Genetically modified foods; are our regulators letting us down ?

The articles below are from the West Australian Newspaper on Tuesday the 21st October. It seems that Food Standards Australia and New Zealand is again letting the consumer down and failing to protect our health. The best we can do, in my opinion is to be informed and make our own health choices. Read, become informed and if you can, attend the Rally (see below for details).

If you want the basics on genetic modification, to give you the background for these articles, read this past CleanLife e-newsletter by Janet Grogan, click here

Watchdog ‘panders to GM food giants’
WELLINGTON

The food authority responsible for approving genetically modified products has been accused of pandering to agrochemical giants at the expense of consumer health in a report set to be released today.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand is gambling with the health of consumers, the director of the University of Canterbury’s Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, Professor Jack Heinemann, has warned.
He pointed out that it was one of only a few regulators to have approved every application for genetically engineered food products.
“Many other regulators have at least stood up once where FSANZ appears to have cowered under industry or political pressure,” he said, describing the authority as the victim of “flawed legislation that mixes the goals of trade and public health”.
Over the past 12 years, the authority has approved more than 50 varieties of genetically engineered crops, from corn and soy to potato and sugar beet, the report compiled by Greenpeace found. Among the products approved, despite what Greenpeace described as a weight of harmful evidence, were:

• A strain of corn (MON863) developed by Monsanto found to cause liver and kidney toxicity when fed to rats in a peer-reviewed French scientific study last year;

• A Syngenta-manufactured corn (GE alpha-amylase) specifically designed to be used in bioethanol production and not intended for human consumption, yet with the potential to enter the human food chain through unchecked US imports;

• Another Syngenta corn (GE Bt10) approved by the authority despite being banned by the European Union and Japan because no safety assessments have yet been conducted;

• A Monsanto canola, still the subject of debate in the EU and banned in Austria after Monsanto’s own testing found increases in liver sizes in rats of up to 16 per cent.
Professor Heinemann said many of the authority’s decisions on genetically engineered food were based on assumptions and “picking and choosing only the science (the authority) wants to believe”. He said while more stringent food labelling laws were being passed in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, in Australia products produced by animals fed GM crops required no labels.



Critics say GM canola buffer zone is too small by JODIE THOMSON

Growers of genetically modified canola will need to set up buffer zones of just 5m to keep the GM crops away from regular varieties if WA follows national industry guidelines, sparking fears of contamination if the State adopts the controversial technology.
As the new State Government prepares for large scale trials of GM canola, possibly by next year, critics of the technology warned yesterday contamination of non-GM crops would be inevitable if industry was allowed to “self-regulate” segregation.
Network of Concerned Farmers spokeswoman Julie Newman said that as a result, farmers would not be able to promise consumers that their crops were entirely free of GM seed.
Expensive testing, which could cost up to $1000 per sample, could be used, but even that was not a guarantee the product was completely free from GM contamination.
“Almost overnight we could lose our ability to provide what the customers want, and that is choice in whether they consume GM foods or not,” she said. Mrs Newman said buffer zones used in NSW and Victoria, where commercial GM canola crops were grown, were only just bigger than the standard farm firebreak.
In a NCF report, due to be released at a rally in Perth next Thursday, she argues the small buffer zone could be breached easily by wind, floods, animals and machinery carrying the seeds. She said the Government needed to introduce strict liability legislation to ensure the company providing the GM seed was liable for containing its product to prevent potential economic loss for GM-free farmers.
“At the moment it is the GM-free farmer who must keep it out, rather than the GM industry keeping it in,” she said. “The only legal recourse is farmer suing farmer, which becomes a legal and moral nightmare for growers.” Campaigners will be rallying against the release of GM crops amid expectations the Barnett Government will take a more lenient stance than the previous Labor government.
Maggie Lilith, of the Conservation Council of WA, said the rally next week would include not just “greenies” but consumers and conventional farmers who were worried about crop segregation and labelling of GM foods. A spokesman from industry body AusBiotech said that buffer distances were based on research into gene flow under Australian conditions.
He said the industry had also examined the issue of strict liability, which was normally reserved for products that were considered hazardous. It had found that the current legal process was appropriate given Australia’s regulatory agencies did not consider GM canola hazardous.
Agriculture Minister Terry Redman, who will address the rally, said issues of liability and crop segregation would be examined.
Andy McMillan, of WAFarmers which backs commercial GM canola, said the NCF had chosen “not to have any faith in the regulatory system


I can't really say it better than David Suzuki has;

'Anyone that says GE is perfectly safe is unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying. The reality is we don’t know enough about what we are doing.'
Choosing certified organic foods, avoiding processed food (and choosing certified organic or GMO free foods when you do) and buying direct from the producers are just a few of the key things you can do to ensure your family isn't consuming genetically modified foods.