Are you eating unlabelled Genetically Modified (GM) foods?
I wonder if I am eating any genetically modified (GM) foods? I don’t really know, even though I read food labels carefully. And how could I know, when there is no effective enforcement of the legal requirement for food manufacturers in Australia to label their foods as having been genetically modified? Chances are we have all been eating a lot of GM food for some time now, especially if we eat any processed foods that use products from GM corn, GM canola oil, or GM soybeans. Those are the main food crops affected in Australia.
It doesn’t seem right, though, does it? It seems like it should be a basic human right to have the option to control what we eat or serve to our families. But we do not have that right, at this point. It seems unbelievable but the food regulators, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), do not test the safety or wholesomeness of any of the GM foods. Their stand is that, “it is the responsibility of companies that have developed the GM foods to demonstrate the safety of that food, and to supply FSANZ with the raw data from scientific studies to prove this.”
That sounds to me like the companies are using us, the Australian consumers who have no choice in the matter, as the guinea pigs. If in response we develop terrible diseases it will take years to identify the cause and track down the source, and the manufacturers will have profited without any scrutiny for all that time.
Relying on the companies themselves to prove the safety of their product is foolishness. What company would do otherwise than claim its product to be healthy? Even the tobacco company executives can with straight faces claim they have not been convinced that their product is not good for people. Commercial pressures make people lie. Why hasn’t society learned that lesson?
I have noticed that there are no GM crops that focus on creating health benefits for the population. All of the benefits are for the agriculturalists: plants are genetically modified to create their own poisons to kill insects, or to survive when sprayed with weedkiller. The effect of eating GM crops on human beings has been studied and reported on by various organisations, some with dire warnings regarding risk, but these have not been taken seriously by the industry which wants to continue using them.
Just today in the news I see that a GM corn product deemed safe by our Australian food authorities has been withdrawn from European markets due to widespread safety concerns. Monsanto is the company responsible for the high lysine corn, which was intended only as animal feed originally. The European Food Safety Authority questioned the studies carried out by Monsanto that were used by the FSANZ to approve it for sale in Australia in 2006. The Australian authority is being accused of ignoring the scientific analysis commissioned from the University of Canterbury’s Centre of integrated Research in Bio-safety, which pointed out the risks and dangers of the product, instead seeking research with the results they wanted.
Apparently Monsanto had never tested the product when it was cooked, which is, in general, how human beings eat corn. The European Authority revealed that cooking could cause a chemical chain reaction leading to the production of ‘advanced glycation end products’, which have been linked to cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases, some cancers and Alzheimer’s Disease. No wonder they have withdrawn it from the shelves of their 44 member states.
What is the approach being taken in Europe about GM food? First of all, European consumers are privileged to have all GM ingredients defined as ‘refined’ duly labelled on the foods they are used in. That does not yet apply to any animal products that are derived from GM feed, but that is expected to happen eventually. That policy is in sharp contrast to what happens here: most GM ingredients used in products for sale on our supermarket shelves and fast-food outlets are not similarly labelled.
If you look at the FSANZ website you will see that they claim to be the most comprehensive in the world in regards to GM awareness, safety and labelling, but that seems to be hyperbole by someone in their PR department. In fact, the use of the word ‘comprehensive’ is highly misleading. FSANZ labelling regulations exclude ingredients deemed to be ‘refined’, whether they contain the residues of the GM process or not, most of which are unevaluated. It is estimated that up to 99% of GM ingredients used in Australia escape GM labelling.
What can we do about this situation? Well, the Food Labelling Review Panel is soon going to be reviewing the rules governing genetically altered foods, and community opinion would be highly appreciated. That means us. It would be a very good idea to send an email to the panel telling them that you would like the choice to eat GM foods or not, and that can only be achieved if foods are appropriately labelled.
Contact them before the deadline of 20 November 2009 at: foodlabellingreview@health.gov.au To see what our food authorities have to say about the issue, visit http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/