07
May 2008 – International — The GM food industry
suffered another serious setback today as
European Commissioners overturned the verdict
of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA),
who had given assurances that three new
types of GM crops were safe. For the first
time, Europe's most senior lawmakers are
publicly doubting the safety of GM crops.
The EFSA had previously
given the green light for a new type of
GM potato and two types of GM maize to be
grown. However, when Europe's leaders began
to delve into the data on safety of these
crops alarm bells rang.
Leading experts from
the World Health Organisation (WHO), the
Institut Pasteur and the European Medicines
Agency (EMEA) have already raised concerns
about the impact of German chemical giant
BASF's GM potato on human health. The crop
could result in people and animals developing
resistance to certain types of antibiotics
which are used to treat diseases. The data
on the two types of GM maize wasn't much
better. Scientists believe that they could
harm wildlife such as butterflies and other
insects.
And if this mounting
body of evidence wasn't enough to make Europe's
Commissioners sit up and think again, then
the 130,000 email messages from Greenpeace
supporters certainly helped them to do so.
Since last autumn, when Environment Commissioner
Stavros Dimas first stood up to the biotech
industry, tens of thousands of environmentalists
have kept the heat on the European Commission
about this issue. We posted comments on
Commission blogs, we wrote them emails,
we sent them postcards and petitions.
Greenpeace International's Geert Ritsema
certainly thinks that the decision is another
nail in the coffin for the GM food industry.
On hearing of the Commission's decision,
Ritsema said, "that policy makers at
the very highest levels are now questioning
the safety of GM crops is very significant".
"The fact that
the Commission has ordered a second investigation
also raises huge questions over the EFSA’s
ability to do its job properly. How can
we trust it to get it right on other crops
if it has got it so badly wrong this time?"
Of course, scientific
opinion means little when the giants of
the GM industry are using every trick in
the book to make sure that the crops are
given the go ahead. It's no secret that
the industry has been trying to intimidate
Europe into giving the go ahead by threatening
to launch a law suit against the Commission
if it didn't agree.
The Commission should be given a pat on
the back for not caving into industry pressure.
Having said that, why is the Commission
asking the EFSA to look again at the crops
when it has shown itself completely incapable
of doing so the first time round? There
is no escaping the facts. The impact on
the environment and on human health of GM
crops that produce their own insecticides
is completely unknown. The Commission should
have recognised this and rejected the new
crops outright.
