Reuters | November 15, 1999 | By Aya Takada
TOKYO - Japan on Monday approved seven new varieties of genetically modified (GM) crops as safe for human consumption, ignoring demands by a consumer lobby that it follow the European Union and slap a moratorium on the import of new GM strains.
The ministry of health and welfare said it was following the recommendations of an 18-strong advisory committee of academics, consumer organisations, food standard agencies and medical associations.
Tadao Terao, who heads a panel of experts set up by the committee, said all the new GM varieties met the ministry's food safety guidelines.
"We couldn't find any problem with the new varieties that could pose a risk to human health," Terao told a hearing of the the advisory meeting. "We've concluded that they are safe for consumption."
But Masae Wada, a committee member who represents a Japanese consumer organisation, said she could not support the decision when the safety of bio-engineered food was being questioned worldwide.
"The EU has a (de facto) moratorium on allowing the import of new varieties of GM crops while it tries to draw up new approval procedures. In such a situation, why does the ministry have to give the go-ahead for additional GM varieties?" Wada asked.
The decision means that Japanese companies can now import and sell 29 GM varieties of seven crops - corn, soybeans, rapeseed, potatoes, cotton, tomatoes and sugar beet.
Genetically modified crops contain a gene from another organism to give plants resistance to a certain herbicide or the ability to produce its own toxin to kill pests.
Future varieties could improve the nutritional content of food or even help fight disease, seed companies say.
PUBLIC STILL SCEPTICAL ABOUT GM FOOD
Itaru Nishimoto, director general of the ministry's environmental health bureau, said the ministry acts based on scientific advice. But he acknowledged that consumers remain sceptical about the safety of GM food and said the ministry would like to work to allay public anxiety.
To this end, the ministry has asked the advisory committee to examine whether to ban imports contaminated with GMOs that have not been authorised under the ministry's safety guidelines.
A ministry official said the move was in response to criticism from a consumer group that lax government regulations have led to the use of unapproved GM ingredients in food products in Japan.
Following are the seven new GM varieties approved by the health ministry on Monday:
- herbicide-resistant rapeseed developed by Canada's Rhone-Poulenc Agrochimie, a unit of French pharmaceutical company Rhone-Poulenc SA
- herbicide-resistant/insect protection cotton developed by Calgene Inc of the U.S., a unit of U.S. biotechnology company Monsanto Co.
- herbicide-resistant sugar beet developed by Germany's Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH, a joint venture between Hoechst AG and Schering AG
- two varieties of herbicide-resistant corn developed by Dekalb Genetics Corp of the U.S., a unit of Monsanto Co
- herbicide-resistant corn developed by Monsanto Co
- herbicide-resistant rapeseed developed by Plant Genetic Systems of Belgium, a unit of AgrEvo
