Banned GM corn found in U.N. aid in Central America and the Caribbean

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GMW: Banned GM corn found in U.N. aid in Central America and

the Caribbean

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:57:37 GMT

 

 

 

 

Banned GM corn found in U.N. aid in Central America and the Caribbean

http://www.gmwatch.org

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EXCERPTS: A study backed by the international group Friends of the

Earth found that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in

Guatemala included StarLink, a corn long ago pulled from the market in

the

United States because of concerns it could provoke allergic reactions.

 

Julio Sanchez of the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua said the World Food

Program " is placing at risk our children and pregnant women, the most

vulnerable people in our society. "

 

" The investigation reveals the incapacity of the state to protect

national biosecurity " , said Adrian Pacheco, spokesman for Costa Rica's

Social Ecology Association, at a news conference there. " Although the

authorities have not authorized the cultivation of (modified) corn, for

example, it is entering the country as a grain without any kind of

control. "

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Environmentalists claim modified corn included in U.N. aid

By SERGIO DE LEON

Associated Press

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1 & display=rednews/2005/02/16/build/w\

orld/50-gecorn.inc

 

GUATEMALA CITY -- Environmental groups said Wednesday they have

discovered that banned genetically modified food -- including a

variety of

corn forbidden for humans in the United States -- is being handed out in

U.N. food aid to Central America and the Caribbean.

 

A study backed by the international group Friends of the Earth found

that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in Guatemala

included StarLink, a corn long ago pulled from the market in the United

States because of concerns it could provoke allergic reactions.

 

Discovery of StarLink corn in consumer products in the United States

prompted several high-profile supermarket recalls of cornmeal, corn dogs,

taco shells, soup and chili mixes in the United States in 2000 and

2001.

 

The study looked at 77 samples of imported corn included in aid

shipments or sold on the open market. Eighty percent was reported to

include

genetically modified material.

 

Some of the samples here showed a Monsanto-developed variety which is

restricted by the European Union, member of the Central American

Alliance in Defense of Biodiversity told a news conference here.

 

" We have alarming news about the food aid that the country is

receiving, " said Mario Godinez, director of the local environmental

group Ceiba.

 

Similar news conferences occurred simultaneously in Costa Rica,

Nicaragua and El Salvador as part of an international campaign against

the

growing use of genetically modified crops. Many activists say they are a

risk to health and to the environment. Backers say they provide more and

cheaper food to the world and say no health risks have been proven.

 

Julio Sanchez of the Humboldt Center in Nicaragua said the World Food

Program " is placing at risk our children and pregnant women, the most

vulnerable people in our society. "

 

In a Friends of the Earth news release, he said the programs should

purchase food locally instead of importing modified foods from abroad.

 

In Rome, World Food Program spokeswoman Anthea Web said that " the U.N.

WHO, FAO and ourselves have found absolutely no evidence there is any

health safety issue " with genetically modified foods.

 

" They're eaten safely by millions of people everyday from Boston to

Brussels to Buenos Aires, " she said.

 

The director of Guatemala's National Coordinating Committee of Farm

Organizations, Daniel Pascual, alleged that the introduction of

genetically modified foods endangered the country's native varieties

of corn as

well as the health of consumers.

 

A spokeswoman for Guatemala's Agriculture Ministry, Maria del Carmen

Fuentes, said she was unaware of the study, but added, " we are worried in

any case and an expert in the area will be assigned to indicate as soon

as possible what happened. "

 

She insisted, however, that " at no moment would we harm the

population. "

 

" The investigation reveals the incapacity of the state to protect

national biosecurity " , said Adrian Pacheco, spokesman for Costa Rica's

Social Ecology Association, at a news conference there. " Although the

authorities have not authorized the cultivation of (modified) corn, for

example, it is entering the country as a grain without any kind of

control. "

 

He called for a moratorium on genetically modified crop imports because

they could be planted by local farmers and contaminate local varieties.

 

The WPA's Webb said that the decision on accepting foods " rests with

the host government. "

 

She that because most of the food aid comes from the United States, a

center of modified food production, " We're really in a tough place " in

trying to avoid modified foods.

 

Friends of the Earth complained in 2002 that it had found StarLink corn

in U.S. aid shipments to Bolivia.

 

 

 

 

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