Some key points from WF

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Put global Ag facts together

• Asia and Africa have
• the largest numbers / proportions of hungry
  people,
• the lowest rates of acres/person of agriculture,
• Inherently low per acre productivity because of
  old, depleted soils (Africa),
• Large human density and population increase
  rates,
• A small capacity to expand agricultural acreage
• SE Asia has increased productivity quite a lot,
  but otherwise this seems pretty grim

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If food production increases at a rate slower
than human population growth for the next 50
years

• More people will go hungry even if food
  distribution improves, or
• More natural habitat will be lost to agriculture,
  or
• The 1 billion who eat high on the food chain and
  eat too many calories will have to curtail excess
  consumption of agricultural energy

NOV 2. 2007
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Will the green revolution succeed in Asia and
Africa?

• Gaining benefit from high responders (crops)
  requires
• Water for irrigation in relatively dry regions to
  achieve environmental certainty and
• Energy for the chemical applications and
• Money to afford proprietary crop lines

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Will the green revolution succeed in Asia and
Africa?

• Can these region achieve the required chemical
  applications?
• Do these regions have the climatic certainty
  dry, irrigate?
• Both Asia and Africa have problems with this
• Will they be able to afford the crop genetics?

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Food Security

• Poverty is the greatest threat to food security.
• About 815 million people are chronically
  undernourished (200 million are children).
• Chronically undernourished lt 90 of the 2,770
  calories / day needed for an active life.
• Within families that dont get enough to eat,
  women and children have the poorest diets.
• Food security - the ability to obtain sufficient
  food on a day-to-day basis

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Famines Some Causes

• Environmental conditions - drought, insects,
  natural disasters
• National politics - corruption, oppression
• Armed conflict
• Economics - price gouging, poverty, landlessness

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Focus on Aid Focus on local solutions
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Option 1Industrialization
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Agricultural Resources

• Water - agriculture accounts for the largest
  single share of global water use
• Fertilizer - problems with excess use
• Energy - most of our foods require more energy to
  produce, process, and transport than they yield
  when we eat them
• Pesticides health risks, decreasing
  effectiveness

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Option 2The diffused organic option
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Our neighbors to the north
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Implementing Kyoto at the grass roots
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Standings

• Bay Area
• Berkeley Bowlers 7
• San Jose Bush Babies 5
• San Francisco Huskies 5
• Lafayette Diablos 4
• Oakland Bombers 3

Purpose each answer is worth 5 points to a
maximum of 50. If your team does not reach 10,
you will receive lt 100. For example, Martinez
has 10 of 50 points, currently.

• So Cal
• Ventura Squid 7
• Snta Barb Green 7
• SLO Moes 5
• SD Explorers 5
• LA Ducts 2

• Pacific Rim
• Sac Planetiers (1) 13
• Hawaii T.huggers 7
• Alaska Drillers 4
• Sonoma Whiners 3
• Martinez Muirs 2

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Soil.

• Civilization itself rests upon the soil.
• --Thomas Jefferson
• We stand only six inches from desolation, for
  that is the thickness of the topsoil layer upon
  which the entire life of the planet exists
• --R. Neil Sampson

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Soil profile

Thickness varies

• Consists of layers called horizons.
• Simplest
• A topsoil
• B subsoil
• C parent material
• But most have O, A, E, B, C, and R

Figure 8.8
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Soil profile

• O Horizon Organic or litter layer
• A Horizon Topsoil. Mostly inorganic minerals
  with some organic material and humus mixed in.
  Crucial for plant growth
• E Horizon Eluviation horizon loss of minerals
  by leaching, a process whereby solid materials
  are dissolved and transported away
• B Horizon Subsoil. Zone of accumulation or
  deposition of leached minerals and organic acids
  from above
• C Horizon Slightly altered parent material
• R Horizon Bedrock

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Soil as a system

• Parent material, such as bedrock, is weathered to
  begin process of soil formation.

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Soil characterization

• Soil can be characterized by color and several
  other traits
• texture
• structure
• pH

Figure 8.9
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Soil texture
Figure 8.10
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Soil Organisms
Without soil organisms, the earth would be
covered with sterile mineral particles.
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Soil Degradation

• Caused by
• Overcultivating, too much plowing, poor
  planning
• Overgrazing rangeland with livestock
• Deforestation, especially on slopes

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Overgrazing

• When livestock eat too much plant cover on
  rangelands, impeding plant regrowth
• The contrast between ungrazed and overgrazed land
  on either side of a fenceline can be striking.

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Overgrazing

• Overgrazing can set in motion a series of
  positive feedback loops.

