WASHINGTON, July 19, 2013--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced today it completed its first review of a genetically engineered product under its streamlined process.
APHIS determined nonregulated status for Pioneer’s Glyphosate Resistant Canola after an environmental assessment and “a finding of no significant impact.”
The agency posted its notice of preliminary deregulation for Glyphosate Resistant Canola in the Federal Register on May 29.
The next three actions are preliminary deregulations of Monsanto’s Glyphosate Resistant Canola and Hybridization System Corn as well as Genective’s Glyphosate Resistant Corn. The public has 30 days to review these and provide any relevant information to APHIS.
“This was the first GE product to complete our improved regulatory review process, and the three others are nearing completion” said Mike Firko, APHIS Acting Deputy Administrator for biotechnology regulatory services. “Under the improved process, we met our goal for our review of these petitions after making them available for public comment. We remain focused on providing a more timely and predictable review process while continuing to ensure the safe introduction of genetically engineered crops.”
For the preliminary deregulations, APHIS made the developers’ petitions for deregulation available for public review and comment in July 2012.
APHIS announced it will also be publishing draft environmental assessments and draft plant pest risk assessments that the Agency has prepared in response to requests from BASF to deregulate its Imidazolinone resistant soybean, as well as from Monsanto to deregulate its high yield soybean.
APHIS previously made BASF’s and Monsanto’s petitions available for public review and comment in July 2012.
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