Volume 5, Number 4
by Clark Wolf, director, ISU Bioethics Program
Before John Adams framed the U.S. Constitution, he pursued a brief career as a lawyer. His first case, Lambert v. Field, involved an agricultural border-crossing dispute: two horses belonging to Luke Lambert broke into a field belonging to Joseph Field, where they trampled some crops. Field went to court hoping to recover damages.
A huge collection of common law cases involve border crossings of just this kind: the activities of one person create disadvantages for another and the courts are called in to settle the score. The current differentiated markets for organic and genetically engineered (GM) crops raise the border crossing problem once again, but in a new context.
Organic producers around the nation serve a lucrative niche market, since many consumers are willing to pay more for assurances that the food they purchase was not produced with pesticides, and that it does not include genetically modified organisms. The organic produce market has been especially important for smaller producers and family farms. To protect this market niche, organic producers must be able to persuade their customers that their product meets the expected standards, but this is increasingly difficult to do. When neighbors are growing GM corn equipped with an inserted gene (transgene) that provides resistance to weeds or pests, it is difficult to grow open-pollinated organic crops that will be free of transgenes. Grains of pollen do not stop at the fence or the property line. Because of cross-pollination with nearby GM crops, many organic farmers in Iowa have discovered that their "organic" crops have acquired transgenes.
Is it a bad thing that these organic crops are "contaminated" with transgenes? It should be conceded that such "contamination" may not raise issues of food safety. We may have no evidence that organic foods are safer to consume, but this does not mean that consumer preference for organic produce are irrational or otherwise disreputable. Nor is there any reason to believe that organic consumers are ill-informed. Consumers must be left to make their own choices, and if people are willing to pay more for certified organic products they should be free to do so.
Are there ways to "fence in" organic crops, or to "fence out" unwanted grains of pollen? Traditional fences won't work, of course, but different solutions to the problem are under investigation. The simplest solution involves the use of extensive buffer zones between organic and GM crops. Another alternative involves staggering the growing season, so that organic corn will tassel when nearby GM corn does not. And as a last resort, one might literally enclose crops or put bags over tassels and silks to guard against illegitimate gene transfer. However, such solutions involve costs and forgone opportunities.
Who should bear the costs associated with the protection of organic produce?
Who should bear liability if organic crops are contaminated by non-organic neighboring
crops? Is the incursion of unwanted pollen analogous to the trampling feet of
the stray horses that damaged Luke Lambert's crops?
In border crossing cases, legal liability may be distributed in different ways,
and in different states, cases like Lambert v. Field would have a different
outcome. One solution is to hold ranchers responsible to keep their livestock
penned in, and to impose liability for damage caused when their animals break
free. Another solution would be to hold farmers responsible to protect their
own crops, fencing their planted fields off from the open range where livestock
are free to roam.
It is sometimes difficult to argue that one solution is better than the other, but they have different implications for the participants. Under one type of legal regime, it is the ranchers who build fences. Under the other, it is the farmers. But either way, crops are protected and legal responsibilities are clear. While each group might prefer to impose the burden of fence-building on their neighbors, there may be no economic reason for assigning this obligation to one group rather than the other.
In the case of organic and GM crops, it seems likely that the burden of protection will fall on organic producers, for several reasons. Since organic producers tend to be smaller it is almost certainly cheaper for them to "fence out" unwanted pollen than for other producers to "fence in" their crops. And because GM crops are so widespread, it is unlikely that an organic producer could show specifically which neighbor's pollen caused the problem-a necessary requirement if one hopes to recover damages in court. It's just easier to trace incursions by livestock than to trace incursions by pollen.
But smaller farms already face serious disadvantages. If the widespread dominance of GM crops imposes a new kind of burden on small operations, this hardly seems fortunate or fair. These questions must continue to be examined in order to find a fair resolution for all parties involved.
A new case study on human stem cell research has been posted on the Bioethics Outreach web site (www.bioethics.iastate.edu/classroom/stemcells.html). The case study asks students to examine multiple issues and viewpoints surrounding the use of human stem cells in scientific research. Students develop a summary of a specific ethical viewpoint on the research and provide the arguments given for this view. The activity requires students to understand, analyze, and describe the various issues associated with human stem cell research.
