Abandoning a principle

WASHINGTON - Representatives of biotech and food companies are putting an upbeat spin on the Clinton administration's new regulatory policies for bioengineered foods, saying they support the new approach because it could bolster public confidence in the regulation of foods while imposing few if any new burdens on industry.

While it may take a long time to gauge the impact of the new policies on American public opinion, they will certainly have an immediate effect on the opinions of several hundred Americans with offices on Capitol Hill. The regulations virtually assure that Congress will not enact pending legislation that seeks to impose mandatory labeling and lengthy, expensive pre-market review procedures on GM foods. ...