Over-regulation limits farmer access to necessary tools Dec 30, 2015 Ron Smith

Regulation in agricultural research may be necessary to insure product and system safety, says David Baltensperger, but government agencies err in trying to regulate production to the point that researchers and individual farmers are denied access to necessary tools. Controversies surrounding genetically modified crops (GMOs) top the list of issues his organization follows, says Baltensperger, who is head of the Department of Soil and Crop Science at Texas A&M University and president of the Crop Science Society of America. He cited other issues during a presentation at the recent Texas Plant Protection Association annual conference at Bryan. They include climate change, bioenergy, water quality, intellectual property, scientific travel, food labeling, drones in agriculture and pesticide/technology registration. He says misinformation often results in negative responses to new products — GMOs being a prime example. In a recent survey, he says, 80 percent of respondents indicated they did not want GMO ingredients in their food. “But 80 percent also responded that they did not want DNA in their food either.” He says it’s important that scientific organizations such as the CSSA coordinate with other scientific groups, industry, university researchers, and others to dispel the myths surrounding agriculture technology.