1. GM food companies 'driven by profit not health'
2. No human safety testing - it's official
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GM food companies 'driven by profit not health'
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
The Daily telegraph, 16
http://217.204.41.132/cgi/NGoto/2/31591815?435

Eight out of 10 people believe that they do not know enough about the long-term health effects of genetically modified food to allow the commercialisation of GM crops.

Their concerns are made clear in the findings of a poll that adopted the Government's own GM debate questionnaire.

The survey, conducted by the Internet Marketing Research Services, an internet polling organisation, used a sample of 2,400 people. Its results are likely to reproduce closely what the Government's own pollsters will report in September, just before a decision is taken whether to give the go-ahead to GM crops.

The strongest response was that 83 per cent of the public said they did not think people knew enough about the long-term effects of GM food on our health.

The public also showed intense scepticism about the motives of GM companies. Seventy-eight per cent of those polled said they were "worried that this new technology was being driven more by profit than by public interest".

Similarly, 67 per cent thought that GM crops would benefit mainly the producers and not ordinary people.

Three quarters of those polled said they were worried that if GM crops were introduced it would be very difficult to ensure that other crops were GM-free. Fractionally fewer, 71 per cent, were concerned about the potential negative impact of GM crops on the environment.

Opinion became more fragmented when it came to how it might benefit developing countries; 48 per cent believed that GM crops could benefit them, with 34 per cent disagreeing.
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2. No human safety testing - it's official
House of Commons
Hansard
Written Answers text for
Friday 13 Jun 2003GM Crops

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what clinical trials have been conducted into the effects on the human body of the ingestion of GM foods in the (a) long and (b) short term. [118577]

Ms Blears: I have been asked to reply.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is unaware of any clinical trials conducted into the effects on the human body of the ingestion of genetically modified (GM) Foods. However, a number of research projects have been funded by the FSA on the safety of GM foods, which have included a project which has examined the survival of DNA in the digestive tract.

Details of the work funded by the FSA are described in its annual researchreport, which is available in the Library.