Figure 8.21
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Desertification

• A loss of more than 10 productivity due to
• Erosion ---(wind water)
• Soil compaction
• Forest removal
• Overgrazing
• Drought
• Salinization
• Climate change
• Depletion of water resources
• etc.

When severe, there is expansion of desert areas,
or creation of new ones, e.g., the Middle East,
formerly, Fertile Crescent.
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Regions of concern for the health of soils Note
the regions of high human density
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Erosion The Nature of the Problem

• Erosion - natural process, but a disaster when it
  occurs in the wrong place at the wrong time
• Consequence Water table depression results
  leaving crops less able to survive without
  irrigation

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Types of soil erosion
Splash erosion
Rill erosion
Gully erosion
Sheet erosion
Figure 8.11
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Mechanisms of Erosion

• Most soil erosion on agricultural land is rill
  erosion
• Some of the highest erosion rates in the world
  occur in the U.S. and Canada - row crops leave
  soil exposed

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How much land is lost to erosion on ag lands?

• 28 billion tons / year (Enger Smith, Lester
  Brown, Worldwatch)
• 1/3 of global crop land is losing soil to erosion
  faster than it is being renewed (Chiras)
• 15 million ha of agricultural land lost each
  year (8 million converted to other uses 4
  million to deserts, 3 million to erosion)
  Cunningham and Cunningham.
• 40 of global ag lands have erosion issues
  (Miller)

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Soil conservation

• As a result of the Dust Bowl,
• the U.S. Soil Conservation Act of 1935 and
• the Soil Conservation Service (SCS)
  were created.
• SCS Local agents in conservation districts
  worked with farmers to disseminate scientific
  knowledge and help them conserve their soil.

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Recent soil conservation laws

• The U.S. has continued to pass soil conservation
  legislation in recent years
• Food Security Act of 1985
• Conservation Reserve Program, 1985
• Freedom to Farm Act, 1996
• Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture Program,
  1998
• Internationally, there is the UNs FAR program
  in Asia.

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Soil conservation

• Many nations followed the U.S. lead
• Today local soil conservation agents help
  farmers in many places in the world.
• Brazils no-till effort is based on local
  associations.
• Farmer and extension agent in Colombia

Figure 8.15
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Preventing soil degradation

• Several farming strategies to prevent soil
  degradation
• Crop rotation
• Contour farming
• Intercropping
• Terracing
• Shelterbelts
• Conservation tillage

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Conservation tillage Shelterbelts Intercropping Te
rracing Contour farming
Figure 8.16b
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California Farm Environment

• Mix
• 35 million people
• 45 federal ownership on 100 million acres
• And worlds most diverse agriculture
• What results
• A scramble for how and when to protect or develop
  agricultural land

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Farming has become a very complex enterprise

• Farmers are besieged by numerous laws and
  regulations that restrict their behavior with
  respect to
• Land use (environmental impacts, open space,
  endangered species, etc)
• Chemical applications (health and safety, air and
  water pollution)
• Treatment of crops (food safety, etc).
• Labor laws..

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But,.

• Despite the regulations, farms remain our nations
  largest polluter as a land use group and
  constitute the focus of several new EPA
  regulations and rules.

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Environmentalists love / hate relationship with Ag

• Agriculture creates pollution
• Non-point source pollution is now the biggest
  contributor to degrading water quality, Ag is the
  biggest non-point source.
• Agriculture protects open space
• California has 184 land trusts (more than any
  other state by a lot (eg, KS-8). These work to
  save open space, and in some instances protect
  farm land as farm land.
• Agriculture degrades habitat
• Erosion, grazing, pesticides,.
• Agriculture provides habitat
• Grazing and forbs, rice and ducks, etc

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Sustainable Agriculture

• Sustainable agriculture (regenerative farming) -
  goal is to produce food and fiber on a
  sustainable basis and to repair damage caused by
  destructive practices
• Soil conservation - land management, ground
  cover, climate, soil type, tillage system
  important

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Programs work to maintain yield and reduce
pesticide application by integrating biocontrol,
crop rotation, tillage control and other
traditional and innovative techniques.
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Low-input Sustainable Agriculture
vs the corporate farm one farm in CA is 5,000
acres and has cash flow of 50 million
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Organic and Locally Grown Foods
Organic foods increasingly dominated by big
business ---organic certification implemented in
2003.
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US now has an organic certification program
Pros Quality assurance Cons Expensive and
small Org farmers are often opting out
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Food and Agriculture

• GMOs carry risks that are poorly understood
  (probably small, but we just dont know)
• GMOs will not alleviate international tension
  over the advantages enjoyed by the developed
  world.
• What can you do eating organic eating locally
  produced food
• California and agriculture
• The scramble for land
• Farmers and their contribution toward conserving
  habitat

