Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [131]
The Federal Register notice on this burning question takes up 46 pages of fine print. Parts of it are wonderfully academic and professorial, as respondents to the request for public comment paid close attention to the precise meanings of words. Some, for example, argued that “plant-pesticide” is inappropriate and inaccurate because it means “pest killer,” and this meaning is wrong because genetic modifications do not kill pests but, instead, make the plants undesirable to pests or invulnerable to attack. Furthermore, plants labeled as pesticides “might be poorly received by the public, and the public perception of a promising branch of science could be tarnished.” Others asked why the agency would attempt to fix something that was not broken; if the EPA changed the name “plant-pesticide” to “a more euphemistic name to satisfy one interest group, other interest groups will soon be urging it to change the names of other types of pesticide products to have better marketing potential.” Others suggested alternatives such as “Frankenplants,” “Pandora pesticides,” or “alien pesticides.” Still others contended that use of plant-expressed protectants “obscures the legal issues and attempts to mislead the public into believing that these pesticides are not pesticides at all.” The EPA’s explanation of the reasons for its eventual decision to choose “plant-incorporated protectants” is worthy of an advanced college text in postmodern English:
EPA believes the adjective “plant-incorporated” more accurately conveys the sense that these pesticides are produced and used in the plant. EPA will therefore utilize this adjective in concert with the term “protectant” to describe this type of pesticide. EPA chose the adjective “plant-incorporated” rather than the adjective “plant-expressed,” because the word “expressed” represents a technical term of art, and in this instance it appeared preferable to use the term “incorporated” which also encompasses a meaning found in the common English dictionary . . . i.e., “joined or combined into a single unit or whole.” The term “plant-incorporated” may thus be better understood by the general public than the term “plant-expressed.58
With this euphemism firmly in place, the EPA could conclude its evaluation of the health and environmental risks of five types of Bt corn and renew their registrations for seven years. During these years, companies would have to collect data to demonstrate that these corn varieties did not lead to insect resistance or unexpected health or environmental consequences. The renewed registrations did not include StarLink corn.59
This example is not the only time that EPA has altered the use of terms in response to the political goals of industry. EPA registers pesticides in four categories based on their level of toxicity. All carry warning labels—or used to. Late in 2001, the agency agreed that makers of pesticides registered in the least toxic category did not need to place the word caution on their labels. The public, said officials, had difficulty understanding the hierarchy of warnings about regulated pesticides, which ranged from “caution” at the low end to “poison” (accompanied by a skull and crossbones) at the high end. The agency was unable to think of a milder word than “caution,” so it chose to use nothing at all.60
Such examples may seem trivial—humans are not much affected by the Bt toxin and the least toxic pesticides are, by definition, not very toxic—but they indicate the degree to which federal agencies respond to the commercial and political concerns of the regulated industries rather than to the health or safety concerns of the public. They also reveal the lack of transparency—the openness of federal processes to public scrutiny and debate—in decision-making processes that affect this industry. Overall, they raise serious questions about inequities in the political process and the effects of such inequities