Testimony against FDA regulating gene edited food animals

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Testimony against FDA regulating gene edited food animals

The president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association has testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee saying the FDA should NOT be responsible for regulating gene edited livestock because of the problems it would cause.

“First, any edit would have to be individually evaluated for every breed, strain or herd of animals that wanted to incorporate a given trait. This would bog down approval and make this technology inaccessible to most livestock producers like myself.”

Michael Paustian says the other issue is the U.S. potentially losing its standing as the top producer of high quality, healthy, affordable pork, “Competitor nations are already advancing regulatory pathways that aren’t hampered by red tape. We’re losing our competitive advantage.”

Paustian says the USDA should be responsible for regulating gene editing of food animals, NOT the FDA, which would regulate those animals as drugs. Paustian says the FDA has not been responsive to producers’ concerns.

{Brownfield’s Meghan Grebner interview with Michael Paustain}

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