EU closed to modified foodAnyone betting that Canadian canola will soon be allowed into Europe just saw their odds worsen.
Because some Canadian canola is genetically modified to be herbicide resistant, all of it has been banned from the European Union for some years.
In the last six months the EU, particularly Britain, appeared to be warming slightly to genetically modified, or GM, crops as governments began to worry they were falling behind in a major new economic field.
However, the direction was reversed dramatically two weeks ago.
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That is when 21 international scientists announced they supported the findings of Arpad Pusztai, who was forced to retire last year after he said his experiments indicated GM food can damage rats’ vital organs and weaken the immune system.
“Dr. Pusztai’s results, at the very least, raise the suspicion that genetically modified food may damage the immune system,” Dr. Ronald Finn, a past-president of the British Society of Allergy and Environmental Medicine, said in a story carried by Reuters news service.
Pusztai, a world authority on plant proteins, was forced to leave the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, two days after revealing preliminary findings in a television documentary. The institute said his claims could not be substantiated.
But a later review of Pusztai’s research by Stanley Ewen, a pathologist at Aberdeen University Medical School, supported the conclusions.
The scientists said not enough is known about the effects of GM food and more research is needed. They want better labeling and suggested GM foods should undergo the same stringent trials as drugs before they are approved.
The news set off a media storm and outrageous talk of “Frankenfood.” In British parliament, the opposition demanded labeling for GM foods.
A consortium of consumer, world development and environmental groups demanded a five-year moratorium on the growing of GM crops in Britain.
Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney vowed to eliminate GM ingredients from his late wife Linda’s range of vegetarian foods.
A national newspaper poll said a strong majority of Britons are worried about eating the food and 96 percent want GM food labeling.
Canada cannot dismiss this as hysteria. For our own health, Pusztai’s findings must be investigated further.
Farm groups encouraging research into GM crops must be cautious and watchful of how other major markets react to these latest developments.
We don’t want to wind up with crops that are easy to grow, but which have no markets.
