Trade teams and intern networking

By Bryce Vaughn, U.S. Grains Council intern

Since my last blog post in May, I have been busy working on my main project for the U.S. Grains Council. As you may know, the U.S. Grains Council is hosting a team of nine Korean biotechnology committee members to the U.S. July 11-20. The objective for the team is to gain an insight on the future of the stewardship of the science-based technology and improving their understanding on the U.S. biotech regulatory system, including the framework-principles and safety/risk assessment fundamentals and dossiers preparation protocols. The goal is to have the programs participants become effective and efficient in evaluating the safety/risk of biotech events and also propose changes in biotech regulatory system to streamline the process. The team will travel to Washington D.C., St. Louis, Des Moines and Seattle while in the United States and will visit with APHIS, EPA, FDA, Monsanto, Pioneer, Iowa Corn Farmers, TEMPCO port facility, and Croplife International.

The Korean biotechnology risk review process has been potential threat to the flow of U.S. grains to the world’s third largest grains import market. The biotechnology regulatory regime appears inadequate to handle the growing number of new biotech events that are being developed. The process of the Korean government approving new biotech events has been unpredictable in the time required for approval of new biotech products and has been considered as a latent threat. In Korea a total of five agencies are involved in the review process for biotechnology, and lack experience and understanding by new regulatory officials and review committee members has been cited as a reason for the delay in risk review. For single events the average time required for the approval process had increased from ten months in 2004 to 39 months in 2013. For example in 2012, eight new events have been waiting for the outcome of the approval process for more than 30 months. In order to address the issue, the USGC will help the safety/risk reviewers improve their understanding on U.S. biotechnology regulatory system and risk assessment process of the U.S. government and technology developers.

I have learned a lot about the international discussion on biotechnology since taking on this project. On June 4, I attended a debate on biotechnology at CATO Institute in Washington D.C. This was the first event of its kind and featured speakers such as Jon Entine, Founding Director, Genetic Literacy Project, Kevin M. Folta, Interim Chair, Horticultural Science Department (University of Florida) and Karl Haro von Mogel, Co-Founder, Biology Fortified, Inc. Despite increasing population, global food production per capita is at all-time highs, even as the amount of agricultural land is reaching new lows. The prime driver has been technology, beginning with the Green Revolution of the 1960s, when Norman Borlaug discovered the key to high-yielding wheat. Since then, “slow” genetics has been replaced by DNA-splicing, giving rise to fears of genetic “mistakes” damaging the world food supply or resulting in inadvertent harm to consumers. Jon Entine and Kevin Folta embrace these innovations, promoting genetic literacy and post-modern agriculture. One of the main take aways from this event was that anti-biotechnology groups are using factual information to attack biotech companies such as Monsanto, while leaving out the rest of the story, for example the base line in the study. Also, both industry studies of biotechnology and independent studies are showing that same outcomes, that GMO, biotechnology is not harmful to humans or the environment. This just clarifies that companies such as Monsanto are not twisting the results for their economic gain. I think everyone should watch this lecture, it can be found online here.

 From left to right (Audrey Smith-
Congressman Adrian Smiths Office,
Senator Fischer, Emily Ibach-
Monsanto, Bryce Vaughn-
U.S. Grains Council)

I have taken part in a couple different networking opportunities while in D.C. Last week Kyle McGinn (NCGA intern), Emily Ibach (Monsanto intern) and I attended the Nebraska breakfast on Capitol Hill. This was a good opportunity to hear from the Nebraska congressional delegation while also meeting staff members for the Senators and Representatives offices. After the breakfast we had the opportunity to meet Senator Fischer and also take a picture with her.

A group of agriculture interns from across the U.S. are organizing ourselves in Washington D.C. and kicked off our group last week with a luncheon hosted by Croplife America. Later this month the group is planning on attending a Nationals baseball game hosted by Monsanto. Kyle and I are organizing a luncheon for the group at the NCGA/USGC office in July, Jon Doggett and Tom Sleight will give an overview of each organization and update the interns on recent activities.

 Non-work related, last weekend my roommate and I went wakeboarding with some friends on the Potomac River. This was a great experience to get outside the beltway. I can say that we have much cleaner water in Nebraska though!