History of the NABC

The demonstration in the early 1970s of the ability to "cut and stitch" genes instituted transgenic experimentation. Scientific concern about possible risk to laboratory scientists and technicians performing experiments led The National Institutes of Health to create the Recombinant Advisory Committee to oversee transgenic experimentation. Favorable experience gained from this cautious approach has essentially eliminated the need for laboratory oversight. In the 1980s, concern was directed to field introductions.

In October 1987, the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), located on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, held a meeting where experts and others focused discussion on the field introduction of five types of transgenic plant modifications of major crops expected to be ready for commercialization within the next five years. This meeting introduced the open discussion and workshop format, and the approach produced the first consensus that the risk of field introductions of transgenic crop plants had, in most cases, insignificant risk. Two years later, BTI held a similarly structured meeting on the food and feed safety issues of the consumption of the near-term transgenic plants. Allergenicity was identified as a possible risk.

Following this successful experience in organizing open forums to address timely and difficult issues, Ralph W.F. Hardy at BTI, and Robert Nicholas, a Washington lawyer and former government staff person, formed the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) and invited Cornell University, Iowa State University, and University of California, along with BTI, to become initial members. The NABC annual meetings, beginning in 1989, address the major timely issues of agricultural biotechnology in discussion open to all the stakeholders. The NABC has grown to include more than 30 of the leading not-for-profit research and educational institutions in North America.

The NABC provides all stakeholders the opportunity to speak, to listen, and to learn about issues related to the safe, efficacious, and equitable development of agricultural biotechnology. Since its inception, the NABC has addressed many major issues: sustainable agriculture in 1989; food safety and nutritional quality in 1990; social issues in 1991; animal biotechnology in 1992; risk in 1993; public good in 1994; discovery, access, and ownership of genes in 1995; novel products and new partnerships in 1996; challenged environments in 1997; environmental quality in 1998; world food security, sustainability, and industrial consolidation in 1999; and the biobased economy in 2000. Attendees at these meetings include farmer/growers; consumers; corporate, government and academic representatives; and public-interest groups. More than 80,000 NABC Reports of its annual conferences have been freely distributed worldwide.

In 1998, the NABC took a leadership role in generating a concise, comprehensive, and compelling Vision for Agricultural Research and Development in the 21^st Century. This statement, supported by the member institutions, projects not only improved feed, food, and fiber from the agricultural research of the 21^st Century, but agriculture's key role in securing our future through the biobased production of energy, chemicals and materials from a renewable source. In 1999, the NABC issued the NABC Statement 2000 on Agricultural Biotechnology: Promise, Process, Regulation, and Dialogue to provide a concise but comprehensive statement about agricultural biotechnology. Included in this statement is an invitation to those organizations with concerns to an open forum discussion of the issues so that society, in terms of quality of life, and security and environmental sustainability, will benefit most at minimum risk.

In addition to its annual meetings and publications, the NABC hosts a congressional briefing each spring that brings together congressional staffers and others from agencies and organizations with an interest in agricultural biotechnology. The objective of the briefing is to provide attendees insight to the recommendations of the annual meeting, and to encourage informal discussion on the current issues of biotechnology.

As with any change, there are issues that need to be discussed in open sessions where all stakeholders have the opportunity to speak, to listen, and to learn. The NABC continues to strive to provide such an opportunity and to contribute to the informed environment for transgenics in the U.S.