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Major Food Sources
APPENDIX
Crops

• Three major crops
• High latitudes - potatoes, barley, oats, rye
• Warm, wet areas - roots and tubers
• Dry regions of Africa - sorghum and millet
• Fruits and vegetables

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Meat, Milk, and Seafood
APPENDIX

• Milk and meat highly prized, but distribution
  inequitable
• About 90 of the grain grown in North America is
  used to feed cattle, hogs, poultry, and other
  animals!
• Seafood - important protein source in many
  countries - threatened by overharvesting and
  habitat destruction

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Regional soil differences and agriculture

• Soil and soil profiles vary from place to place,
  with implications for agriculture.
• Amazonian rainforest soil Lots of rain leaches
  nutrients from topsoil out of reach of plant
  roots. Other nutrients taken up by lush
  vegetation, leaving little in soil.
• Thus when farmed, soil gives out after a few
  years.
• Kansas prairie soil Low rainfall keeps
  nutrients in topsoil, where plants take them up
  and recycle them back into soil when they die.
  Topsoil rich and productive.

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Essential Nutrients
APPENDIX

• Malnourishment - a nutritional imbalance caused
  by a lack of specific dietary components or an
  inability to utilize essential nutrients
• Protein deficiency diseases kwashiorkor (low
  protein), marasmus (low calories and protein)
• Iron deficiency - anemia - most severe in India
• Iodine deficiency - goiter, hyperthyroidism

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Conclusions Challenges

• Human population continues to grow, requiring
  more food production.
• Soil erosion is a problem worldwide.
• Salinization, waterlogging, and other soil
  degradation problems are leading to
  desertification.
• Grazing and logging, as well as cropland
  agriculture, contribute to soil degradation.

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Conclusions Solutions

• Green revolution advances have kept up with food
  demand so far. Improved distribution and slowed
  population growth would help further.
• Farming strategies like no-till farming, contour
  farming, terracing, etc., help control erosion.
• Government laws, and government extension agents
  working with farmers, have helped improve farming
  practices and control soil degradation.
• Best management practice guidelines for grazing
  and logging practices exist that have far less
  impact on soils.

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Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

• How are GMOs invented?
• What is being used?
• What are the possible consequences?
• How much to we know about possible negative
  consequences?
• Who regulates GMOs and how?

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GMO news is everywhere!
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New Scientist
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• A) SEQUENCING
• Heat the DNA to unravel it.
• Amplify the DNA (make many copies)
• Use an enzyme to cut the DNA
• Use fragments of known DNA composition to line
  up with unknown DNA and combine with fragments
• Migrate them on a gel to get sets of chromosome
  lengths
• .

• All multicellular organisms contain cells with
  chromosomes in the cell nuclei.
• These chromosomes are DNA molecules. The DNA
  contains the instruction manual for the
  organism, containing codes for proteins that
  cells will make.

• B) Identifying the GENES
• Cut portions out of DNA (on callus tissue)
• Examine function from adult plants to identify a
  region of a chromosome that houses a gene

• C) Inserting Genes
• Cut the DNA from its source organism (e.g.,
  Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt))
• Replicate the DNA segment
• Use a vector (usually a virus or bacterial
  plasmid to carry new gene
• Infect undifferentiated cells (stem cells or
  callus cells) with thousands of plasmids.
• Segregate and keep cells that have taken up new
  gene

graphics from GlaxoSmithKline
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The US leads the world in land planted with GMO
crops
2002.
Total 58.7 million ha (TX)
(roughly KS and NB, combined)
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Transgenic Crop Releases
1997-20011000/year 691 in 2002 gt 95 approved
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What are the crops? What does the modification
accomplish?

• Corn, canola, cotton, tomatoes, rice
• Herbivore resistance, herbicide resistance,
  stress tolerance, (nutritional quality)

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Crops with USDA consultation

• Corn 17
• Canola / Rape 11
• Tomato 6
• Cotton 5
• Potato 3
• Soybean 3
• All others 9

• Monsanto 18
• AgrEvo 7
• Calgene 5
• 18 companies with 3 or fewer
• 52 of 54 for use in human food
• 44 of 54 for use in animal feed

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Environmental Impacts - Pros

• Reduce pesticide applications
• Developing crops that are resistant to herbicides
  with a low residence time in the soils allows
  farmers to use these (e.g., Roundup), rather than
  more toxic and persistent chemicals (e.g.,
  Atrazine).
• Reduce water pollution
• Growing corn with low phosphorus content, results
  in low phosphorus excrement from cows fed that
  corn, reducing runoff pollution

How much financial incentive is there for a
company to produce such a product?
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Potential Positive Impacts on Human Health

