dumping GM in asia
brian - 24.09.2002 09:19
Supporters of genetically modified (GM) foods were dealt a serious
blow yesterday by the Royal Society, a group of leading British
scientist. The group said GM foods must be more rigorously
investigated before allowing them into baby food or to be marketed to
pregnant or breast feeding women, the elderly, and those with chronic
disease.
GM FOOD - ON SECOND THOUGHT
Supporters of genetically modified (GM) foods were dealt a serious
blow yesterday by the Royal Society, a group of leading British
scientist. The group said GM foods must be more rigorously
investigated before allowing them into baby food or to be marketed to
pregnant or breast feeding women, the elderly, and those with chronic
disease. The scientists were also concerned that the new generation
of GM crops might cause allergies, particularly among farmers or
workers in the food industry. The new report was a marked shift for
the Royal Society which issued a positive report on GM food in 1998.
The new report stated that GM technology "…could lead to unpredicted
harmful changes in the nutritional state of foods." The reported
also expressed concerned for any group with restricted diets - for
example the poor of central America, who have maize as 50% of their
food - whose health might be affected by poorer nutritional standards
in the new crops. The scientists also were anxious about what is
known as the rule of substantial equivalence, which the US
authorities had employed in many cases to decide that a GM product
did not need testing because it was substantially equivalent to an
existing food. The report said this might disguise the presence of
unknown toxins, anti-nutrients, or allergens, and should not be
accepted in the UK or the rest of Europe where rigorous testing
should apply.
At almost the same time another group, English Nature, released a
study which showed that a generation of super weeds was developing in
Canada as a result of GM. Weeds in field margins of some distance
from GM crops "stacked up" genes from modified crops and themselves
became resistant to a series of herbicides. The study said that
rogue plants are resulting from the cultivation of genetically
modified crops. Dr Brian Johnson, English Nature's biotechnology
advisor, said: "The consequences for farmers could be that the
resulting crops would be harder to control and they might have to use
different, and more environmentally damaging, herbicides to control
them."
AND… Greenpeace activists yesterday blocked the unloading of a US
shipment of genetically modified soy in Batangas, Philippines in an
effort to prevent further genetic contamination of the Asian food
supply. The activists occupied the unloading equipment of General
Milling Corporation and unfurled a banner that read "USA Stop Dumping
GMOs on Asia" on the hull of the cargo ship Qui Gon Jinn. The
shipment is part of over two million tons of US soy annually destined
for South East Asia where the US GM industry is consistently
exploiting the fact that most countries lack regulation on GM food
and have no system in place to monitor or test for its safety. "Asia
should not be a dumping ground for genetically contaminated
products," said Beau Baconguis, Genetic Engineering Campaigner for
Greenpeace Southeast Asia in the Philippines. "We should not be
forced to feed our children with food the rest of the world is
increasingly rejecting." The Asian market has recently become a
headache to the US GM industry as the main regional economic powers
such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are preparing or
enforcing GM regulations and labeling of GM food. China, the largest
importer of US Soya in the world, has already published regulations
that will impose tight control over GM grain imports and introduce
mandatory labeling of GM food prompting warnings from the US trade
representatives. A neighboring ASEAN country Thailand has a draft
labeling legislation in place and has banned the commercialization of
GM crops in the country.
Over 2 million tons of GMOs are dumped by the US in the region with
at least half of that ending up in the Philippines in everyday
products such as Isomil babyfood, Nesvita cereal drink, Doritos chips
and Knorr cream of corn soup. A year ago Philippines President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government promised to give consumers GE
food labeling. She has so far betrayed that promise.
Sources: Guardian, The Herald (UK), New Scientist, Greenpeace
International, Greenpeace/SE Asia
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