Citizens of British Columbia demand the right to know what they are eating.
People in British Columbia want to know what they are eating.
When sitting down with the family for dinner in the evening or
packing school lunches, they want to know whether or not the food
they are feeding their children has been contaminated with
unnatural organisms engineered by agricultural and chemical
companies bent on increasing their profits. Right now people have
no way of telling if their food has been genetically modified.
Unlike many countries around the world, there is currently no
requirement in Canada for genetically engineered (GE) ingredients
to be listed on the label, as there is for fat content, the amount
of salt or the calorie count.
DNA for dinner
Greenpeace intends to change that with the backing of BC
residents, who, according to a
new survey conducted by Stratcom Canada for Greenpeace,
overwhelmingly want GE food to be identified. By far the vast
majority of those polled (79 per cent) support legislation
requiring all GE ingredients to be labelled, with support
particularly high among women (84 per cent), voters 35-49 years old
(84 per cent), and Green and NDP voters (90 per cent and 85 per
cent).
This should not be surprising as BC residents made clear their
wish to avoid GE food when Powell River and Salt Spring Island were
declared GE free zones in 2004.
Nor is Greenpeace the only one calling on the BC government to
make labelling of GE ingredients mandatory. As well as other
environmental and farm organizations supporting such legislation,
the province's own public health officer, in his 2005 annual
report, made the same recommendation. He also called for the
implementation of the 2001 Royal Society of Canada Report, which
criticized the approval process for GE organisms because of a lack
of proper scientific testing. The Royal Society of Canada's expert
panel on biotechnology warns that GE food could pose serious risks
to human health, cause extensive irremediable disruptions to the
natural ecosystems and seriously diminish biodiversity. To date,
though, BC health officer's advice has not been heeded.
Concerned Canadians
British Columbian residents are not the only Canadians concerned
about what is in their food. In Quebec, residents have been
overwhelmingly responsive to
Greenpeace's campaign there to get the province to make
labelling the law.