GM foods 'a failure'

2004-02-23 12:17

Kuala Lumpur - Ten years after the first genetically modified foods appeared on on market shelves, biotech corporations have failed to prove the benefits of the controversial science, an international environmental group said on Monday.

The assessment, in a 51-page report by Friends of the Earth, was released to coincide with the opening here of the first Conference of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a UN accord which came into force last September.

"Contrary to the promises made by the biotech corporations, the reality of the last ten years shows that the safety of GM crops cannot be ensured, that they are neither cheaper nor higher quality and that they are not the magical solution to solve world hunger," said Friends of the Earth spokesperson Juan Lopez.

"The world urgently needs liability laws to make polluters pay for the genetic contamination they make. The process to make such laws possible should be agreed here this week," Lopez said.

The Friends of the Earth report says GM crops have "created novel and alarming environmental problems such as genetic contamination".

Millions still face hunger

The case of Argentina, the world's second-largest producer of GM crops after the United States, proves they are not the solution to feeding the world "since millions of Argentinians face hunger and malnutrition," the report says.

It points out that in Europe distrust of GM foods is so high that it has been removed from the majority of supermarket shelves.

The Kuala Lumpur conference will debate the potential risks of new biotech products and trade guidelines, with a clash likely between European countries and the United States over the labeling of GM foods.

The US has not signed the protocol, which has been ratified by 86 countries and the European Union, but is lobbying hard for the acceptance of GM crops worldwide.

Britain has already made it clear that London plans to take a firm stand.

Labels

Environment Minister Elliot Morley told AFP: "The US has to understand there is enormous sensitivity about genetically-modified food.

"The US has also to understand we would not give blanket approval (to GM food products). There is no chance of that whatsoever."

Europe and the US are already locking horns over GM crops in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where Washington is contesting the European Union's de-facto embargo on importing and planting bio-engineered food.

In a preparatory move towards an expected easing of these restrictions, EU nations have passed tough laws on identifying and labelling food that has GM ingredients, infuriating the US.

"The bottomline must be consumer choice," said Morley. "We do have a number of GM food ingredients which are approved in the UK and they must be labeled and that will be extended to any GM products."

- AFP