Response to Bagavathiannan and Van Acker's "Transgenes and national boundaries - The need for international regulations": Biotechnology developers and regulators already consider transgene movement across national boundaries and the environmental risks posed by adventitious presence of unapproved events are overstated.
Bagavathiannan and Van Acker propose greater international cooperation and information sharing in risk assessment for biotechnology-derived crops because pollen- and seed-mediated gene flow across political boundaries may lead to the adventitious presence of unapproved transgenes at sites along the borders of neighboring countries. However, they fail to convince us that something is wrong with the current situation and provide no details of how it could be improved.
Nickson
Thomas E
TE
Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO 63167, USA. thomas.nickson@monsanto.com
Raybould
Alan F
AF
D051456:Gene Flow; D007391:International Cooperation; D000455:Medicago sativa / Q000235:genetics; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D019076:Transgenes