[pf] try#3; British Columbia proposes mandatory GM food labels

In Try#1 I said:

· This post is mainly to see whether people have stopped posting, or
whether, as Gary Barrett said to some of us, when he sends a post it never
appears, either sent to him by e-mail, or on the Topica positive-futures
webpage (which is currently unreadable, I can confirm as of 4:30 a.m.
Sunday +1200).   D.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/12/politics/12NOMI.html?ex=990678934&ei=1&en=
ac3433263aa8e07d  [all on same line in browser]


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Now Try#3 (after 8 a.m. Sun.) :-

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10420&newsDate=6-Apr-2001
  is: 

British Columbia proposes mandatory GM food labels
-------------------------------------------------------------------
  
CANADA: April 6, 2001
 
VICTORIA, British Columbia - British Columbia has proposed to become the
first jurisdiction in North America to require warning labels on thousands
of food products that include genetically modified ingredients. 

"People have a fundamental right to know what they are eating," Attorney
General Graeme Bowbrick said of the Canadian province's planned law, which
threatens violators with fines and prison sentences.
Canadian federal regulations require labeling only if the genetic
modifications substantially change the nature of a food product or
introduce allergens.

Bowbrick said the British Columbia law, introduced this week, will not
receive final passage until consumers and the food industry have had a
chance to comment, but an industry executive quickly cast doubt on its
effectiveness.

"Because there is no health and safety issue, the crops are not always
segregated. That only leaves the option to put things that are not really
useful to consumers like 'May contain'," Cruikshank said.

The law provides for the appointment of an advisory panel to develop the
labeling program. Farmers have turned to genetically modified plants -
derided as "frankenfoods" by critics - in order to use fewer pesticides or
herbicides, and to reduce costs.

Cruikshank said a task force that includes industry and environmental
groups is already working on the issue of voluntary labeling for GM foods
and is expected to have proposals ready by the fall.

Canada has had national standards for organic foods since 1999 and it would
be "next to impossible" for British Columbia as a province to implement a
policy, said Myles Frosst, head of the Canadian Agri-Food Marketing Council.

Frosst said producers and grocers are working seriously on the voluntary
labeling program because they know there are consumers who will pay a
premium for unmodified foods.

"There isn't a farmer or a retailer or a processor in the country who is
not trying to meet that demand," Frosst said.

The labeling measure comes as British Columbia's New Democratic Party (NDP)
government faces an election, which it is widely expected to lose to the
opposition Liberals. The left-leaning NDP has been actively courting the
environmental vote.

Liberal leader Gordon Campbell said his party would consider the public
response to the measure if it forms the next government. The provincial
election must be called by June 28. 

 

Story by Paul Willcocks 
 

REUTERS 

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David. {is GW Bush that stupid, that he doesn't challenge the "advice"?)
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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