9 April 2003

GM JURY CHALLENGES FSA PANEL ON LABELLING

The conclusion of the FSA's citizens' jury were in some ways no surprise,  given the FSA's involvement, but the FSA may not be keen to focus on  some of the implications of its findings.
 
for more on the FSA:
How the Food Standards Agency is part of a global GM spin operation
http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/fsa.htm

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GM JURY CHALLENGES FSA POLICY ON LABELLING
 
Apr 8
 
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/gm_jury_challenges_fsa_pol.html
 
The views of the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) Citizens' Jury on GM food, held yesterday [1], seriously challenge the Agency's own policies, Friends of the Earth said today.
 
While the jury voted nine to six in favour of allowing GM food to be available in the UK, all 15 jurors called for "effective  labelling and monitoring of GM foods;   for example, a GM food  logo to ensure that people can make a genuine choice to eat or to  avoid eating GM foods"  [2].
 
The FSA have consistently lobbied against the full traceability and labelling regulations currently being debated by the European     Parliament.  The regulation proposes that all GM ingredients in food and animal feed should be labelled.  The FSA support a policy     of no labelling for food containing up to one per cent of GM  ingredients [3].
 
Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Pete Riley said:
 
"The jurors clearly share the view of millions of people across   the EU that GM foods and feeds need to be properly   labelled so  that people can avoid eating them or feeding them to their livestock.  Their view challenges the FSA policy position which is  for minimal labelling that would mean that the vast majority of GM food would be unlabelled.  It will be interesting to see how the  FSA responds and whether they will follow the example of food  companies and retailers and support full information on GM food  instead of pandering to the wishes of the biotech industry by     allowing contamination to go unlabelled.  The   jury quite rightly     want monitoring of GM food - but by allowing contamination to go unlabelled monitoring for health effects in people and animals would be a nightmare".
 
    ENDS
 
 
    NOTES:
 
    [1] See www.food.gov.uk/[1]
 
    [2] See
    www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/gmlabelchoice[2]
 
    [3] See
    www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/gmlabelchoice[2]
 
 
  .. [1] http://www.food.gov.uk/
  .. [2] http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/gmlabelchoice