The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

156 the world according to monsanto1992—three months before the FDA published its policy. How could it getscientific data in this very short time?”“Right, but the policy was designed to provide the guidance to the industryfor the kinds of testing they would need to do.”The Myth of RegulationWe had gotten to the point. Indeed, as Maryanski acknowledged, the documentpublished by the FDA in 1992 was in no way a regulation, since itspurpose was primarily to provide justifications for not regulating GMOs. Itwas only a statement of policy intended to provide direction to the industryand provide guidance in case of need. This was clearly indicated in the finalsection of the document, which provided for a mechanism for “voluntaryconsultation,” if companies so desired: “Producers should consult informallywith FDA on scientific issues or design of appropriate test protocols whenthe function of the protein raises concern or is not known, or the protein isreported to be toxic. FDA will determine on a case-by-case basis whether itwill review the food additive status of these proteins.” 13This outraged Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for FoodSafety. “In fact,” he told me, “the health of American consumers is at themercy of the goodwill of the biotech companies that are licensed to decide,with no government supervision, whether their GMO products are safe.This is absolutely unprecedented in the history of the United States. Thepolicy was drafted so the biotechnology industry could propagate the myththat GMOs are regulated, which is completely false. In the process, thecountry has been turned into a huge laboratory where potentially dangerousproducts have been set loose for the last ten years without the consumer beingable to choose, because, in the name of the principle of substantialequivalence, labeling of GMOs is banned, and there is no follow-up.”In March 2000, relying on various surveys indicating that more than 80percent of Americans favored the labeling of transgenic foods 14 and 60 percentwould avoid them if they had the choice, 15 the Center for Food Safetyfiled a citizen petition with the FDA asking it to review its policy on GMOsand that testing be required before they were sold and labeled. 16 When theagency failed to respond, the Center for Food Safety filed suit in federal