The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reportedly issued a temporary stay of a district court order mandating the destruction of 256 acres of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet seedlings that were, according to the lower court, planted illegally in September 2010. Ctr. for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. 10-04038 (N.D. Cal., decided November 30, 2010). Press sources indicate that the Ninth Circuit’s postponement is scheduled to expire December 23, when the court will either allow the crop destruction to proceed or extend the stay until it can thoroughly review an appeal from the lower court order granting the plaintiffs’ motion to remedy violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by pulling the seedlings out of the ground. The seedlings were being grown to produce seed for future Roundup Ready® sugar beet crops, which are resistant to glyphosate, an ingredient in a popular herbicide. GE sugar beet critics contend…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reportedly been asked by a Canadian biotechnology company to approve its genetically modified (GM) apple, which resists browning after it is sliced. The British Columbia-based company apparently licensed the non-browning technology from an Australian company that developed it for potatoes. Approval of the GM technology could take several years, and U.S. apple growers have reportedly expressed concerns about cross-pollination with conventional apple trees as well as the cost of replanting apple groves with the “Arctic” apples, a figure estimated at $10,000 to $20,000 per acre. Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, criticized the proposal, apparently claiming, “A botox apple is not what people are looking for. I’m predicting failure.” Yet, the sliced apple market has increased in recent years, with suppliers relying on calcium and ascorbic acid to maintain product freshness. The company seeking the GM apple’s approval claims that the…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an advisory committee meeting to “discuss whether available relevant data demonstrate a link between children’s consumption of synthetic color additives in food and adverse effects on behavior.” FDA plans to provide background material no later than two business days before the March 30-31, 2011, public meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland. Calling the news “welcome and overdue,” Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Executive Director Michael Jacobson said that the meeting was in response to CSPI’s 2008 petition calling for FDA to ban Yellow 5, Red 50 and six other food dyes. The dyes “have long been shown in numerous clinical studies to impair children’s behavior,” Jacobson said. “But for years—FDA— which actually commissioned one of the first controlled studies—dismissed the mounting evidence against the dyes.” See Federal Register and CSPI News Release, December 1, 2010.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a preliminary staff report that proposes a framework for businesses and policymakers to protect the privacy of consumers using the Internet. FTC staff seeks stakeholder comments on the proposed framework until January 31, 2011, and a final report will follow. The report coincides with a recent congressional hearing during which FTC officials testified that a “persistent” browser setting could allow consumers to choose whether companies can collect data about their online searching and browsing. According to an agency press release, although online tracking can help targeted advertising efforts, FTC “supports giving consumers a ‘Do Not Track’ option because the practice is largely invisible to consumers, and they should have a simple, easy way to control it.” The option could be accomplished through legislation or “potentially through robust, enforceable self-regulation,” FTC said. “The advantage of industry doing something themselves is that they can move much…
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report titled “USDA Could Enhance Pesticide and Fertilizer Usage Data, Improve Outreach, and Better Leverage Resources.” GAO was asked to investigate the effect of budgetary cutbacks on a program that gathers, analyzes and disseminates information about the use of agricultural chemicals. According to the report, the cutbacks forced data users to rely on older statistics, “which hindered their ability to make informed decisions because agricultural chemical use can change from year to year due to the emergence of new pests, weather variations, changing market conditions, and other factors.” GAO recommends various improvements to the system, including incorporating data from other publicly available sources, minimizing potential overlap with other data sources and identifying and consulting with data users on a regular basis.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a motion to dismiss a complaint charging the agency with exceeding its authority in requiring Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pre-approval for health-related claims on food products, violating advertisers’ constitutional rights by requiring compliance with these standards and failing to comply with notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures in establishing the standards. POM Wonderful LLC v. FTC, No. 10-1539 (D.D.C., motion filed November 16, 2010). Additional information about POM Wonderful’s complaint appears in Issue 364 of this Update. FTC contends that the court lacks jurisdiction to consider the matter because the complaint is moot, the company lacks standing, the company is attempting to preclude an enforcement action, and the complaint does not challenge final agency action. Specifically, FTC claims (i) the agency merely created a possible remedy of FDA pre-approval in consent agreements with food producers making health-related claims and not an enforceable rule; (ii) it…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced the unanimous approval of a final order settling charges that a former POM Wonderful LLC executive made false and unsubstantiated claims that the company’s pomegranate products prevent or treat heart disease and prostate cancer. Under the agreement, Mark Dreher, a former POM Wonderful vice president, does not admit to violations of the law, but will cooperate in FTC’s investigation and action against his former company. He also agreed to abide by the conditions prescribed for making any health-related claims for a food or drug product in the future and to give present and future employees copies of the order. According to a news source, FTC has scheduled a May 24, 2011, hearing before an administrative law judge for POM Wonderful to respond to charges that it has made allegedly false health-related product claims. Dreher has agreed to participate in interviews with the agency in…
A recent investigation by NBC’s Today show has apparently revealed that some imported seafood “may contain toxic chemicals that can cause serious health problems.” Testing conducted by Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Oklahoma authorities has reportedly found contamination in shrimp, catfish, crabmeat and tilapia imported from China, Indonesia Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. “Footage taken by a U.S. advocacy group of seafood being raised in Vietnam, for example, showed fish in dirty sewage water, pumped with toxic antibiotics and banned drugs just to keep them alive, boosting production and driving down costs,” states the Today report, which claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests less than 2 percent of all seafood from overseas. Those test results allegedly indicated that in 2010, 8 percent of the sampled seafood from China and 16 percent from Taiwan was tainted with chemicals and drugs prohibited in the U.S. food supply. In response, FDA released…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly “completed its most recent check of amounts of lead in some commercial juice and food products that contain fruit,” finding no cause for consumer concern. FDA tested apple juice, grape juice, peach slices, pears, mixed fruit, and fruit cocktail in response to a 2009 study by the Environmental Law Foundation, which sent notices “to numerous manufacturers of juice and packaged fruit products alleging the companies were not in compliance with the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, also known as California Proposition 65, because the manufacturers failed to disclose that the products contained lead.” According to the most recent results, “Almost all the products FDA tested contained a small amount of lead, but in each case the level found would not pose an unacceptable risk to health.” The agency has further explained that lead in soil “can be deposited…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued warning letters to four manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs), calling the caffeine added to these malt beverages an “unsafe food additive” and threatening further action against Charge Beverages Corp.; New Century Brewing Co., LLC; Phusion Projects, LLC; and United Brands Company Inc. FDA apparently released its decision after conducting a scientific review that encompassed peer-reviewed literature, expert consultations, information provided by manufactures, and its own independent laboratory analysis. The agency’s findings evidently raised concerns “that caffeine can mask some of the sensory cues individuals might normally rely on to determine their level of intoxication,” leading to “hazardous and life-threatening situations.” As FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein summarized in a November 17, 2010, press release, “FDA does not find support for the claim that the addition of caffeine to these alcoholic beverages is ‘generally recognized as safe [GRAS],’ which is the…
