Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., told Clinton administration officials Thursday that the issues of biotechnology and genetically modified organisms have moved beyond regulatory and trade issues to the consumer and political level -- and that they need to organize a new multiagency effort to deal with growing public concern.

Kerrey made the statement at a Senate Finance International Trade Subcommittee hearing on preparations for the upcoming Seattle round of trade talks.

His comments came just after Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade David Aaron had testified that the United States would oppose reopening the Uruguay Round sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, which says decisions on approval of biotech products must be based on science. Aaron said the Europeans want to open the agreement to include "their infamous precautionary principle," which would allow countries to ban products because they had not been proven safe rather than banning them because they are proven unsafe.

Kerrey said the administration GMO initiative should involve the National Institutes of Health, the HHS Department, the FDA and the surgeon general. Kerrey told Aaron that he may not want to open the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, but the issue may no longer be in his " balliwick." Kerrey said that as a consumer he makes a lot of decisions that are not based on science, adding, "If you tell me to make a science-based decision, I may tell you to go to hell."

At the hearing Aaron vigorously defended the safety of GMOs, saying "not one rash, one sore throat or one cough is attributable" to biotechnology. Pressed by reporters in the hallway afterward, a visibly annoyed Aaron said he believes environmental groups are leading the charge against GMOs and added, "All of this is hysteria."

Asked whether farmers should plant GMO crops, Aaron said, "Each farmer has to make his own decision."

At a separate Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Thursday on biotech, Consumers Union testified that FDA guidelines are not strict enough to detect whether foods could be altered to expose people unknowingly to allergens, and that genetic transfers could result in increased toxicity and the may reduce the levels of nutrients in foods.

At the Finance hearing, Kerrey also told Aaron, USDA and USTR officials that he thinks they will have a hard time selling the "glories" of the U.S. farm program's decoupling of government payments from farm production because U.S. farmers are so unhappy with it.

Kerrey told the officials that he "fears for the worst" for them at the Seattle meeting.

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