Biotechnology companies are preventing research on genetically modified crops, say scientists

Researchers are being prevented from comprehensively studying genetically modified crops, due to restrictions by the companies which create them, say 26 corn-insect researchers said in a statement given to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Biotechnology companies typically have clauses in their purchase contracts preventing buyers from using the crops for research. Instead, researchers must directly petition the companies for research rights, allowing the company the right to approve the research results before any studies are published. "If a company can control the research that appears in the public domain, they can reduce the potential negatives that can come out of any research," said University of Minnesota entomologist Ken Ostlie, one of the scientists who signed the statement.

"What is striking," writes Andrew Pollack in The New York Times, "is that the scientists issuing the protest, who are mainly from land-grant universities with big agricultural programs, say they are not opposed to the technology. Rather, they say, the industry’s chokehold on research means that they cannot supply some information to farmers about how best to grow the crops." Seed companies claim the restrictions protect intellectual property rights and meet federal regulatory standards, but federal agencies deny that their regulations prevent university research. (Read more)