Food Law Prof Blog

Tim Lang: Food Needs Rethinking

From BBC News

A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a series of "new fundamentals", according to a leading food expert.

Tim Lang warned that the current system, designed in the 1940s, was showing "structural failures", such as "astronomic" environmental costs.

The new approach needed to address key fundamentals like biodiversity, energy, water and urbanisation, he added.

Professor Lang is a member of the UK government's newly formed Food Council.

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Happy New Year

Food Law Prof Blog has been taking a break, but we'll be back next week.  Thanks for all of the comments, feeds, and contacts in 2008.  Best wishes for a Happy and safe New Year. -- Donna Byrne

From FDA Law Blog: Cargill to make Stevia-derived sweetener

Cargill has evidently applied for GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status for its new sweetener, but FDA has not yet ruled on the GRAS application:

Cargill Announces Plans to Market Stevia-Derived Sweetener Without FDA’s Blessing, and CSPI Cries Foul

On December 15, Cargill issued a press release in which it announced a “broad-based national integrated marketing campaign” to promote its sweetener Truvia™ (Truvia™ is Cargill’s preparation of rebiana, or rebaudioside A, one of the sweetening components that can be extracted from Stevia rebaudiana). . .

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Nat'l Ag Law Center Call for Articles

The National Agricultural Law Center at U Arkansas is seeking articles for its agricultural law bibliography.  From the Ag law Center newsletter:

A major component of the Center's 2008 strategic plan is to significantly increase the number of publications authored by agricultural and food law specialists. The Center's efforts to digitize the over 7,000 entries of Agricultural Law Bibliography, to collect and publish Continuing Legal Education materials, and to commission articles have been fruitful, but to further implement this goal the Center is issuing a call for articles on relevant issues in agricultural and food law.  If you are interested in publishing an article of any length on the National Agricultural Law Center web site, or if you know of an author who might be interested, please contact us at nataglaw@uark.edu to express interest and to discuss publication terms and conditions.

GAO Report on Genetically Engineered Crops

From the Document Summary:

Why GAO Did This Study
Genetically engineered (GE) crops—including crops engineered to resist pests or tolerate herbicides—are widespread in the United States and around the world. Taking direction from the 1986 Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate GE crops to ensure that they are safe. The unauthorized mixing of some GE crops with non-GE crops has caused controversy and financial harm. GAO examined (1) unautho- rized releases of GE crops,
(2) coordination among the three agencies, and (3) additional actions they have proposed to improve oversight. GAO gathered data from agencies and stakeholders; used criteria from prior GAO work to assess coordination; and reviewed agency proposals.

What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that (1) FDA make public the results of its early food safety assessments of GE crops; (2) USDA and FDA develop an agreement to share information on GE crops with traits that, if released into the food or feed supply, could cause health concerns; and (3) USDA, EPA, and FDA develop a risk-based strategy for monitoring the widespread use of marketed GE crops. FDA agreed with the first recommendation, and, with USDA, agreed in part with the second. The agencies agreed in part with the third recommendation. We stand by the recommendations.