The United States has been regulating the introduction of transgenic plants and animals since the 1980s, all without passing any statues creating any new regulatory bodies specifically for this class of organisms. Instead, different sets of organisms were assigned to regulatory agencies based on the then current scope of the agencies. This led to some organisms being regulated by the EPA and other by the USDA, which led to some inconsistencies in how the two agencies oversaw the testing and introduction of genetically modified organisms into the environment. Further, because introduction of genetically modified organisms potentially posed both ecological and evolutionary risks, it was not clear whether the available regulatory frameworks (some of which were designed for abiotic pollutants) would be adequate for assessing possible harm by the organisms.
Results/Conclusions
This talk will present an overview of the history of the regulation of genetically modified organisms and will consider how well the use of pre-existing regulatory frameworks served the goal of a scientifically based assessment policy for releasing transgenic organisms into the environment. The focus of the talk will be primarily on the role of science in producing policy and how constraints–historical and political–can be impediments to the best possible implementation of scientific input into decision making.