Feature story - January 18, 2007
The vast majority of British Columbians support legislation making it mandatory to identify GE ingredients on the labels of the food they buy.
Canadians want to know what they are eating. Whensitting down with the family for dinner in the evening or packingschool lunches, they want to know whether or not the food they arefeeding their children has been contaminated with unnatural organismsengineered by agricultural and chemical companies bent on increasingtheir profits. Right now people have no way of telling if their foodhas 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 fatcontent, 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 majorityof those polled (79 per cent) support legislation requiring all GEingredients to be labelled, with support particularly high among women(84 per cent), voters 35-49 years old (84 per cent), and Green and NDPvoters (90 per cent and 85 per cent).
This should not be surprising as BC residents made clear their wishto avoid GE food when Powell River and Salt Spring Island were declaredGE free zones in 2004.
Nor is Greenpeace the only one calling on the BC government to makelabelling of GE ingredients mandatory. As well as other environmentaland farm organizations supporting such legislation, the province's ownpublic health officer, in his 2005 annual report, made the samerecommendation. He also called for the implementation of the 2001 RoyalSociety of Canada Report, which criticized the approval process for GEorganisms because of a lack of proper scientific testing. The RoyalSociety of Canada's expert panel on biotechnology warns that GE foodcould pose serious risks to human health, cause extensive irremediabledisruptions to the natural ecosystems and seriously diminishbiodiversity. To date, though, BC health officer's advice has not beenheeded.
Concerned Canadians
British Columbianresidents are not the only Canadians concerned about what is in theirfood. In Quebec, residents have been overwhelmingly responsive to Greenpeace's campaign there to get the province to make labelling the law.