Gearing up for the Indonesian Biosafety Regulation

To address the biosafety assessment of genetically modified organisms (GMO) with stacked genes especially in Indonesia, a half-day workshop on Biosafety of Biotech Crops was conducted by the Indonesian Technical Team for Biosafety and Food Safety in collaboration with Croplife Indonesia, Indonesian Botechnology Information Center  and  Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development (ICABIOGRAD) in  Bogor, Indonesia.

Dr. Saturnina C. Halos, Executive Vice President, Arnichem Corporation shared her insights on biosafety regulations in the Philippines. Dr. Robert L. Mc.Donald, Global Regulatory Manager Oilseed Bayer CropScience Inc. discussed biosafety regulation of crops with stacked traits in the U.S. The two speakers shared their experiences to provide the Indonesian government with a better understanding of stacked genes regulations, and to speed up the development of  an appropriate regulatory system. Dr. M. Herman from ICABIOGRAD elaborated on the status of biosafety regulations in Indonesia. Several regulations on transgenic crops are already in place, but Indonesia must pay attention to ethical concerns.  

For more information on this event, visit http://biogen.litbang.deptan.go.id/ or email Dewi Suryani of the Indonesian Biotechnology Information Center at dewisuryani@biotrop.org.