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CORVALLIS, Ore. – Arizona State University professor Gary Marchant will discuss the legal implications of genetically modified foods during a lecture on Thursday, Nov. 15, at Oregon State University.

His talk is part of OSU’s 2007-08 Horning Endowment and Outreach in Biotechnology lecture series. Titled “The Role and Rule of Law in the Global Development of Food Biotechnology,” the lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center’s C&E Auditorium on campus. It is free and open to the public.

Are genetically modified foods safe? Should biotechnology products have special labels? Under what circumstances can nations restrict imports of modified foods? Should genes and modified organisms be patented? These and other difficult questions about biotechnology are ultimately decided by the law. Marchant’s talk will examine the capability of law to decide such issues in a fair, scientifically credible, and socially acceptable manner.

Marchant is the Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also a professor of life sciences at ASU and executive director of the ASU Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology. Marchant teaches environmental, food, genetic, and drug laws and has studied the legal aspects of risk assessment, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

Support for the OSU series comes from the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities, the History Department, and the Wait and Lois Rising Lectureship Fund in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

For more information, contact the History Department at 541-737-3421 or go to http://oregonstate.edu/cla/history/lectures/horning/07_08.php