It withheld approval for introduction into the food supply on the grounds that it did not have satisfactory data to show it would not trigger allergic reactions. This partial approval was bound to lead to contamination of the food supply. But the EPA and the FDA failed to monitor the situation properly. It took Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a coalition of health, consumer, and environmental groups, to collect samples, test the food, and discover the problem. Genetically Engineered Food Alert has since discovered genetic contamination of Safeway and Western Family taco shells.
Many unknowns attend the insertion of genes across species, from ecological risks to food allergies.
These uncertainties beg for investigation, before biotech corporations or their indentured researchers introduce unintended hazards into the natural environment. In the industry, corporate greed has eclipsed the sound science that should be manifest in contemplations of Changing the Nature of Nature, as Martin Teitel and Kimberly Wilson titled a recent book that should serve as a primer on the biotech issue for all citizens and government regulators. Compounding the problem, government regulators have abandoned their duty to protect the public in exchange for a mission of industry boosterism. The federal regulatory budget for environmental and human health safety assessment has been tiny in comparison to research and other monies budgeted to aid industry aims. Recently, the Clinton administration supported only the voluntary labeling of genetically modified foods.