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From CNN News today:

Report slams USDA biotech experiments

Department Investigators cite poor oversight of programs

Monday, January 16, 2006; Posted: 9:08 a.m. EST (14:08 GMT)

• Hawaii serves as world's biotech lab

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- In a report released quietly just before

Christmas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's investigative arm

disclosed that the department failed to properly monitor thousands

of acres of experimental biotechnology crops.

The report by the department's inspector general said USDA didn't

thoroughly evaluate applications to grow experimental crops and then

didn't ensure the genetically engineered plants were destroyed after

experiments.

In several cases, the agency didn't even know where so-called field

trials were located.

" The system has been set up practically as a self-reporting system, "

said Greg Jaffe, biotech director for the nonprofit Center for

Science in the Public Interest. " It's a 'don't look, don't find'

policy. "

The two-year audit, which ended in April, made 28 separate

recommendations for improving oversight, the job of the USDA's

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

In a written response, W. Ron DeHaven, the inspection service's

administrator, said USDA has safely regulated biotechnology

experiments since 1987 " with no demonstrable negative environmental

impacts. "

A new biotechnology department was created at the start of the audit

that is addressing most of the concerns raised by the report, he

said.

Still, many scientists worry that biotechnology crops will

inadvertently cross-pollinate with conventionally grown crops. That

poses a particular problem for organic farmers who charge a premium

to guarantee customers their groceries are free of genetic

engineering.

Soy and corn are the most commonly planted genetically engineered

crops in the United States. Soy is engineered to resist weed killer

and the corn spliced with a bacteria gene to resist bugs.

The report said the inspection service " lacks basic information

about the field test sites it approves and is responsible for

monitoring, including where and how the crops are being grown, and

what becomes of them at the end of the field test. "

The report also said the agency failed to keep a promise to inspect

more crops engineered to make drugs using human and other animal

genes.

Three years ago, the agency vowed to do a better job of monitoring

crops after it fined Prodigene Inc. of College Station, Texas,

$250,000 for failing to remove corn engineered to produce a pig

vaccine before soybeans were planted.

The audit did not find any environmental harm but said the USDA's

inadequate safeguards " increase the risk that genetically engineered

organisms will inadvertently persist in the environment before they

are deemed safe to grow without regulation. "

The agency was responsible for monitoring outdoor experiments of

genetically engineered crops in all states and U.S. territories.

Only Vermont, Nevada and New Hampshire have never hosted such trials

within their borders.