EU APPROVES GM FOODS DESPITE SERIOUS CONCERNS

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EU APPROVES GM FOODS DESPITE SERIOUS CONCERNS

New documents released to Friends of the Earth reveal that the European

Commission

has been approving GM foods and crops despite having serious doubts over their

health

and environmental impacts. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have called for a

suspension in the use and sale of all GM foods and crops until the safety issues

have been addressed.

 

The documents reveal the scientific arguments put forward behind closed doors in

the recent GM trade dispute at the World Trade Organisation. In them, the

Commission

argues that there are " large areas of uncertainty " and that " some

issues have not yet been studied at all " . They also reveal that:

 

* On human safety: " there simply is no way of ascertaining whether the

introduction

of GM products has had any other effect on human health... there is no unique,

absolute,

scientific cut off threshold available to decide whether a GM product is safe or

not. "

 

* On growing GM crops: " It is a reasonable and lawful position " that

insect-resistant

crops (the only GM crops being grown in the EU) should not be planted until all

the effects on the soil are known.

 

* On the environment: a key scientific study that was used to support the

environmental

safety of a GM crop is " scientifically flawed " .

 

* There are huge disagreements between the Commission and the European Food

Safety

Authority (EFSA), an EU agency. In one example, the Commission criticises the

EFSA

for not requiring further investigations after dismissing scientific evidence

that

showed that a certain GMO had negative effects on earthworms.

 

At the same time as the Commission was writing and submitting these documents to

the WTO highlighting safety concerns, it:

 

* pushed through the approval of seven GM foods over the past 2 years, despite a

lack of support from member states;

 

* required member states to vote twice on proposals to lift national bans on GM

products in five countries. It was defeated in both votes. Ironically, in the

submissions

to the WTO, the Commission gave scientific arguments to justify the bans.

 

* Commercialised 31 varieties of Monsanto's GM maize for cultivation in the EU.

 

Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth Europe said, " This is a political scandal.

When the EU Commission broke the moratorium and forced new genetically modified

foods into Europe, it told the public they were safe. Now we know that behind

closed

doors the Commission was arguing the complete opposite.

 

" These double standards of the EU Commission clearly show that public health

and environmental protection are being compromised by an institution intent on

promoting

trade and business interests at any costs. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6457

 

Reports by the Daily Telegraph and the BBC on this story:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6456