<div dir="ltr"><div>The potential impacts of genetic drift and gene pollution from cultivars or otherwise modified plant species on the integrity of native species has been a topic of discussion and debate for some time. So I thought that this message may be of interest to this listserve.<br></div><div><br></div>As a bit of background, medicinal plants that are intended for human consumption are regulated as food in the United States. As such, issues that impact our food system (i.e., agricultural production systems) also impact the medicinal plant industry. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) is a national trade association that represents many in the herbal products industry. <div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Patricia S. De
Angelis, Ph.D.</span><br></div><div><div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Botanist, US Fish
& Wildlife Service-Division of Scientific Authority</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Chair, Plant Conservation Alliance-Medicinal
Plant Working Group</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">703-358-1708 x 1753</span></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<p style="text-align:left;color:rgb(50,50,50);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" align="left"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)" color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman">May 14, 2015</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">AHPA submits comments on agricultural coexistence; calls on USDA to establish "non-GMO" food labels and to require GMO farmers to create buffer zones to prevent drift</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><span style="font-size:12pt">The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) submitted comments this week on the subject of "agricultural coexistence" to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). USDA describes this term to mean "the concurrent cultivation of conventional, organic, identity-preserved, and genetically engineered crops consistent with farmer choices and consumer preferences," and the agency has maintained a focus on this subject for the last several years.</span></p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">AHPA comments stress that mitigating the risk of unintentional genetically modified organism (GMO) presence should be a top priority and that responsibility for mitigation, and for failure to mitigate, should be borne by owners and farmers of GMO crops. Similarly, AHPA's comments assert that responsibility to mitigate pesticide drift should be borne by farmers who use pesticides.</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">"There has been a lot of discussion on how farmers should be compensated if unwanted GMO material or pesticides end up on an organic or non-GMO farm," noted Michael McGuffin, AHPA's president. "Our comments suggest more attention on avoiding farm-to-farm drift by having farms that grow GMO crops or use pesticides support coexistence with preventive actions."</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Specifically, AHPA's comments express the view that "adequate measures, such as buffer zones or windbreaks, should be required on farms on which GMO crops are cultivated and that these farms should be responsible to ensure that such measures are sufficient to prevent unintended GMO drift beyond the farm's boundaries." The comments also request that USDA establish such a requirement for GMO farms "if this is within the agency's current regulatory authority, or ... seek this authority from the U.S. Congress if necessary."</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">AHPA's comments also cite comments made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at March meeting on agricultural coexistence, in which Vilsack stated: "Consumers ... have a right to know about their food ... and how it is cultivated."</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">The comments reiterate AHPA's longstanding support for a USDA mandated voluntary non-GMO labeling program, and encourage USDA to "recognize that any crop or agricultural product produced in compliance with the National Organic Program (NOP) that may be labeled as '100 percent organic' or 'organic' should also be allowed to be labeled as 'non-GMO' or a similar term as USDA may come to define."</p>
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<span><a style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline" shape="rect" href="http://www.ahpa.org/Portals/0/pdfs/15_0511_AHPA_Comments_APHIS_Coexistence.pdf" target="_blank">Download AHPA's comments >></a></span> </div>
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<td height="10" valign="top" width="100%" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left">(<a href="http://www.ahpa.org/Portals/0/pdfs/15_0511_AHPA_Comments_APHIS_Coexistence.pdf">http://www.ahpa.org/Portals/0/pdfs/15_0511_AHPA_Comments_APHIS_Coexistence.pdf</a>)</td>
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<table style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="left"><div style="max-width:620px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" align="center"><table style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><br></td><td valign="top" width="620" rowspan="1" colspan="1" align="center"><table style="font-family:verdana,arial;font-size:8pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)" border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><div style="font-family:verdana,arial;font-size:8pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>American Herbal Products Association<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186)"> | </span>8630 Fenton St.<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186)"> | </span>Suite 918<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186)"> | </span>Silver Spring<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186)"> | </span>MD<span style="color:rgb(186,186,186)"> | </span>20910</div></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td rowspan="1" colspan="1"><img height="5" vspace="0" border="0" hspace="0" width="1" alt="" src="https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/1101116784221/S.gif"></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table>
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