&CHAPTER 12

Regulations and Biosafety

ALAN McHUGHEN

University of California, Riverside, California

12.0. CHAPTER SUMMARY AND OBJECTIVES

12.0.1 Summary

Transgenic crops are the most regulated and tested plants ever produced, and much

of the regulation is a response to concerns about biosafety issues. There are two areas

of biosafety concerns: food safety and environmental safety, each with corresponding

regulatory issues.

12.0.2 Discussion Questions

1. What are regulations supposed to achieve?


2. With GM crops spreading so quickly, how are we assured of their health and environ-
   mental safety?


3. How is genetic engineering (biotechnology) regulated?


4. How do the risks posed by products of biotechnology compare to those posed by
   conventional technologies?


5. How does biotechnology threaten biosafety?


6. How do different countries regulate products of biotechnology?

12.1 Introduction

This chapter explores how governments regulate food and agriculture emanating from one

group of technologies,genetic engineering(also calledgenetic modification,rDNA,or

simply “biotechnology”), and investigates the scientific validity of such regulations.

Our human ancestors began the serious art of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. In

those days and until the near-present time, the major concern was simply getting enough

food. Today’s agriculture issues still include, for approximately 800 million people,

Plant Biotechnology and Genetics: Principles, Techniques, and Applications, Edited by C. Neal Stewart, Jr.

Copyright#2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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