Science vs. Presumption In Assessing Risk

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On September 22, 2000, California Governor Gray Davis signed into law a bill commissioning a report on the benefits and risks of food biotechnology from the California Council on Science and Technology.  The CCST selected a team of principal investigators to contribute sections of the report.  CEI’s Gregory Conko and the Hoover Institution’s Henry I. Miller co-authored Chapter 7, “Science Versus Presumption in Assessing Risk.”  This chapter outlines the risks of biotech plant breeding relative to the risks of conventional breeding, and recommends a regulatory approach to new variety development that is based upon the risks of individual products, rather than on the methods used in their development.