainable development at the Catholic University Brabant (Tilburg University) and former prime minister of the Netherlands. • Dr. Pedro Puigdomenech Rosell, research professor at the department of molecular genet ics, Instituto de Biologia Molec ular de Barcelona. • Dr. Leonardo Santi, presi dent of the Advances Biotech nology Center, Genoa, and chairman of the National Com mittee for Biosafety and Biotechnology Presidency of Cabinet of Ministers, Rome. • Luis Vasconcelos e Souza, president of the Portuguese As sociation of Maize Producers and vice president of the Euro pean Association of Maize Pro ducers. • Dr. Eduard Veltkamp, senior vice president, Business Research Foods, Unilever Re search Laboratory Vlaardingen. Nationwide Market Basket Survey Shows Foods Well Within Established Safety Limits WILMINGTON, Del. None of the food samples taken from groceries across the U.S. contain pesticide residues above government limits for a broad class of insecticides, according to a major new year-long survey. For the past year, DuPont Crop Protection and Aventis Crop Science have joined forces to provide the U.S. Environmen tal Protection Agency (EPA) with information from the Car bamate Market Basket Survey. The data have been submitted this month to the EPA, which has said publicly that it will use the information in evaluating di etary risk for the Carbamate class of insecticides. The survey, which was de signed to detect and accurately measure Carbamate insecticide residues in fresh fruits and vege tables purchased by consumers, was conducted over a year-long period and is considered the most comprehensive of its kind. Collection of food samples from grocery stores throughout the contiguous U.S. was completed in January 2000. The survey ad dresses the EPA’s need for resi due data in individual foods that are eaten as a single-unit single serving, such as apples and GLENMONT, N.Y. New York Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general farm advocacy organization, is pleased with leg islation that supports the De partment of Agriculture and Market’s Agricultural Environ mental Management program and the indemnification of county soil and water conserva tion district employees, who pro vide technical advice and assistance at the request of state agencies. Senate Agriculture Commit tee Chair Nancy Larraine Hoff mann and Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair William Magee have been instrumental in their support for these efforts. Both bills await Gov. George E. Pataki’s approval. “The passage of these two bills in both the Senate and the Assembly is significant for the agricultural industry and water quality for the entire state,” said John W. Lincoln, president of New York Farm Bureau. “Soil and water conservation employ ees deserve this much needed li ability protection, as they help farmers and state agencies to improve and preserve our water quality.” The Agricultural Environ mental Management (AEM) leg islation will use a voluntary, case-by-case approach to water quality improvement, with an emphasis on local farmer in volvement. AEM will bring tech nical expertise together with financial assistance to ensure that we maintain our state’s water supply. Programs that are similar in concept to AEM have already been successfully implemented in areas such as the New York City Watershed, the Lake Champlain Watershed, and the Skaneateles Watershed. These programs place New York State as a leader in incorporating this type of program for the better ment of agriculture and water quality. “This bill was a priority for all districts in the state,” said Anita Important Ag Measures Pass peaches, or a multiple-unit single serving, such as grapes. “Our purpose was to ensure that realistic residue values from the actual foods we eat were used in the implementation of the U.S. Food Quality Protec tion Act (FQPA)-mandated risk assessments,” said Chuck Baer, DuPont Crop Protection. “Bottom line is that our data ac curately reflects the potential di etary and cumulative exposure risks to consumers from use of these products. The results are very positive for the American consumer of all ages.” “These findings are import ant because we targeted foods eaten by children in particular, as this is one of the important el ements of the U.S. Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA),” said Jennifer Phillips, a risk assess ment scientist for Aventis and a task force team member. The results are extremely pos itive. They show: • The vast majority 90 per cent of all samples analyzed have no residues or residue levels below one part per billion. • Of the 10 percent or so of samples with detectable resi dues, all were well below govern ment safety limits for various foods. Both Houses Cartin, executive vice president seryation Districts as the local of the New York Association of delivery system of State agen- Soil Districts. “This is historic «es. We appreciate New York legislation that acknowledges ar ? l . ® urea “ s r °le and support the role of Soil and Water Con- on I” 18 Issue - Pork Database To Allow For Comparative Analysis Of Production INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. Pork producers now have a way to compare their production practices with comparable oper ations using the new checkoff funded National Pork Database. The database, which went live on June 1, contains information submitted based on pork pro duction and financial standards. The checkoff-funded standards were derived by producer-led committees to identify common terms and formulas that are uni form and could be used by all producers. The Pork Production and Fi nancial Standards were com pleted last year and tested with pilot classes of producers, ac cording to Jenny Felt, special programs manager for the Na tional Pork Producers Council (NPPC). The National Pork Da tabase is composed of produc ers’ records based on the standards. The value of the standards to producers is they provide uni formity and will permit the col lection of data for historical tracking and comparative anal ysis. Over time, benchmarks will be developed from the data col lected from producers. th • When looking at the data collected, the residues are very low, ranging from five to more than over 35,000 times less than the EPA-established tolerance (allowable limit). • From a cumulative risk standpoint, less than 0.4 percent of the samples had residues of more than one Carbamate insec ticide. As registrants of carbamate containing insecticides, both DuPont and Aventis believe this work will ensure that sound sci ence is used in the FQPA assess ment. The analysis is considered one of the most detailed of its kind, including hundreds of samples for each of the eight dif ferent crops: apples, tomatoes, lettuce, grapes, peaches, broc coli, oranges, and bananas. To ensure validity of the re sultant data, the Carbamate Market Basket Survey Task Force used an EPA-approved statistical sampling design for collecting the commodities as well as employing the USDA PDP protocol for preparation procedures that is washing, peeling, coring for all the fruits and vegetables prior to the analysis. The final test results were submitted to the EPA in May. “Both production and finan cial benchmarks will allow pro ducers and their consultants to better understand the impact of production practices, new tech nology, debt, equity and capital on their operations,” Felt said. “As producers leam more about their operations, they will be able to ask more of the right questions to get the information needed to guide their decisions.” “It is up to ail pork industry stakeholders to seize this oppor tunity and adopt standard ter minology and financial accounting practices so that we can communicate the informa tion and use our knowledge to explore ways of achieving and maintaining our competitive ad vantages in a rapidly changing world,” according to John Kel logg, a producer from Yorkville, 111., and National Pork Board president. The National Pork Database and Pork Production and Finan cial Standards were announced during World Pork Expo, June 8-10, in Indianapolis, Ind. For more information on the database and standards, contact Jenny Felt, special programs manager, at (515) 223-2771.
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