A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
To avoid GM ingredients
To know where food comes from
Concerns about climate change
Is there a role for GM?
This is a hotly debated issue with many people believing that GM provides the answer for a hungry world.
Governments, there to protect us, are subjected to the lobbying by the GM industry, with vast sums of
money to spend compared with more objective organisations. In the in the Observer 6 th June 2010, it was
revealed that a GM lobby helped UK’s Foods Standards Agency (FSA), established to protect citizens, draw up
a crucial report and influenced the UK Government in making overstated projections of world food needs.
Why GM Freeze?
GM Freeze summarises the apparent consensus amongst independent researchers. Similar views are also
reflected in the UN World Food Programme described later in this chapter.
Genetic modification has the potential to cause massive social, economic and environmental effects
worldwide. Some imported foods with genetically modified (GM) ingredients were introduced into the UK in
the late 1990s without any public consultation or labelling. Widespread public concern followed and as a
result of consumer pressure, UK supermarkets and food processors largely removed GM ingredients from
their own-brand products. Despite the fact that most consumers do not want to eat GM food and many
outstanding questions about its long-term effects remain, the British Government has given the go-ahead for
the commercial growing of GM maize in the UK and consistently votes in favour of approval of new GM
products at the European Union. Patents are being granted which give monopoly control of the world's
genetic resources for food and farming to a few private corporations. Only the refusal of shoppers to buy GM
food in the late 1990s prevented an avalanche of products reaching supermarket shelves.
However, the threat of poorly tested GM food and feed imports remains and constant vigilance is needed to
ensure there is no creeping GM contamination in our food chain.
Biotechnology companies claim that genetic modification will "improve" our food, increase crop yields and
reduce use of chemicals on farmland. But the need for this technology has not been proven. So far there is
no convincing evidence of any "benefits" other than profit for the biotech industry. Genetic modification has
dominated research and development to the extent that viable alternatives such as organic or other forms of
sustainable farming have been neglected.
Genetic modification in food and farming raises many fundamental environmental, social, health and ethical
concerns:
GM has resulted in chemical - resistant “super weeds”.
Pesticide residues in animal feeds are not monitored so we do not know what is being eaten.
There is increasing evidence of the failure of segregation to prevent spreading contamination of
conventional or organic crops and wild plants over long distances, and potential damage to wildlife.
The effects on human health of eating these foods remain uncertain.
There are questions about lowering nutritional content, damage to animal guts, problems with
immune systems, impairing the fertility of mice.
Some scientists are calling for much more rigorous safety testing.
GM companies say we need GM animal feed to keep animal feed prices down but the costs are still
going up.
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