Federal Liberals are risking a voter backlash by ignoring growing consumer unease over genetically modified foods, a political critic warned last week.
During a House of Commons debate on a Bloc QuŽbecois motion that all GM food be labeled, BQ MP Suzanne Tremblay said tens of thousands of Canadians have signed petitions demanding GM labeling.
More than 43,000 of those signatures have come from Quebec.
“The federal government should review its position or it will pay the price in the next election,” she said.
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During the debate, opposition MPs called for GM labeling, although British Columbia Canadian Alliance MP Gurmant Grewal said he preferred it be done voluntarily, by industry, rather than through compulsion.
He said the Loblaws chain of food stores plans to market some GM-free products, segregated on separate shelves from products that may contain genetically modified material.
“As an individual, I would much prefer a process driven by the market,” he said. “I could then choose foods that are not genetically modified. That is the process I would choose.”
On both sides
Winnipeg New Democrat Judy Wasylycia-Leis complained that the Alliance is trying to have it both ways – worrying about the safety of GM foods while supporting deregulation in the health protection branch.
“It is absolutely important for us … to call upon members of the Canadian Alliance to revisit their position of supporting industry’s agenda to reduce the role of government and in fact allow for products to go on the market without any guarantees of safety,” she said.
“That, in our view, is absolutely unacceptable, intolerable and must be addressed.”
No CA speaker rose to challenge her view of their policy.
Wasylycia-Leis said the government must conduct long-term research into the health and environmental implications of GM foods.
And she said the demand for GM labeling is a simple matter.
“It is about giving consumers the right to make decisions about what is in the best interest of their own health and well-being,” she said. “To us, it is a fundamental question around which there should be no dispute.”
Winnipeg Liberal John Harvard, chair of the Commons agriculture committee that has been studying the GM labeling issue, said hearings have exposed the complexity of the issue.
He predicted that when Parliament resumes sitting again in mid-September, at least another month of hearings will be required.
