House of Lords GM Report Whitewash21 January 1999
Friends of the Earth warned that a House of Lords Committee Report on the future of genetically modified food in Europe is "riddled with omissions and misunderstandings".
The Lords Select Committee report claims that the economic benefits of genetically modified (GM) food may outweigh the environmental risks. But it admits that the risk to the environment is "difficult to estimate" and that "harm to the environment by GM crops has yet to be demonstrated experimentally." The report also contains serious errors of fact. For example, it claims that: "GM technology may offer much to organic systems, for example through reduced inputs" (paragraph 172). In fact, organic farmers are prohibited from using GMOs, pesticides, artificial fertilisers and animal growth promoters. It is intellectually confused. It accepts that "for some people the use of GM products ...is an ethical issue" (paragraph 127 and 195) but supports labelling of only a limited number of GM-derived products (paragraph 189), thus preventing consumers from exercising any ethical choice.
Friends of the Earth food campaigner Pete Riley commented: "This is the wrong report, written at the wrong time, by the wrong people."
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