SOCIAL TOPICS (Archive): EMERGING ISSUES

Published, Fall 2001

       By Steven Heim and Heidi Soumerai

SIDEBAR to Walden Social Research & Action Update in Fall 2001 issue of Values.

       In recent months, controversy is building on genetically engineered (GE) food:

• The US EPA refused to grant a tolerance level for StarLink corn due to concerns that it may cause allergic reactions, despite appeals by Aventis and food manufacturers. Even trace amounts of StarLink continue to be illegal in foods for human consumption.

• New government and industry-funded studies indicate that the most popular varieties of GE corn pose “negligible” risk to monarch butterfly populations.

• The European Union (EU) proposed full mandatory labeling and traceability requirements for GE foods, including animal feeds and products derived from GE crops such as soy oil and sugar from GE sugar beets.

• An expert committee of Codex Alimentarius, an international body with broad influence for food safety and labeling, suggested developing detailed procedures for allergenicity testing.

• The Royal Society of Canada issued a report on food biotechnology that criticized the widespread use of antibiotic-resistant marker (ABR) genes to develop GE seeds, citing potential human health problems.

• The EU has proposed GE regulations to phase out all ABR genes by 2005. The EU has also argued at Codex for language to ban the use of ABR genes.