1.GM crops food security concern, says senior health regulator
2.Scientist wants better government controls on food safety
EXTRACT "What I found was corruption, that the governments get lobbied by these major multinational companies. So it's this kind of political pressure occurring on governments around the world, and the multinationals are ruling." - Dr Shiv Chopra, former senior health regulator from Canada
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1.GM crops food security concern, says senior health regulator
LUCY KNIGHT
Stock and Land, 16 June 2009
http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/state/grains-and-cropping/general/gm-crops-food -security-concern-says-senior-health-regulator/1542076.aspx
AUSTRALIA'S long-term food security is being severely compromised by genetically modified crops and the use of pesticides, according to a former senior health regulator from Canada.
Visiting Australia for the first time, Dr Shiv Chopra was in Canberra this week to launch his new book, Corrupt to the Core, about what he sees as the major threats to food safety from the use of "genetically manipulated foods, pesticides and herbicides, hormones and antibiotics in animal production systems".
Far from being the answer to higher yields or a drought-proofing option, Dr Chopra told a forum in Parliament that genetically modified organisms and pesticides in particular were a serious threat to public health.
He believes they are behind huge increases in cancer rates, neurological and reproductive disorders and breakdowns in immune systems.
He said rather than being under the watch of the Minister for Agriculture, GM crops should be the responsibility of the Minister for Health.
He told the forum that claims GM crops produce higher yields were nonsense and untrue.
*Extract. Full story Stock & Land, June 18.
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2.Scientist wants better government controls on food safety
ABC, 16 June 2009
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200906/s2599503.htm
A Canadian scientist says governments are puting humans at risk by not improving food and crop safety testing.
Dr Shiv Chopra came to prominance in 1998 when he told a Canadian Senate hearing that senior supervisors had pressured him to approve drugs of questionable safety, while he worked for a government agency.
He's currently visiting Australia, and says the methods used to assess the risks of genetically-engineered food and crops are uncertain and inexact.
Dr Chopra says governments like Australia need to take responsibility.
"What I found was corruption, that the governments get lobbied by these major multinational companies," he says.
"So it's this kind of political pressure occurring on governments around the world, and the multinationals are ruling."