Regulation of Biotechnology

* Henry Miller’s column regarding the regulation of biotechnology-derived plants (Commentary, Sept. 23) recycles erroneous ideas that he has peddled for over a year now. We have counted more than a half dozen Op-Ed pieces published in a variety of newspapers that are variations on one central theme: that the biotechnology industry is involved in some nefarious anti-competitive and unscientific effort to restrict American farmers’ choice of biotech agricultural products. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, we are working to assure the commercialization of these new crops. American farmers planted a record 6 million acres of biotechnology-derived corn, cotton, canola, tomatoes, potatoes and soybeans this year.

Miller alleges that I have pressured the scientific societies that published a recent report on federal oversight of certain plant pesticides. This is false. I did not know about the report until it was published. I prepared a Biotechnology Industry Organization response to what we believe are certain misrepresentations and scientific errors in the report. These comments were forwarded to the authors of the report and senior staff at the EPA. None of my correspondence requested that any of the societies “disavow the report.”

ALAN GOLDHAMMER PhD

Director of Technical Affairs

BIO, Washington