Feature story - 10 May, 2002
Greenpeace today blamed the main GE producing nations, the USA, Canada and Argentina, for failure to reach a global agreement on labelling of genetically engineered (GE) food.
Greenpeace action against Knorr for not labelling products containing GE soya in supermarkets.
These three countries, which together produce 96 percent of the
world´s GE crops, used their political and economic clout to block
progress on labelling at the UN Codex Alimentarius (1) committee
meeting today.
The move is an attempt by these countries to protect their
exports of GE crops and to justify their own lack of labelling by
stopping the implementation of world-wide GE labelling rules. Yet
more than 35
countries around the world, representing more than half the
world's population, either have, or expect to make, laws that
require GE-containing foods be labelled as such.
Greenpeace GE campaigner Holly Penfound said, "The lack of a
global standard for GE food labelling does not and will not stop
countries from unilaterally labelling GE foods, and as more and
more countries do so the US and Canada will become increasingly
internationally isolated on this issue."
Attempts to force other countries to deny their own citizens
information on GE foods is a tactic that the US administration has
increasingly used. The Bush administration put economic and
political
pressure on China, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and New Zealand
when they were making progress towards mandatory nationwide
labelling. Even now the US is preparing to launch a trade war over
European plans to label all GE food.Yet even American and Canadian
citizens want labelling that will distinguish GE-containing
foods.
Greenpeace opposes the release of any GE organisms into the
environment. As long as they exist, Greenpeace demands clear and
mandatory labelling of all food products that contain or are
derived
from GE organisms. The labelling system must include a reliable
system to trace the possible presence of GE products throughout the
whole production chain.
As it seems that the UN's Codex Alimentarius is not able to
guarantee a reliable labelling system for GE food respecting the
precautionary principle, Greenpeace appeals to national governments
to establish such a mandatory labelling system.
(1) Codex Alimentarius Commission is an intergovernmental
organisation established in 1962 by Food and Agriculture
Organisation and World Health Organisation (WHO) to protect
consumers' health and keep fairness of food trades through
establishing international food standards. The food standards
established by Codex Alimentarlius Commission would be used for
harmonisation of international regulations under the WTO
multilateral trade agreement. Codex Alimentarius Commission has 165
member countries.