Genetically Modified Foodshttps://www.thestar.com/editorial/money/990928BUS01b_FI-FOOD28.html
VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR
BUYER BEWARE: Michael Khoo of Greenpeace holds a box of North American Corn Flakes containing genetically altered food in one hand and a European box with natural ingredients in the other.
Modified-food fight goes public
By Stuart Laidlaw
Toronto Star Business Reporter
The battle over genetically modified food moved to a new front yesterday as activists and farmers met face-to-face in shouting matches outside a Toronto grocery store.
The scene was a Loblaws store in the Annex where Greenpeace and the Council of Canadians launched a public awareness campaign urging customers to ask the chain to remove all genetically modified foods from its shelves.
But a couple of farmers showed up and stood on the edge of the crowd heckling as the activists held a brief news conference.
``The food is safe,'' shouted Jeff Wilson, who farms about 250 hectares near Hillsburgh, northwest of Brampton, and had been tipped off about the activists' news conference.
The incident brought into the public spotlight a debate over genetically modified foods that until now has been very quiet in Canada.
But with World Trade Organization talks to look into international trade of such food to begin in nine weeks, activists have promised to step up a campaign to get the public thinking about the issue throughout the fall.
The activists' first foray in that campaign brought them face-to-face with the people growing the food. Both sides brought props for the television cameras and were ready with well-rehearsed lines for the media.
``Would you buy that?'' Wilson asked as he held up a cabbage ravaged by bugs that he said could have been fought with genetically engineered crops.
Wilson was at the store with Jim Fischer, a Walkerton-area dairy farmer who heads an organization called AgCare that supports the use of genetically modified foods, to challenge some of the statements made by the activists.
Michael Khoo, head of the Greenpeace campaign against genetically modified foods, said his group's fight is not with the farmers, but the seed and chemical companies upon which they rely.
He said farmers have a tough time making ends meet and can understand why they would turn to a product that promises to increase yields and cut costs.
``Farmers are looking for anything to improve their situation and are being sold a bill of goods by Monsanto and Novartis,'' Khoo said to the jeers of the farmers.
``I think you are underselling farmers' ability to make sound business decisions,'' Wilson shouted back.
At the heart of the matter is a dispute over the safety of the food we eat. Khoo handed out a University of Wisconsin study showing that pesticide use has increased with genetic modification, while crop yields have dropped.
What testing there has been on the health and environmental impacts of genetically modified food has been carried out by the companies making it, said Elizabeth Abergel, a molecular biologist at York University.
``There are obvious conflicts of interest,'' she said at the activists' news conference.
Abergell said the public may not know for many years whether the food is dangerous, and that in the meantime, consumers are becoming ``unwitting participants'' in an experiment to see if the food is safe.
Jennifer Story, of the Council of Canadians, showed some of the 90,000 postcards her group had printed calling on Loblaws to remove genetically altered foods from its No Name and President's Choice product lines, and to refuse to sell such products in the produce section.
Story called on foods to be labelled so that customers can tell whether they contain genetically modified crops. About 60 per cent of the packaged food in grocery stores contains genetically altered crops.
``It's very difficult for customers to avoid genetically engineered foods.''
Loblaws said later it won't remove genetically modified foods from its shelves unless told to, or the industry decides as a whole to do so.
``It's the federal government's regulatory responsibility to determine what goes on labels and what goes on shelves,'' said Geoff Wilson, vice-president of industry and investor relations.
Story bought several items at the Annex Loblaws she said were made with genetically modified foods, including Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Doritos' chips.
She and Khoo held them up for the cameras alongside the same brands from Europe, where the companies have sent letters to Greenpeace proclaiming their food free of genetically altered crops.
``In Canada, we cannot get the same assurances,'' Story said. ``We are calling on Canada's largest grocery chain, and a leader in the industry, to do the same.''
Doug Powell, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph, brought to the Loblaws by Wilson and Fischer, ended up in a shouting match with a shopper.
``I resent you putting stuff in my food I don't want,'' said Evan John Evans, 71.