Australia - Loopholes feed doubt
By MARY VISCOVICH
The Herald Sun
Sunday 21 February, 1999
ALMOST half the food on our supermarket shelves contains some sort of
genetically modified "mutant" food, say Australian nutritional experts.
But loopholes in the law mean there is almost no way for consumers to know
which foods are affected.
Opponents of the genetically modified products – or "Frankenfoods" as they have
been dubbed in Britain – say too little is known about possible long-term risks and
say increases in cancers and immune deficiencies could result.
A scientific panel in Europe has confirmed evidence from a Scottish study that
genetically modified food had shrivelled the brain and other organs of rats.
As debate on modified foods rages overseas, most Australians already regularly
consume such products.
The foods have been appearing on supermarket shelves over the past two years
because there has been no legislation to prevent it.
Soybeans, the wonder crop of the '90s, are being grown from genetically modified
pest-resistant plants and processed into soy by-products used to enhance
everything from baby formula to margarine and lollies.
Fish and chips are already being cooked in genetically modified cottonseed oil.
Consumer and health groups this week raised concerns over the recommendation
by the Australia /and New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) that Roundup Ready
Soybeans and Ingard Cottonseed can be sold here. They were the first modified
foods for which approval was formally sought, although both are already in shops.
Authority spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann assured consumers yesterday that
modified foods already on the shelves were safe.
"They were assessed under existing food laws which prohibit the sale of unsafe
foods," Ms Buchtmann said.
"These foods have been tested in the US and Europe, and have been on the market
for a lot longer than they have been here."
Ms Buchtmann said health ministers last July gave a nine-month period of grace for
introduction of new standards for genetically modified foods. They decided all
modified foods would have to be labelled, but legislation has not yet been passed.
"Any genetically modified food which does not have approval by May 13 will have to
be removed from shelves," she said.
Bob Phelps, director of the Melbourne-based consumer health group the Australian
GeneEthics Network, said that if applications by industrial giant Monsanto were
approved for genetically modified corn, canola, cottonseed and soy, up to
90percent of supermarket food could be affected.
Corn starches, other corn by-products, canola oil and cottonseed oil can be found
in almost all processed foods.
"People should talk to their health ministers and tell them we don't want it," Mr
Phelps said.
Genetic modifying involves the transfer of genes between different species. Plants
can receive animal genes and animals can receive human genes.
Experts say it can boost world food production through pest-resistant crops and
giving greater shelf-life to foods.
But Mr Phelps said the lack of regulation meant companies which sold modified
foods did not have to label them. The companies were also trying to resist the need
to label modified sugar, oils and enzymes such as yeast found in beer and bread.
"Fifty per cent of the food on supermarket shelves contains genetically modified
ingredients, while 100,000 tonnes of genetically modified soybeans are imported
from the US each year," he said.
"I think (these) foods will be allowed into this country but the issue of labelling is
not negotiable. People have to have some sort of control over what they are
buying."
Mr Phelps said the danger lay in the DNA of modified food being transferred to
humans.
This could lead to problems such as resistance to antibiotics, changes in structure
and make-up of food, and a narrowing of bio-diversity, which would see the virtual
extinction of types of foods which contained vital disease-fighting properties.
"Certain types of these plants have been bred to kill insects, there is no reason to
assume they can't harm us. We just don't know yet," Mr Phelps said.
Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton also called for caution.
"People are moving forward with unholy haste to do this and I don't know why," she
said.
But Ms Stanton, who is on the steering committee of a special congress on the
subject to be held in Canberra next month, said she believed the technology should
not be thrown out.
If it was used to put a hepatitis vaccine in a banana which could be easily
distributed in the Third World, it was obviously of benefit, she said.
Genetic food giant Monsanto yesterday stood by its products.
"These technologies allow plants to be grown in better ways with less impact on
the environment," said Monsanto spokesman Nick Tydens.
"Down the track we will see things like potatoes which will absorb less fat when
they are fried, foods with higher vitamin content and, particularly valuable in Asia,
rice with higher levels of vitamin B-12," he said.
He said scare campaigns were being waged in Europe, even though the foods had
been assessed and approved in 20 countries.
"Most of the products would have about 1percent of genetically modified foods in
them, a tiny amount which makes very little difference," Mr Tydens said.
"We think people should be well informed, not scared."
Peter Langridge, Professor of Plant Science at the University of Adelaide and
member of the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee which reports to the
Federal Government, also said he was alarmed at the direction the debate was
taking in Europe.
"There is a large group of people who live off keeping people frightened and there are some very serious errors of fact," Prof. Langridge he said.
"There needs to be a debate, but it's crucial that the information we have is
correct."
He said he supported clear labelling of modified foods, but was confident that
whatever made it to our tables was safe.
theaustralian.com.au
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