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Crumbs of hope for GM lobby

- 07 December 2001
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7 December 2001



Crumbs of hope for GM lobby

By Tom Allen-Stevens

A PRO-GM pressure group has distributed some biscuits made using oil from GM rape to promote the safety of food made from GM ingredients.

The campaign by CropGen also highlights a new report entitled One hundred percent safe?, written in response to polarised attitudes to GM food.

The report brings together the various items of independent research that have been considered by Government bodies to decide whether GM foods are safe.

“It aims to answer some of the fundamental questions consumers ask of GM foods,” said author Vivian Moses, chairman of CropGen.

“It says what foods have been approved, who approved them, what they actually said and where people can find the data.”

So far three GM varieties of maize have been approved for human consumption, three of oilseed rape, one soya variety and one tomato, said Professor Moses.

The report also discusses the major concepts involved in sanctioning the use of biotechnology in food, such as substantial equivalence and the meaning of “safe”.

“We have come to our own conclusions that, for all practical purposes, GM foods approved for UK use do indeed appear to be safe,” said Professor Moses.

“But nobody can know the future and 100% certainty is not possible for anything.

“We suggest people should use the report to find the evidence and make up their own minds.”

As far as the biscuits are concerned, FWi regrets it is unable to pass comment on taste or texture since they arrived by post.

By the time the package had been put through unofficial Anthrax alert testing (poking, squidgeing and shaking), they were rendered inedible.

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