The Moveable Feast: Legal, Ethical and Social

Implications of Converging Technologies

On Our Dinner Tables

Northeastern University School of Law Winter Symposium 2011Food Law: From Seed to Stomach

January 21, 2011

Linda MacDonald Glenn 2

Linda MacDonald Glenn, JD, LLM

• Assistant Professor, Albany Medical Center, Alden March Bioethics Institute

• JD, LL.M. in Biomedical Ethics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada

• Senior Fellow Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

• Women’s Bioethics Project Scholar

• In a former life, trial lawyer and advocate.

Some of the things we’ll consider….

• What is nano? Nanotechnology in food and food processing.

• Are we are eating nanofood now? And what’s for dinner (in the near future)?

• Pros and Cons: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Yuk Factor

• Rules & Regs: FDA, TSCA , EPA, NIST, OSHA, DOD, DOE, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), NSF, USPTO, and more…

• Challenges and Recommendations

The NBIC Report

Converging Technologies for Improving Human

Performance

Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and

Cognitive Science

NSF/DOC-sponsored report

June 2002

Arlington, Virginia

http://www.technology.gov/reports/2002/NBIC

Just how small is Nano-sized?

• Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 7 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications.

• A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

• A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.

• A single gold atom is about a third of a nanometer in diameter.

• Dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers are known as the nanoscale.

Nano-sizes in perspective

Defining Nanotechology, Nanomaterials, etc…

• Nano definition is a legal minefield, warn scientists*

– Currently, the only legal definition for nanomaterials in the EU is enshrined in the Cosmetics Regulation (EC 1223/2009), which defines nanomaterials (for labeling purposes) as “insoluble or biopersistent and intentionally manufactured… with one or more external dimensions or an internal structure on the scale of 1-100-nanometres.”

– A second definition - which focuses on “intentionally-produced materials in the order of 100-nanometres or less” - is included in the latest draft of the revised Novel Food Regulation, which also calls for nanomaterials to be labeled on food packaging, something many manufacturers oppose.

– A third definition that appears to focus more on size than functionality is being developed by the European Commission's independent Scientific Committee for Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks.

The tricky part: Size matters, but so does shape.

As of August 2010, the ISO (International Organization for Standards) approved Iran’s “Methodology of Categorization and Classification of Nanomaterials,” which presents a methodology and a systematic method to categorize and classify nanomaterials according to their size, chemical nature, properties, and characteristics. (e.g. -‘muramic acid measurement for identification of nanosilver antibacterial activity’)

Nanotechnology + Food = ???

Under some currently proposed definitions GMOs may qualify as Nanofoods.

• )

Over 4,000 types of potatoes in Peru alone. (via crossing breeding, mutagenesis and genetic alteration)

Applications of Nanotechnology to Food

Some examples of the application of nanotechnology/materials & food

• Nanosensors & Food safety – Quality

Determination– Contaminants– Tampering– Aromas– Expiration

date

So what is ‘Nanofood’?

• Nanofood: Food which has intentionally-produced materials in the order of 100-nanometres or less, and undergone one or more technological processes, at the nano-scale level, to manipulate the selection, extraction, storage, combination, transport, increase or decrease in one or more of its properties or characteristics, nutritional and organoleptic properties intrinsic to the substance or linked to specific physiological, social and economic properties of that substance.

Incremental vs Disruptive Technologies

Historical  examples  of  disruptive  food technologies: • The  use  of  fire  to  cook  food• Roller  milling  of  wheat  flour• Refrigeration/freezing• Pasteurization/canning  of  food• Mechanization of kneading dough/bread making

Are  agri-food  nanotechnology  applications  likely  to  be  disruptive  or   incremental? Most  will  be  incremental, downsizing  of  currently  accepted  technology  (like   computer  industry)  

Nanofoods: Now and coming soon

1. Functional foods (e.g., vitamin enriched, probiotics, antioxidants)

2. Targeted Nutrition (Nestle’s iron rich baby formula)

3. Absorption efficiency (Nano B-12, Co-Q 10, Iron)

4. Time released food (for backpackers, military, astronauts)

5. Treatment of obesity (triggering satiation nerves)

6. Nutraceutical foods (Soy Phytoestrogens, chococeuticals, Nano-Coffee)

7. Interactive drinks

AND

Cultured Meat: But Does It Taste Like Chicken?

Cotton Chicken is a design concept that builds on the development of lab-cultured meat. ” It is a pultrusion of

cultured chicken meat, spun like cotton candy, or pulled like fresh pasta. It is then seasoned to perfection, flash-fried, and

wrapped delicately around a skewer of bamboo.”http://dunmag.com/en/2010/10/21/we-are-what-we-eat/

•Controlled production vs. CAFO: Food safety concerns

•Energy Requirements: Building a whole cow requires more energy than building a steak.

•Greater availability of safe protein sources worldwide

http://culturedmeat.blogspot.com/

Responsible Stewardship of Animals

Photo credit unknown

• “In vitro meat has the potential to prevent an enormous amount of suffering .” Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the United States.

• “It’s time to stop killing meat and start growing it.” William Saletan, Slate.com

• "We don't mind taking uncomfortable positions if it means that fewer animals suffer.” Ingrid Newkirk, referring to PETA’s $1 million prize for a commercially viable in-vitro meat product and the attendant internal conflict it generated.

The Bad and the Ugly ‘Yuk’ Factor

• Don’t know the long term health risks or environmental impact.

• Oversight versus Precautionary Principle- Can the FDA handle this? They approve

products, not processes. - Monsanto vs. Geertson

• Lessons to be learned from GMOs and transparency in the food industry.

Recommendations • Identify a range of emerging food

technologies likely to raise social, cultural, environmental or regulatory issues in US and other international markets.

• Proactively scrutinize our current legal and regulatory frameworks re: research, application, and commercialisation of new food technologies. (Oversight and regulation)

• Apply  our  learning  to  facilitate  uptake  and  inform  science  strategy  in   government and policy makers.

Recommendations and Conclusions

• The establishment of a common lexicon between policy makers, implementation agents, and multidisciplinary users for terms such as ‘nanofood’

• The possibility of legal reform and the creation of specialized science courts, where the judges will have ongoing education and training to recognize and deal with these new legal issues and categories that arise from emerging technologies.

In the meanwhile….

Thank you all for listening!

And a special thank you to my research assistant, Lisa

D’Agostino, Graduate of the M.S. Program at AMBI, AMC.