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Fraud behind GM food safety claims SECRET PAPERS SHOW SCIENTISTS ARE AT ODDS OVER RISKS Source: Daily Mail 11th Feb 2000 THE release of 'Frankenstein foods' into the world's supermarkets was based on flawed experiments which failed to confirm their safety, official U.S. government papers have revealed. Scientists on the American Food & Drug Administration could not agree that key tests involving feeding genetically modified tomatoes to rats proved they were harmless, it emerged yesterday. Yet these tests were effectively used to give the green light for the release across the world, including Britain, of a whole range of GM foods, including soya and corn. The documents have emerged following the launch of a lawsuit in the U.S. by farmers and GM critics against Monsanto and other biotech companies and were presented to Environment Minister Michael Meacher at a private briefing this week. Details were revealed yesterday at a news conference at the House of Commons, where a leading scientist called for a ban all GM foods on the market saying the technology was inherently dangerous. Professor Terje Traavik, a Norwegian government adviser, claimed there were potential risks that could result in new disease-causing viruses, bacteria, mutations and even cancers. Critics seized on the claims to demand an immediate ban on GM foods and the launch of proper tests to assess their impact on human health. U.S. lawyer Steven Druker, who is leading the action against Monsanto, accused the FDA of deliberate deception. 'The FDA's misrepresentations are not innocent, they are fraudulent, ' he said. 'The agency's behaviour is not only illegal and irresponsible, it is unconscionable. The safety of the world's food supply is at stake.' He said the government documents proved that claims from the FDA that all GM foods had been well tested and all safety issues had been resolved were 'unequivocally false'. Files handed over had revealed 'memorandum after memorandum from the FDA's technical experts warning about the potential risks of genetically engineered foods'. Biotech companies and the authorities in Britain and America insisted that human feeding trials were unnecessary because GM foods are 'substantially equivalent' to natural products. But Mr Druker said the papers 'clearly state they cannot be presumed to be substantially equivalent to conventional foods and that they entail a unique set of risks'. He added: 'It could lead to the generation of unintended and unpredicted toxins, cancer causing agents, allergens and other substances.' The FDA had approved GM tomatoes later sold as paste in the UK despite tests showing that rats fed on them had developed 'erosions' in their intestines, he said. Professor Traavik said: 'The first generation of GM organisms are inherently unstable and unpredictable and carry a number of potential risks and hazards, both environmental and for health. The only way to escape the current miserable position is to ban the first generation of GM organisms.' Adrian Bebb, of Friends of the Earth, said: 'It is quite clear the public has been kept in the dark about the safety of GM foods. People are being kept in the dark [Source: Source: Daily Mail 11th Feb 2000, posted to the Biotech Activists (biotech_activists@iatp.org) by: mritchie@iatp.org] ** This material is distributed for research and educational purposes only. ** Feedback to: <welcome@ecoglobe.org.nz>

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15 February ecoglobe news 2000

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