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-
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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.