May 12, 2000 / The Edmonton Journal / Living / C1 / Front / Column / Judy Schultz / Food
According to this story, a GMO is an organism that has been modified by
transplanting genetic material, or DNA, from another organism in order to
give it more desirable characteristics.
These genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are designer products. The
Naturemark potato, for example, was designed so its leaves would give the
pesky Colorado potato beetle a bellyache. GMOs show up in some tomatoes, a
lot of corn and most canola.
Until recently, Canadians couldn't have answered that question.
A lot of us still can't, and the information gap is a problem. People fear
what they don't understand.
In a July 1999 Environics survey, only 51 per cent of Canadians had ever
discussed GMO products.
In an updated survey done in March 2000, the number had jumped to 72 per
cent. Ninety-five per cent of those contacted said they believed GMO foods
should always be labelled.
But this is not an anti-biotech rant. Rather, says Schultz, it's about the
right to choose. To decide for ourselves, rightly or wrongly, whether to
buy/consume food products containing genetically modified materials -- roughly
70 per cent of what's on the shelves at this moment.
There is nothing wrong with the science involved in genetic modification. It
offers huge benefits. Used properly and ethically, it could make life better
and easier for many people.
But when the science is controlled by patents owned by fewer and fewer
corporate giants with names like DuPont, Dow and Monsanto, we get, Schultz
says, nervous.
After much initial foot-dragging over GMO labelling, after declaring it
complicated, unnecessary and prohibitively expensive, both government and
industry seem now to be executing an about-face.
It's time.
Schultz says it took a certain amount of bureaucratic arrogance to ignore
the possible objections of consumers in the first place -- arrogance that made
a lot of people cranky and suspicious. If consumers didn't object back in
1996 when the first GMO canola went to market, it's probably because we
weren't told what was going on. Certainly we were never asked if we wanted
these "improvements" in our food system. We've long ago learned that what
we don't know can hurt us.
And if the biotech industry had nothing to hide, neither was it exactly
forthcoming about which products contained GMO derivatives.
The change of heart has been instructive to watch. There has been fallout.
For example, the Naturemark potato was snapped up by commercial potato
growers all over North America. But when consumers began to question its GMO
origin, companies known for their french fries dropped Naturemark like
(you'll forgive it) a hot potato.
Not only did this leave the many commercial potato growers using Naturemark
in a financial tailspin, but the non-GMO spuds are still being fried in GMO
canola oil. (In Canada GMO canola and non-GMO canola are "co-mingled" -- all
dumped in the same bin. The resulting oil is considered to be a GMO
product.)
There is only one issue here.
Canadians want to know what's in their food.
It's not enough for politicians and bureaucrats to pat us on our collective heads and say "Trust us."
Sorry, we don't.
Or to assure us that GMO products are "substantially equivalent" to non-GMO products, and it's "an acceptable risk."
This may be true, but the same government that regulates the industry is
also promoting it.
Schultz goes on to say that groups such as the Canadian Biotechnology Action
Network are taking a strong stance against biotechnology. Industry and
government are already pouring resources into advertising a pro-biotech
spin.
Bottom line: Canadian consumers want the right to choose. It is incumbent on
the government that approves and promotes the use of GMO to label those
foods that contain them.
(posted without permission)
