Biotech brawl must end for Maine to prosper

Like kids in the back seat of the car on a long road trip, proponents and opponents of biotechnology are elbowing each other in an effort to gain advantage in the state house. This biennial struggle began in 1993 when legislation that would have required special labels on food made with biotech ingredients was introduced. In nearly every legislative session since, the two sides have squared off over bills that would reign in or ban the use of biotech-enhanced (also called genetically engineered or GMO) crops in Maine. The result is a hodge-podge of laws governing definitions related to genetic engineering, food labeling, the sale of genetically engineered seeds, limits on lawsuits and even instructions to the Commissioner of Agriculture.

This year offers more of the same. One proposed law would prohibit plants used to manufacture pharmaceuticals from being grown in Maine. Another would require sellers of biotech-enhanced seeds to report their sales to the state. A third law containing the defeated portions of the last session’s battle was introduced, then withdrawn. Another legislator then submitted his own version of the same bill. This year, supporters of biotechnology have struck back with a law that would require organic growers to file plans with the state.

It’s time for this nonsense to stop. To justify their call for legislative action, opponents of biotech crops have offered up doomsday scenarios of food allergies, environmental degradation and “genetic pollution” from biotechnology run amok. None of this has happened. Instead, farmers around the world are adopting biotechnology at astonishing rates. In 2008, 13.3 million farmers in 25 countries planted biotech crops on 125 million hectares.

Meanwhile, Maine farmers are falling behind the technology curve. In 2007, farmers pleaded with the Board of Pesticides Control to approve biotech-enhanced, insect-resistant corn because some of the best yielding corn varieties could not be purchased in Maine. Nine years earlier, under intense pressure from activists, the BPC had turned thumbs down on biotech corn claiming there was no need for it in Maine. This time, over the strenuous objections of activists, the farmers prevailed and the BPC registered seven varieties of insect-resistant field corn.

Maine farmers aren’t the only ones being hurt by the controversy. The state has identified biotechnology as a key industry in the state’s economic development plan. Since 1996, the state has funneled $400 million into research and development, with a good chunk going to build the biotech sector. Yet the state is nationally known for its anti-biotech fervor. Google “Maine” and “gmo” and up pops a host of stories about the struggle to keep biotech crops out of Maine. Surely, an entrepreneur in a startup biotech drug company couldn’t help but notice that the legislature is considering a ban on an important pharmaceutical production technology.

Maine’s history of conflict over biotechnology reveals a shocking anti-science bias among opponents of the technology. Though opponents call for rigorous scientific study of biotech crops, they quickly reject those studies when they confirm their safety. Even the Board of Pesticides Control had to acknowledge that science was on the side of biotech corn when it finally approved seven varieties in 2007.

It is not likely that proponents of organic agriculture in Maine, where the opposition to biotech crops is now concentrated, will embrace genetically engineered crops. Nor will adherents of biotech farming likely become organic growers. But if Maine is to build the diversified economy that economic planners hope for the state, the two sides will have to find a better way to resolve their differences. Battling it out in the legislature every two years is too messy and two public. The only one getting a black eye in this slugfest is the Maine economy.