British Columbia New Democrat Alex Atamanenko figures it’s time Canadian politicians look again at requiring mandatory labelling of food products that contain even a trace of genetically modified ingredient.
Last week, he presented to Parliament a private member’s bill that if approved would “pull back the curtains on the secretive and shady world of genetically modified foods.”
While it is unlikely the bill will be voted on or perhaps even debated in this Parliament, Atamanenko told a news conference he hoped his action revives consumer interest in the issue.
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“Polls have shown repeatedly that the overwhelming majority of consumers support mandatory labelling as a right to know what they are eating,” he said. “The fact that I’ve tabled this bill gives people a chance to rekindle the debate by getting in touch with their MPs to demand action. I think this issue transcends partisan party lines.”
Standing with him were fellow B.C. New Democrat MP Penny Pretty, who is a former provincial health minister, and Greenpeace Canada anti-GM campaigner Eric Darier.
Pretty said it is an issue of health as well as the consumer’s right to know.
“There are significant health implications for this,” she said. “Citizens, including those with allergic conditions or other conditions, have a right to know what they are putting in their body.”
Darier said mandatory labelling is required because the solution favoured by the industry – voluntary labelling rules that were adopted by the Canadian General Standards Board in 2004 – has not resulted in a single GM label.
“Voluntary labelling simply does not produce results for consumers and their right to know,” he said.
Food industry players including farm organizations such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture have opposed mandatory labelling of food containing GM crops such as canola, corn and soybean.
They insist the regulatory system base its labelling requirements on content, safety and nutrition rather than the way the crop is produced. They maintain that a science-based system considers the product of GM canola equivalent to product from traditionally bred canola.
The industry also contends that since corn, canola or soy products are used in most manufactured food, virtually all products on the store shelf would require a label, making it a costly but not particularly informative requirement.
Industry estimates of the cost of mandatory labels range into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Atamanenko said a Quebec agriculture department study estimated the cost in that province of less than $30 million. He said it is a small cost, considering the size of the food industry.
In 2001, a private members’ bill sponsored by former Toronto Liberal MP and environment minister Charles Caccia came close to winning House of Commons approval.
It appeared poised for approval despite a fierce industry lobby against it until senior officials of the Jean Chrétien government convinced some sympathetic Liberal MPs to vote against it by promising a thorough parliamentary study of the issue.
The vote was 126–91 against the bill.
The promised study by the Commons health committee never happened.
