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In January 2001, a giant coalition of 270
consumer groups, including the American Association of Retired
People and the Consumers Union, called on President Bush and
Congress to label biotech foods, as well as require strict
safety and environmental testing.
In a 250-page report financed by a grant
from the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation, the federation
said the U.S. government "has basically abandoned its
responsibility" to ensure the safety of genetically engineered
foods.
As it stands, government oversight "assumes
no human greed and no human error," said Carol Tucker
Foreman, who heads the federation's Food Policy Institute.
It thus "holds great peril for the public and does no
good to the (biotechnology) industry."
The report also calls for the end of a
government policy that holds that GE foods are "substantially
equivalent" to their non-GE counterparts. This policy
serves as a loophole, allowing biotech companies to avoid
substantial safety testing of their products.
The Consumer Federation stressed that biotech
foods may help increase the supply and nutritional content
of food worldwide. But, Foreman said, "rigorous and credible
regulation is necessary. Government and industry have deprived
genetically modified foods of an important asset - public
confidence."
While GE foods have several possible benefits,
the group said, they might also cause allergic reactions and
create toxic proteins that might harm human health. In addition,
biotech foods could create "superweeds", threaten
biodiversity and reduce populations of beneficial insects.
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