• Increase nutritional value of rice (golden rice)
• Insert vaccines for things like dysentery into
  foods like bananas (or vitamins)

NOTE The counter argument is that the better
approach is to solve the problem directly. We
dont need higher nutrition rice if the people
arent fundamentally starving. We dont need
vaccines for dysentery if we provide clean
drinking water.
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Environmental Impacts - Cons

• Resistance in pests
• Accelerate traditional resistance if more
  herbicide is used crop because the crop is
  resistant
• New forms of resistance---Bt
• Horizontal Gene flow
• Recombination to form new pathogens
• It is a microbe that is used to put the genes in
  jumping genes
• Cross-fertilization with wild types
• Collateral Damage
• If GMO crops are resistant to one herbivore, then
  it may have collateral negative impacts on
  non-target species (Bt-corn and monarch
  butterflies)

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Policy Who has control?

• US Dept. of Health and Human Services
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• US Dept of Agriculture (USDA)
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
  (APHIS)
• Issues permits to bring in bioengineered plants

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• APHIS regulates the release of plants and animals
• Includes importing species for commercial
  production or sale
• Includes GMOs
• Burden of proof is such that species must be
  shown to be harmful to be denied.
• Requiring that the species has become a pest or
  problem already here or somewhere else
• Same is true of exotic species, which has
  resulted in a very expensive non-native species
  problem.

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US Food and Drug Policy

• FDA has argued that existing regulations are
  sufficient to handle bioengineered foods, no new
  regulations required (no labeling required)
• FDA requests consultation voluntary, few so far
• http//www.cfsan.fda.gov/lrd/biocon.htmllist
• FDA does not require labeling for any
  bioengineered products if the product is not
  substantively different nor a comprehensive
  review process for new products
• laurate canola oil a new name for a GMO canola
  that produces more lauric acid

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An aside regarding social justice

• GMOs are patented organisms
• Is it fair to patent an organism?
• GMOs are functionally sterile so growers must
  keep buying the seed product
• Does this help the developing world?
• The ethics of bioproducts and profit the case of
  drug discovery and Yellowstone

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Grow your own Pesticides

• Bt toxins.
• Bacillus thuringiensis is a soil bacterium that
  produces a protoxin.
• The protoxin, in a crystalline form has been used
  for years as an organic pesticide
• Once in the gut of some insects, an alkaline
  environment leads to the production of simpler
  toxins as the insect breaks the protoxin down.
• The toxins dissolve the gut of the insect,
  killiing them
• GMOs have an inserted the gene from Bt
• Plant produces Bt-like prototoxin
• Of 50 early FDA consultations, 21 have been for
  herbivore resistance

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Bt Corn Bt etc

• Examples
• Corn (stem borers)
• Potatoes (Colorado potato beetle, potato virus)
• Does not work on leafhoppers
• Cotton (budworms)
• Tomato (lepidopterans)
• Environmental Defense has testified to EPA
  regarding ancillary effects of Bt corn on monarch
  butterfly populations.
• Bt corn pollen (which contains the protoxin) is
  dispersed.
• Some lands on milkweeds, a required food of
  monarchs.
• Kills monarchs, Could lead to serious population
  decline

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Bt concerns

• There is a strong track record on chemical use
  resulting in selection in the pests for
  tolerance. GMOs will too.
• Every herbicide and pesticide has resulted in an
  increased tolerance among pests.
• The ubiquity of the Bt crops is already causing
  concern for its limited lifespan of utility.
  Monsanto is now recommending intercropping with
  non-BT types.
• Could be the demise of our best organic pesticide
• Build-up of stable protoxins in the soil reduces
  soil organisms leading to auxiliary problems
• Opposition is that the only real benefactor of
  the product is Monsanto, not the farmer, nor
  society

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Round-up Ready Crops

• By adding genes from herbicide-resistant weeds,
  crop can then be sprayed with herbicides, with no
  detrimental effect
• Examples Cotton canola, corn, squash
• Net good or bad?
• Facilitates increased herbicide application on
  crops
• Allows the application of less persistent, milder
  herbicides
• Future will likely accelerate development of
  herbicide tolerance in weeds
• Of 50 consultations, 26 have been for herbicide
  tolerance

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Terminator Technology

• In order to retain proprietary rights, companies
  want to keep rights to seed.
• This has been happening for years with hybrid
  corn
• Terminator technology was developed in 1996
• Since then 6 FDA actions have focused on ability
  to add male sterility to engineered crops.
• Will this also help limit unintended spread of
  genes?

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One more issue on Policy

• Lacking governmental intervention, consumers in
  many sectors have called for labeling
• European community would like mandatory labeling
  of all products
• Alternative is to regulate honest labeling of
  GMO-free products
• FDA just got there with organic in 2002