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10 Feb 2004 17:28:19 -0000

Austria Raises Hell over GM Safety

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The Institute of Science in Society

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ISIS Press Release 10/02/04

Austria Raises Hell over GM Safety

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" ISP members, Susan Bardocz, Mae-Wan Ho and Arpad Pusztai among others, briefed

representatives of the Austrian government and Austrian ngos in a workshop held

in Vienna last November. One of the Austrian government representatives, Josef

Hoppichler, subsequently breifed the US-Embassy in Austria. The US Embassy staff

were so impressed that Hoppichler's briefing was translated and circulated by

the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service under Global Agriculture Information

Network (GAIN). This circular is reproduced below. "

 

 

 

Voluntary Report - public distribution

2/2/2004

GAIN Report Number: AU4002

Austria Biotechnology

Austrian Observations on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture 2004

******************************************************

Approved by: Robert H. Curtis, U.S. Embassy, Vienna

Prepared by: Josef Hoppichler

Report Highlights:

Following is a summary of the criticisms and questions Austrian consumers and

scientists raise while discussing Biotechnology. This was translated from an

Austrian Power Point presentation. The Austrians are proud and protective of

their mountain agriculture and their organic crop production. Until we can

answer these questions, or sell Biotech products that provide immediate consumer

benefits, the Biotech promotion issue in Austria, and neighboring countries,

will be frustrated. Answers or replies to any of these observations, official or

unofficial, are welcomed. Biotech opponents believe that the Biotech industry is

unable to adequately respond to these observations.

 

Critical Observations Regarding the Use of Genetic Engineering in Agriculture

and Food

*******************************************************************

By Josef Hoppichler, Federal Institute for Less-Favored and Mountainous Areas

 

Our knowledge of Biotechnology does not even amount to one pico-percent ...

*************************************************************

DID YOU KNOW ...

.... that all in all, only 10 scientific (peer-reviewed) studies have been

published on the health effects of GM-food and feed (4 articles among these

publications were published by the group around Arpad Pusztai and S. Ewen)?

(Pryme I, 2003. In-vivo studies on possible health consequences of GM-Food a.

Feed, Nutrition and Health, 2003, Vol. 17, pp. 1-8. Despite the fact that the

world is full of scientific opinions on the non-hazardous nature of GM-food,

" there is only very limited data on the safety of GM-food. " (Domingo JL (2000),

Health risks of genetically modified foods: many opinions but few data, Science,

288, 1748-1749)

.... that in many cases, the form of integration of the various synthetic genetic

constructions as well as their integration frequencies into the various

different plant genomes are not exactly known, and that the stability of

integration is more than questionable (e.g. jumping genes)?

(Mae-Wan Ho, Transgenic Lines Proven Unstable, http://www.i-sis.org.uk/TLPU.php

Collonier C. et al., Characterization of commercial GMO inserts: a source of

useful material to study genome fluidity. www.crii-gen.org)

.... that we do not know the exact composition of the new proteins, let alone

their folding, and that feeding attempts or various allergenicity tests have

been carried out on the basis of the bacterial proteins only?

(Cf. e.g. Kawata M., Pacific Ecologist, Nov. 2003:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0311/SOO113.htm)

Regarding the evaluation of EU authorization dossiers: " Experimental

toxicological investigations have only been carried out sporadically .... In

none of the cases, potential toxicology-relevant effects of the insertion of

genes were considered .... In none of the applications (for authorization) was

the direct examination of the potentially allergenic properties of the

genetically modified plant and/or the genetically modified plant product

supported by experiments .... "

(SPÖK A., HOFER H., VALENTA R., KIENZL-PLOCHBERGER K., LEHNER P., GAUGITSCH H.:

Toxikologie und Allergologie von GVO-Produkten (Toxicology and Allergology of

GMO-products), Monographien Band 109, UBA (Federal Environment Agency), Wien

(Vienna) 2002.

.... that particularly in connection with the use of herbicide-resistant plants

such as the Roundup Ready soybean, Roundup has a toxic effect upon sperm in

mammals and has a potential of damaging the hormone balance?

