By: Spanky Horowitz
As you load your shopping-cart with the best-looking tomatoes, the freshest cuts of meat and your favourite canned goods, you don't worry about the quality or safety of your groceries. The food looks fresh, and if something were awry, you trust that the government would do something about it.
When they announced that hockey would be subsidized with your tax dollars, you spoke out and the deal was declared "dead" inside of a week. Now you must use that same voice to ask your government what is going on with the food you buy and eat every day.
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The research is promising, but this research is no longer in the lab. You are now the guinea-pig |
The eyes of the world are watching Montreal this week as delegates from over one hundred countries meet to decide the fate of our food supply. The debate is actually over international agreements concerning LMOs (living modified organisms), and how they should or should not be regulated--or even identified. This means that some very big companies are "designing" seeds that can grow faster, bigger and attract less pests than traditional seeds. The research is promising, and some very interesting things are being discovered and developed, but this research is no longer in the lab. You are now the guinea-pig that will eat their new seeds because there has been no long-term testing on most of these products.
Several countries, including Japan and parts of the European Union (EU), have stopped importing certain products (corn and soybeans) from the United States because there is no way to know what is or is not genetically modified. They are nervous because these products, which have not yet been properly-tested, could contaminate their environment should they turn out to be dangerous in the future.
What the experts are saying...
The industry people (Monsanto, Novartis, Global Industry Coalition) are saying that everything is OK, that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. They claim their products are government approved and thereby, safe. They do not tell you that several industry board-members are tied to government officials, including Mickey Kantor, Monsanto board-member AND personal attorney to US President Bill Clinton.
The farmers are split down the middle. Two separate press conferences were held yesterday to let the press know how the "average farmer" feels about the situation; one sponsored by Greenpeace and the other by the Global Industry Coalition. Well-coiffed "farmers" in business suits contradicted each other, leaving us with absolutely no confidence in either group.
The Canadian government has already approved Living Modified Organism varieties of canola, corn, soybeans and potatoes, with many other varieties on the way. The bulk handling and transportation systems in Canada do not easily allow for the segregation of LMO and non-LMO varieties, so crops are lumped together and sold without labels or identification. Canada (this means you and me) has considered it impractical to follow the proper export regulations set out in the UN protocol, stating that every country has the right to regulate imports. This leaves "other" countries with the problem of regulating imports that cannot be identified for regulation.
Are "Frankenfoods" evil?
Several days of scouring websites and interviewing industry-reps, farmers and government officials from all over the world has led me to believe that the industry is not "evil", but way ahead of the general public. They need to slow down and tell us what is going on. We need to ask.
What can you do about it?
There seem to be a few ways of going about this.
- Continue living our lives and hope for the best.
- Send the industry a message by not buying genetically-modified foods. This option is impossible, though, due to the lack of any mandatory labeling laws, prohibiting us from differentiating one product from another.
- Send a message to the government. If enough Canadians let the government (theoretically our employees) know that we are concerned, they will listen.
If enough people demonstrate their concern, someone will listen. Write today. If you believe Canada should impose a moratorium on the use of new genetically-modified foods and species, here are some places you can write to:
sitecanadasite@pwgsc.gc.ca (General Govt. of Canada Website)
bcoweb@ec.gc.ca (Environment Canada's Biodiversity convention Office)
david.anderson@ec.gc.ca (Canadian Minister of Environment)
And don't forget to write to Straight Goods
let us know you've sent off your message
Spanky Horowitz is Food Critic with the Montreal Mirror
