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Excellence Through Stewardship is the first biotechnology industry-coordinated initiative to provide stewardship and quality management programs(QMP) for the full product life cycle of biotech-derived plant products. The program is intended to promote the responsible use of agricultural biotechnology, the continued global adoption of plant biotechnology and the enhanced value of biotech-derived plant products in the marketplace.
 
This new stewardship program builds on the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO’s) efforts to promote consistently high quality standards across the agricultural biotechnology industry for product stewardship and quality management issues.

Many companies already have quality management programs in place. In taking the next step, ETS provides industry guidelines for the adoption of stewardship objectives, principles, and management practices, and third-party audits.

ETS PROGRAM COMPONENTS

1.  Adoption of Stewardship Principles and Management Practices

in which member companies:

• shall have stewardship programs in place for the full product life cycle,
• will go beyond "self-assessment" of their stewardship programs and quality management systems and participate in independenet third-party audits,
• shall include stewardship and quality management in applicable contracts and agreements involving plant products or biotechnology-derived research traits,
• shall reach out to others involved in the development and production of plant products and biotechnology-derived traits to encourage them to implement stewardship programs, and
• shall engage others in the food and feed value chain to promote alignment of stewaradship and quality management systems.

2.  Publication of Guides to Understanding and Implementing Stewardship and Quality Management Systems that promote this initiative across the entire plant biotechnology industry

3.  A Global Stewardship Audit Program that involves third party audits to verify that stewardship programs and quality management systems are in place.