TECHNOLOGY: CONSUMER CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON GM FOOD
COMTEX Newswire
DURBAN, South Africa, (Nov. 15) IPS - Private corporations are not using
Genetic Modification (GM) technology to produce more or better food, according
to the President of India's Gene Campaign Dr. Suman Sahai, who spoke at the 16th
World Congress of Consumers International here.
The focus of GM research by the private sector, said Dr. Sahai, was on
commercial aspects, rather than on food.
She said that while GM crops were often seen as the solution to world hunger, no
research had been done on crops that were of importance to the poor or on those
that were of importance to small farmers.
The scientist and activist said that research should be done by universities
rather than by private sector and questioned the level of control over such
technology that the public sector was allowed to assume.
Dr. Sahai said widespread concerns being raised in relation to GM foods were
human health, the environment and sustainable food production.
She called for the use of antibiotic markers used in breeding GM crops to be
banned according to the "precautionary principle" because nobody was testing for
negative effects relating to their use.
Dr. Sahai questioned whether GM technology was really necessary or whether
problems could be solved by conventional approaches. She said that between 15
percent and 30 percent of a crop was lost after the harvest.
Ensuring that this food is not wasted could be achieved through improving
storage and transportation facilities, she suggested.
An experiment in India had found that by changing "non glamorous, unfashionable"
conventional farmer practices, production had increased by between 200 and 500
percent.
In China, the mixing of rice varieties on thousands of farms had brought down
the need of pesticides to almost nothing, Dr. Sahai said. "This shows what
conventional agriculture can do."
Dr. Sahai called for clear and precise labelling of GM foods to be mandatory and
for the use of antibiotic markers to be banned.
The conference, which has as its theme "Consumers, Social Justice and the World
Market" has been organized by Consumers International, a federation of 250
consumer organizations in 115 countries.
CI president Pamela Chan says the theme focuses on the central principle of the
consumer movement -- the need for a fair and equitable social and economic
environment within which consumers are empowered to exercise their rights and
meet their responsibilities to a wider community.
"The search for social justice demands action at the local and national level,
reflected in the establishment of effective consumer protection laws and redress
mechanisms, the need for access to all basic goods and services -- for some, to
the very means of surviving from day to day -- and to education and information
which is the basis of empowerment," she adds.
These, says Chan, are rarely achieved in the absence of good governance.
At the same time, economic activity and communications no longer recognize
national boundaries, and social justice also depends on how international
agreements are determined and how international institutions work to implement
them.
"Lack of transparency and accountability at the international level has been
challenged increasingly strongly in the last few years as means are sought to
balance essential public interests and private enterprise. Market economies
cannot be effective without strong consumer policies at their heart," she adds.
The conference, which began on Nov. 13, is being attended by delegates from
around the world and marks CI's 40th anniversary. It ends on Nov. 17.
According to Chan, since its foundation by a small group of organizations in
1960, the movement has grown continuously and spread throughout the world.
She says the congress is a landmark event in the development of CI because it is
the first to be held in Africa. "The continent provides many challenges and
opportunities for consumer action and consumer groups, and the congress will be
a celebration of the growth of the consumer movement and an important occasion
to help strengthen it."
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