Sustainable News April/May 2005

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Editor's Note: Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a study supporting the safety of genetically modified organisms. The report emphasizes the pre-market safety assessments conducted on GM foods and recommends the harmonization of international standards for a cohesive regulatory framework for these products. Critics argue that the report avoids discussion of studies whose results do not support this position. Furthermore, the report cites Codex principles and the Convention on Biodiversity as safeguards against risks to human health and the environment but ignores the conflict present within these same institutions around GM foods. Annex 1 of the document lists members of the group of experts who provided background to the report. It is comprised exclusively of government regulators and private biotech interests.

http://www.genecampaign.org/council.html

Gen Campaign & Consumer Coordination Council
July 20, 2005

WHO Endorses GM foods in its New Report

The recently released report of the World Health Organization (WHO) titled “Modern Food Biotechnology, Human Health and Development: An Evidence –Based Study” makes an unapologetic case for the acceptance of GM foods saying they can “contribute directly to enhancing human health”. In supporting its position, the WHO report repeats the standard rhetoric of how GMOs will increase agricultural productivity, improve nutritional values, raise farm incomes and increase crop sustainability and food security. The report does not detail how all this is to be achieved, through which crops or traits, nor does the dichotomy between these expansive projections and the restricted availability of GM crops, find any mention. The statements are simply made, without any elaboration. In the 80 page report, less than 3 pages are devoted to the chapter on the role of modern biotechnology in achieving food security, where no detailed plans unfold.

Expressing concern at the blanket endorsement of the highly controversial GM foods by the UN health body, Dr Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign and Mr Bejon Misra of the Consumer Coordination Council said it was astonishing that the WHO report does not take on board the concerns raised by civil society organizations, scientists and consumers across the world, about the safety of GM foods. Nowhere in the WHO report is there a discussion on the data obtained from the scientific studies conducted so far on GM foods which have repeatedly shown serious harm to the health of rats and other experimental animals that were fed GM foods like corn and potatoes in feeding trials. The damage reported has been fatal in many cases and experimental animals have shown serious injury to organs like kidneys, liver and the blood, together with a collapse of the immune system.

Dr Suman Sahai and Mr Bejon Misra said today that India and other countries must reject the WHO report and join hands to resist the global orchestration in favor of GM crops and foods led by the US. Instead, countries should evaluate the considerable scientific data available on the dangers of GM foods and formulate their own policies to ensure the well being of their farmers and consumers.

They urged the government of India to stop the import of GM foods and to require mandatory labeling of all other foods that are being imported, especially from the US. In addition, the release of GM food crops should be held back in India until clear safety data, generated independently, have been subjected to a public risk-benefit analysis. GM crops in the pipeline in India, like cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, potato, tomato and rice must be put on hold till there is a better understanding of the health impacts of GM foods.

Well known studies like those of Dr Arpad Pusztai from the Rowett Institute, Edinburgh, on the lesions and immune collapse caused by GM potatoes in rats, the studies conducted at Cornell University on the mortality in Monarch butterflies fed GM corn pollen, the stomach lesions and mortality seen in rats that were fed the genetically engineered Flavr Savr tomatoes , the numerous reports of stomach lesions in rats, false pregnancies in cows, excessive cell growth and damage to animal immune systems seen in experimental animals during feeding studies, find no mention in the WHO report. Nor is there any mention of the i nfamous Denko Showa case, where 37 people died and several thousand were disabled, when they were fed the genetically engineered food supplement Tryptophan. The accidental disclosure last month of the Monsanto study showing extensive organ damage in rats fed with their own Bt corn underscores yet again that there are very real health threats associated with GM foods but the WHO appears to be unconcerned with the weight of scientific evidence against GM foods.

The new WHO report is in line with the trend visible in international organizations that are falling like ninepins in the US led efforts to force acceptance of the controversial GM technology. First , the CGIAR ( Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) system began to promote the focus on GM crops as the answer to better agricultural productivity and food security. This was followed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, FAO, which in its annual report of 2004, came out with the position that many of the answers to global food security were to be found in GM crops, and now the report by the WHO, stating that GMOs will increase agricultural productivity, improve nutritional values, raise farm incomes, increase food security and enhance human health!

Gene Campaign and Consumer Coordination Council said today that it is irresponsible and shameful that the world’s premier health agency has decided to toe the line of the Agbiotech industry and promote foods that are unsafe. Despite clear evidence that changes in the nutritional value and the biological and immunological properties of GM foods like maize, potatoes and tomatoes had indeed taken place, the WHO has chosen to simply ignore these data, and endorse GM foods.

Dr. Suman Sahai, Mr. Bejon Misra

The WHO report is available at: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/biotech_en.pdf

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