Cardineau joins federal panel
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.
The board was established in 2006 to inform and advise Johanns on developments in agricultural biotechnology.
Gary Marchant, the center's executive director, says the appointment is a coup for Cardineau and the College of Law .
“It will confirm his status as one of the nation's leading experts on the science, policy and law of biotechnology,” Marchant says.
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.
Cardineau says he is looking forward to the panel's work.
“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.”
Cardineau acknowledges that some people are concerned about consuming genetically modified food, but it's a practice that's been around for 10 years.
“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.”