Last Wednesday, the FDA released details on the agency’s first new rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FDA now has the authority to detain food products for 30 days simply because it has “reason to believe” they pose a threat to food safety. Signed into law by President Obama this past January, the FSMA gave the FDA new authority to oversee facilities that grow and sell the nation’s produce, including the power to issue mandatory food recalls. As we have seen the FDA’s overzealous raids on raw dairy farms even prior to the enactment of the FSMA, this raises concerns for increased abuse of power.

Superweeds, a side-effect of growing Roundup-Ready genetically modified (GM) crops, are a growing problem. Roundup-Ready crops, engineered to tolerate weedkiller, are the most popular variety of GM crop today. However, many native weeds have evolved their own defense to weedkiller and now occupy 10 million acres of US farmland. Despite this issue being a direct result of growing GM crops, the Obama administration and USDA recently made it clear, they firmly stand beside biotechnology.