Cardineau joins federal panel

March 30, 2007

Guy Cardineau, a professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, has been appointed to a federal panel charged with making recommendations about the development and use of genetically engineered agricultural products. Cardineau, a faculty fellow in the college's Center for the Study of Law, Science & Technology and a research professor at ASU's Biodesign Institute, was appointed to the USDA Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns.<separator></separator>The board was established in 2006 to inform and advise Johanns on developments in agricultural biotechnology.<separator></separator>Gary Marchant, the center's executive director, says the appointment is a coup for Cardineau and the College of Law .<separator></separator>“It will confirm his status as one of the nation's leading experts on the science, policy and law of biotechnology,” Marchant says.<separator></separator>Cardineau was nominated by Marchant and a dozen others, including Eugene Sander, vice provost and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona , and Keith Webber, deputy director of the Office of Pharmaceutical Science in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.<separator></separator>Cardineau says he is looking forward to the panel's work.<separator></separator>“I have the perspective of being in the trenches,” he says. “I hope to bring an ag-biotech science perspective, mitigated with the understanding of the legal and regulatory issues.”<separator></separator>Cardineau acknowledges that some people are concerned about consuming genetically modified food, but it's a practice that's been around for 10 years.<separator></separator>“I understand the technology and am not afraid of it,” he says. “Science is a big, dark room, and people are very often afraid of the dark. I do believe the technology is beneficial, and I think it's safe, but I understand there are issues to it.”<separator></separator>