Nearly 40 case studies on various bioethical issues are available on the Bioethics Outreach web site at www.bioethics.iastate.edu/classroom/case_studies.html. Topics include agriculture, animals, biotechnology, environment, humans, plants, research ethics, teaching ethics, and veterinary medicine.
by Glenda Webber, ISU Office of Biotechnology
The European Union recently adopted a revised legislative framework to trace and label genetically modified organisms and to regulate marketing and labeling food and feed products derived from them. A public forum will be held Nov. 14 at Iowa State University in Ames to discuss the EU's new requirements and how U.S. agribusiness can meet them.
The keynote speaker for the forum will be Mr. J. Ferriere from the European Commission's Directorate General for Trade in Brussels, Belgium. He will address the forum at 10 a.m. in the Benton Auditorium of the Scheman Building and meet with interested groups in the afternoon.
In addition to Ferriere's talk, the public is invited to attend presentations and exhibits on commercial traceability services offered by companies and organizations. The exhibits will be located in the 1st floor lobby of the Scheman Building. The traceability services presentations will be given in Benton Auditorium beginning at 1:30 p.m. There is no registration fee for any of the day's events.
"This forum will provide an opportunity for the U.S. agribusiness community to learn first-hand from an EU representative about practical methods for implementation of the regulations for traceability," said Walter Fehr, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and director of the Office of Biotechnology.
The forum is being organized by the ISU Office of Biotechnology and is co-sponsored by the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative, ISU Institute of Science and Society, Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Economic Development and the Iowa Soybean Association.
To arrange an afternoon meeting time with Mr. Ferriere, schedule time for a commercial presentation on traceability services or reserve space for an exhibit, please contact Glenda Webber, (515) 294-4749, gwebber@iastate.edu. The deadline is 5 p.m., Friday, November 7.
For more information about the new EU regulations, see Part B of the fact sheet available at the first Internet address below or the news release at the second address.
4:10 p.m., Biobased Products Seminar--“USDA Initiatives to Promote Biobased Products and Bioenergy,” Carmela Bailey, National Program Leader, Agricultural Materials, Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services (CSREES), USDA, 0171 Durham Center.
10:00 a.m., Public Forum, "Public Forum on the European Union's Traceability and Labeling Regulations," J. Ferriere, European Commission's Directorate General for Trade in Brussels, Belgium, Benton Auditorium, Scheman Building, 515-294-4749. (See article above for more information.)
4:10 p.m., Plant Pathology Seminar/Issues Related to Crop Bioterrorism and Food Security--"The Role of University and Regional Diagnostic Centers in Countering Agricultural Bioterrorism," Barbara Ambruzs and Paula Flynn, Extension Program Specialists Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, department of plant pathology, ISU, 210 Bessey Hall, 515-294-1741.
4:10 p.m., Plant Pathology Seminar/Issues Related to Crop Bioterrorism and Food Security--"Biosecurity Risk Assessment: Soybean Rust - A Case Study," X.B. Yang and Shimon Pivonia, professors of plant pathology, ISU, 210 Bessey Hall, 515-294-1741.
4:10 p.m., Plant Pathology Seminar/Issues Related to Crop Bioterrorism and Food Security--"Science versus the Legal System: When Worlds Collide - A Case Study in Citrus Canker," Tim R. Gottwald, Research Leader/Plant Epidemiologist, Subtropical Plant Pathology Research Unit, USDA/ARS, 210 Bessey Hall, 515-294-1741.
Bioethics in Brief
November 2003
Volume 5, Issue 4
Published four times per year
by the ISU Office of Biotechnology
and the Bioethics Program.
To subscribe, call 515-294-7356.
Editor: Dena Huisman
Bioethics Outreach Coordinator: Kristen Hessler
Bioethics Program Coordinator: Clark Wolf
Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. Vietnam Era Veteran. Any persons having inquiries concerning this may contact the Director of Affirmative Action, 318 Beardshear Hall, 515-294-7612.
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Last Update 10/22/03
