Cultural values

On December 16^th, 2002, many organizations filed a legal petition upon the USDA to forbid open-air cultivation of all GE crops with bio-pharmaceuticals, like vaccines, industrial chemicals, or other substances with possible human health impacts.

The legal petition called upon USDA to:

• At the most, allow the GE of chemicals or bio-pharmaceuticals into those non-food crops that don’t create the risk of food contamination.
• Require non-food crops engineered with chemicals or bio-pharmaceuticals to be cultured indoors and set up a tracking system governing the management and removal of byproducts to put a stop to environmental contamination.
• Stop granting permits for open-air cultivation of all GE crops with bio-pharmaceuticals, like vaccines, industrial chemicals, or other substances with potential human health impacts.
• Investigate contaminated alternatives to open-air bio-pharming for manufacture of bio-pharmaceuticals

(Rand)