(Yousef MI. et al., J Environ Sci Health B. 1995, July 30(4): 513-34; Walsh LP.

et al., Roundup inhibits steroidogenesis by disrupting steroidogenic acute

regulatory (StAR) protein expression, Environ Health Perspect. 2000, Aug.

108(8): 769-76)

.... that 43 % of children reported by their parents as showing severe attention

deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD) had fathers who applied " Phosphonamino " herbicide?

(Garry VF. et al, Birth Defects, Season of Conception, and Sex of Children Born

to Pesticide Applicators Living in the Red River Valley of Minnesota, USA,

Environ Health Perspect. 2002, 110 Suppl. 3:441-9)

.... that analyses of the Danish " Pesticide Leaching Assessment Programme " found

glyphosate and its degradation products in groundwater above the warning

concentration of 0.1µg/l? Denmark has thus restricted the application of

Roundup.

 

GMOs cannot be contained - coexistence is impossible in small-scale farming

structures!

*******************************************************************

DID YOU KNOW ...

.... that in Western Canada, approximately 2.25 million hectares of Roundup

oilseed rape (Canola) are cultivated randomly in terms of geographic

distribution, and that on account of the broad application of Roundup by way of

ploughless cultivation, the entire second growth as well as ruderal populations

are extremely contaminated with GM-oilseed rape, and that double resistances

(glyphosate, gluphosinate) are not uncommon?

(Cf. e.g. R.C. Van Acker et al, GM/non-GM what co-existence in Canada: Roundup

Ready what as a case study. http://www.agrsci.dk/gmcc-03/gmcc_proceedings.pdf)

If politics were to establish a threshold of 0.1% of GMO-contamination,

coexistence of GM and non-GM cultivation would not be possible. The consumer is

practically expected to accept a constant minimum GMO-share in food of up to

0.09% percent without being aware of it.

(Cf. e.g. AEBC (2003), Coexistence and Liability Report,

http://www.aebc.gov.uk/aebc/coexistence_liability.shtml)

 

The Precautionary Principle:

**********************

Open questions: Effects upon food: toxicology, nutritional physiology,

immunology, allergenic potential, endocrine effect?

Open questions: Effects upon the environment: e.g. outcrossings, non-target

organisms?

Result: There is no safe model of prognosis:

Scientific opinions are extremely weakly founded, " ... there is no evidence to

indicate that the placing on the market ... is (not) likely to cause adverse

effects on human and animal health and the environment. "

Even opinions of leading scientific bodies contain mistakes:

The opinion on T25 maize of the EU-SCP, for example, has been corrected:

" ... and the herbicide tolerance trait should not transfer to any other

varieties of cultivated maize " had to be removed, which is why the opinion was

published twice. ( " To err is human " )

Approaches: Rio Declaration of Principles, CBD, Biosafety Protocol, SPS

Agreement

Criteria contained also in the EU Treaty (Article 174) - Precaution and

Prevention:

In developing its environmental policy, the Community takes into account

the available scientific and technical data;

the environmental conditions of the individual regions of the Community;

the economic and social development of the Community on the whole as well as the

balanced development of its regions.

Further Demands: proportionate; non-discriminating; harmonized with measures

previously taken; based on cost-benefit evaluations; constantly examined as to

the scientific background; clear regulations regarding the burden of proof;

questions as to reversibility.

Backgrounds - other criteria:

Hormone administration to farm animals, rBST, BSE (mad cow disease), ... but

also the multi-dimensional structure of European agriculture and the

multi-functional requirements, i.e. strong overlapping of agricultural and

living spaces.

Prospects for non-GM Areas

Non-GM areas are necessary

in order to link the protection of biodiversity with sustainable agriculture (no

release in nature protection zones; cf. FSE in GB) in order to provide

development areas for organic farming

in order to make available consolidated areas for non-GM seed production

in order to guarantee a non-GM preservation of plant genetic resources

as balancing and regeneration areas in case of unforeseen developments

" Polluter Pays " Principle has to apply to GMO-contamination:

Letter by Tom Daschle (U.S. Senate Democratic Majority Leader, November, 2001)

in the course of the ITPGR negotiations:

" Finally, any damages caused to farmers through lower prices, lost markets or

contamination due to genetically modified products should be reimbursed by the

company producing any such product. "

 

 

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