Recorded on April 17th, 2014 - Gregory Jaffe is the Director of the Project on Biotechnology for the Center for Science in the Public Interest ("CSPI"), a non-profit consumer organization located in the United States.
For more than 15 years, farmers have grown genetically engineered (GE) crops and humans have eaten foods made from those crops. Controversy has always surrounded those crops with proponents and opponents usually arguing about their safety and benefits. Recently, the battle topics have changed and who is considered a proponent and who is an opponent has blurred. Legislation to require mandatory labeling, lawsuits to define "natural," and campaigns to prevent the marketing of new GE products all attempt to limit potential markets for safe GE products. At the same time, trade disruptions, regulatory challenges, and coexistence issues strain support for GE products among industry supports and hurt consumer confidence. The development of resistant pests and weeds instead of using of GE crop in a sustainable fashion had led to calls that this technology is just "agri-business as usual." Greg's talk with analyze those new battle topics and provide a unique consumer and Washington perspective on those controversial topics.
