Debate on GMOs fires on all fronts

23 February 1999

Debate on GMOs fires on all fronts

THE debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) sparks a number of debates across Britains national newspapers on the legal, scientific, pharmaceutical and marketing aspects of the issue.

On the legal front, the Financial Times reports a claim that the UK government would not break European law by imposing a moratorium on the commercial growing of genetically modified products.

The claim is made by a legal expert consulted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Friends of the Earth.

The scientific thread of the debate falls on two issues.

The Guardian takes a philosophical look at the nature of scientific “certainty” – against the background of concerns expressed about risks to the environment from the release of GMOs.

In The Daily Telegraph, 19 of Britains most eminent scientists write to the paper expressing concerns about the science of the anti-GMO lobby.

They argue scientific claims deserve attention only if they have been through “the mill of public scrutiny by qualified peers and publication”.

This is a reference to the unsubstantiated claims of Dr Arpad Pusztai, who started the whole debate over transgenic foods with his report of the effects on laboratory rats fed on a diet of GM potatoes.

The Independent sets out to explore the burgeoning health science of growing medicines and vaccines in plants by transplanting human genes or bits of viruses into them.

The paper says that while the controversy rages in Britain about the safety of GM plants for eating, scores of other GM plants are already being developed to prevent disease, cure illness and save lives.

The marketing section of the Financial Times looks at Monsantos attempts to introduce transgenic foods into Europe and asks -given last weeks furore over the issue – whether it could not have been done better in its presentation.

Marketing experts interviewed in the paper are agreed that the company would have been better to have spent some time explaining its technology before launching its products.

• GM crop row roars on in the papers, FWi, yesterday, (22 February, 1999)
• GM row rages on after hints of U-turn, FWi, 18 February, 1999
• Pressure on for five-year GM moratorium, FWi, 16 February, 1999
• SCientists fight back for GM crops, FWi, 16 February, 1999
• The Independent 23/02/99 page 11 (The Tuesday Review)
• Financial Times 23/02/99 page 12, page 16
  
• The Guardian 23/02/99 page 17
  
• The Daily Telegraph 23/02/99 page 1, page 23