Have you ever gone to the supermarket searching for a bottle of shampoo to find 30 different varieties displayed on the shelf? Unfortunately for you the overwhelmed feeling you experience does not stop with just shampoo–Dupont Pioneer develops a very large number of seed varieties. This is nothing negative towards Pioneer, as Pioneer engineers products specifically towards helping a crop survive in its own environment. By producing more products, are larger companies more susceptible to mistakes?
People insist that introducing genetic traits to commodity crops that can combat insects or weeds are not only endangering the crop itself but also the customer consuming the crop. While there is an obvious need for large-scale companies – such as Pioneer – to carefully analyze its products before selling them across the nation, I believe the use of genetic traits should not raise concerns. The reason for concern should rest with the size of an outbreak that could possibly occur. Are there enough regulations and checks in place to prevent these catastrophic outbreaks?
Most people can recall the incidence where all Peter Pan Peanut Butter was recalled because of trace amounts of salmonella contained in the product. After this incident people became weary of food protection agencies, believing that large companies did not have to follow the regulations implemented by the government. After meeting with Dupont Pioneer I can safely state that large companies can not easily circumvent regulations applied by the government.
Dupont Pioneer has three different agencies to test its products and assure their safety to the public. These three regulatory agencies – FDA, EPA, & USDA – all have different regulations that Pioneer must follow. Also these products are not the projects of college students that are hastily thrown together the night before. Dan Hansen – our tour guide at Dupont Pioneer – informed us that it took 10 to 12 years for a product to make it to the market. During this period many possible products are eliminated by one of the three different agencies.
While no industry is perfect, large companies do adhere to the regulations put forth by the government. The fear perceived by the public that large companies can evade regulations put forth by the government is completely wrong. These companies want to produce the most effective and least harmful products possible, and to do so they must follow the government’s regulations. If a company like Pioneer had a track record of manufacturing harmful products, consumers would not trust its products in the future. To profit more from their products in the long term, Pioneer and other companies will strictly follow regulations by the government. These regulations will minimize, but unfortunately not eliminate, any “human error” that might occur in the development and production phases of bio-tech crops.