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08.04.2014 Science

FSG against marketing of unlabelled GM foods

08.04.2014 LISTEN
By GNA

A statement issued by Duke Tagoe, Deputy Chairperson of FSG and copied to Ghana News Agency in Accra said the products are being sold to unsuspecting Ghanaian consumers without labels indicating contents.

Far from warning the consumer with the appropriate caveat emptor, about the presence of GMOs some of these suspected GMO products on our markets even carry the label all natural!

We hereby wish to bring this to the attention of the authorities to explain the rules governing the importation of GM foods into the country, and the rules concerning labels, the statement said.

It said more than 90 per cent of corn and soya in the US are genetically modified, even though they are sold without labels.

The statement said the reason why these corporations are avoiding labelling is because they do not want to be held liable for any possible negative effects arising from its use.

Where there is no traceability, there is no accountability, where there is no accountability, there is no liability, and where there is no liability, there is no safety.

The agribusiness corporations have covered themselves well to protect themselves from liability by persuading Ghana to pass, against Ghanaian interests, the Biosafety Act, the Seed Law, and the latest of this trio, the Plant Breeders Bill. These legally put agribusiness corporations above the laws of Ghana.

The statement said it is very important that GM foods are properly labelled, if they are to be allowed into the country.

It said GM soya from the US is imported into Europe strictly for animal feed. It is banned for human consumption.

It therefore matters a lot if the same GM soya ends up on our shelves for human consumption, the statement said.

It said when farmers try to grow non-GM corn, their fields are contaminated by GM pollen. The same is true of the soy as well. GM plants are pesticide plants. They are designed to contain pesticide in every cell, or to absorb massive doses of pesticides to all their cells. They are pesticide cocktails being sold as food and beverages to unsuspecting consumers.

The statement said the January 29, 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety directed that in regard to controversies over GMOs: "Lack of scientific certainty due to insufficient relevant scientific information . . . shall not prevent the Party of import, in order to avoid or minimise such potential adverse effects, from taking a decision, as appropriate, with regard to the import of the living modified organism in question."

Employment of the Precautionary Principle is a necessary safeguard to protect Ghana and Africa small-holder farming, her food security, health, sovereignty and environment from irreversible adverse impacts of GMOs.

We want to eat food, not its substantial equivalent or genomes of organisms that have been transformed through laboratory techniques, including genetically engineered DNA (recombinant) and their direct introduction into cells! It is only proper to ask the authorities to make sure that those selling such dangerous products do so with a warning similar to what we see on cigarettes indicating, at least, that GMOs have the potential to cause unintended effects.

It should be common knowledge that Biosafety Protocol makes clear that products from new technologies must be based on the precautionary principle and allow developing nations to balance public health against economic benefits. It will for example let countries ban imports of a genetically modified organism if they feel there is not enough scientific evidence the product is safe, and require exporters to label shipments containing genetically modified commodities such as corn or cotton.

The very fact that this is happening at a time Ghanaians are weighing the arguments as to whether to eat or not to eat GM foods, makes this sinister attempt to clandestinely sell GM foods to Ghanaians most shocking indeed.

We (FSG) hold the view that this sinister attempt to surreptitiously replace our food, obtained from tens of thousands of centuries through traditional breeding and selection, with genetically engineered foods of unknown effects and consequences, and hiding this from the consumer ought to be a criminal offence. We hereby make an urgent call on our dear country's regulatory authorities not to sleep on the job.

GNA

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