From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Wed Sep 15 1999 - 17:37:19 MDT
[It's getting worse. -- GB]
>From http://www.news-real.com/story/19990915/01/23/5835941_st.html
-
Doctor calls for halt to genetic engineering
Daily News
THE Government needs to urgently call a moratorium on all genetic
engineering until it can assure people there will be no resultant mutant
foods or seeds, Murupara GP Bernard Conlon says.
It was critical to protect the integrity of a country's national food supply
and not to allow modified foods or seeds until a large database of
independent research had shown such genetically- engineered products were
safe, Dr Conlon told a public meeting in New Plymouth last night.
Mad cow disease had united Europe, certainly for a generation or so, against
genetically-engineered seeds or food.
Europeans were now not accepting the assurances of agro-chemical companies
about the safety of genetic engineering when much of the available research
was done by those same firms.
Dr Conlon, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners'
environmental working party, said there was a lot of uncertainty, some
misinformation, and inadequate independent research.
"If there was one lesson to be learned (from the mad cow debacle) it is the
foolishness of allowing the possible corruption of the national food
supply."
Some foods available in New Zealand, usually soya or corn-based processed
foods, already contained genetically modified ingredients. So the Government
needed to act swiftly to ensure specific and comprehensive safeguards.
"New Zealand is at a crossroads. Five years down the track it will be too
late. Farmers need to think long and hard what direction they wish to take
as their decision will be irreversible."
It was already possible to genetically coat seeds with a "death sentence" so
they did not reproduce, forcing farmers back to the same seed companies year
after year.
"People need to decide how much they value the bountifulness of nature, how
much they value God's own country, whether they only pay lip-service to this
concept or are they prepared to take a stand against genetic engineering,"
Dr Conlon said.
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