NOTE: The Iran Majlis Center is the research arm of Iran's legislative body (the Majlis).

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Iran Majlis Center against GM food import
June 3 2007
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=52015&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

LONDON, June 3 (IranMania) - Majlis Research Center has warned against official and unofficial entry of genetically-modified crops and foodstuffs into the country while commending Iran's progress in its fight against rice stem borer larvae.

Following comparative studies on social and economic conditions of transgenic agricultural products in Iran and the world, the research arm of Iran's legislature regretted that GM crops or foodstuffs containing them still find their way into the country.

"While majority of the countries have banned the import of transgenic products, unfortunately, such foodstuffs still enter Iran from other states--a measure which is against national interest," IRNA quoted Information Dissemination Office of center's Essential Research Office as reporting on Friday.

Expressing concern over adverse health impacts of consumption of GM foods, the center urged it is a must to ratify laws to regulate and draw up strategies to control (import) of transgenic products.

The center further hailed successes achieved in biotechnology by Iranian scientists such as development of rice species which have shown consistent resistance to stem borer larvae.

Rice stem borers are serious pests of rice. They infest plants from the seedling stage to maturity. Although worldwide in distribution, rice stem borers are particularly destructive in Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean regions.