“I applaud Senator Durbin’s introduction of legislation to require a mandatory pre-market approval system that will assure that no food biotechnology product is marketed in the future without a specific safety approval from the Food and Drug Administration. In addition, this legislation opens the transgenic animal regulatory process to the transparency and public participation that is necessary.

“The Durbin bill puts together in one place in the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act all of the human safety regulatory issues with regard to agricultural biotechnology. I am confident its passage will be of substantial benefit to the biotechnology industry and to the food industry by building public confidence in the regulatory process. We are confident as well that it will benefit consumers, who have not be enthusiastic about biotechnology because there has not been an adequate regulatory process.

“There is mandatory pre-market approval to assure that biotech plants don’t harm other plants. There is mandatory pre-market to assure that biotech plants are safe for the environment. It’s about time we had mandatory pre-market approval for the most important issue, and that is to assure no harm to human beings.”

Carol Tucker Foreman is director of CFA’s Food Policy Institute. CFA is an association of approximately 300 pro-consumer groups nationwide. It was organized in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through advocacy and education.