UN food envoy questions safety of gene crops

October 17, 2002

SWITZERLAND: October 17, 2002

GENEVA - A United Nations human rights envoy this week questioned the safety of

genetically modified (GM) food and said big corporations had more to gain from

its use than poor countries fighting starvation.

Jean Ziegler, the U.N. special investigator on the right to food, said he put

the views of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who say humans are at risk

if they consume GM food over a period of time, before that of the World Health

Organisation, which says it is safe.

" All the nutritionalists, the highly qualified biologists at these NGOs say

there is a risk for the human body over the long term, " he told journalists.

" They say we have not reached a security level and I believe them. "

Hunger-stricken countries in southern Africa are torn between accepting GM food

aid, mainly from the United States, and concern about its safety and its impact

on agriculture and biodiversity.

U.N. agencies, including the WHO, estimate 14.4 people from Lesotho, Malawi,

Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are threatened by famine. Zimbabwe

reversed its initial rejection of GM food aid, but Zambia is still refusing to

accept it.

" I'm against the theory of the multinational corporations who say if you are

against hunger you must be for GMO. That's wrong, " Ziegler said, " There is

plenty of natural, normal good food in the world to nourish the double of

humanity. "

Health questions aside, Ziegler said farmers accepting GM seeds would be forced

to continue buying them " for ever " from big biotechnology corporations.

" There is absolutely no justification to produce genetically modified food

except the profit motive and the domination of the multinational corporations, "

said Ziegler, a Swiss former socialist member of parliament.

The envoy reports on the world food situation to the Geneva-based U.N. Human

Rights Commission.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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