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SAY NO TO GMO POTATOES IN SOUTH AFRICA
GO HERE
TO SIGN THE PETITION
(Also see http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/objections_potato.htm)
Soil Association (UK) briefing on GM potatoes:
Info
on the GM Potato in the UK: We are awaiting the information on the SA Potato,
but this will give you some idea.
1.
Commercial
experience of GM potatoes
In the US, attempts at selling GM potatoes failed after being
rejected by major food companies, including McDonald's, Burger King, McCain's
and Pringles[2].
There are no GM potatoes sold in the
US
now. On the radio programme,
Farming Today, on 24 August 2005, Andrew Opie of the British Retail
Consortium, representing supermarkets, said, “We won’t be stocking GM
potatoes for the conceivable future ... The fact is people remain suspicious
of GM”.
5.
Health problems with GM potatoes
There is a major concern that GM potatoes pose a risk to human
health. There are many serious
concerns about GMOs in general, most of which would apply to GM potatoes.
However, there is a particular concern with GM potatoes as for several
years there has been evidence indicating that they could cause hemorrhages.
Feeding trials by two scientific teams found that GM potatoes
cause lesions in the gut wall of rats and mice[3].
Both studies were published in scientific journals.
One was a controlled UK Government funded study, peer reviewed and
published in the Lancet, the most respectable medical journal, in October 1999
(Ewen and Pusztai, 1999). The
editor said the paper “deserved further scientific attention.”
The biotechnology industry reacted very aggressively and tried
to mobilise the scientific community to undermine the credibility of the work.
However, no further work has been undertaken since which could in any
way suggest that the finding was wrong. Moreover,
the credibility of the findings is supported by the fact that similar effects
have been found with GM tomatoes in two
US
feeding trials, which found that GM tomatoes cause lesions in the gut wall of
rats.[4]
GA,
24.8.2006, GMbriefing23
[1]
“Consultation
on proposals for managing the co-existence of GM, conventional and organic
crops”, July 2006
[2]
"GE
crops - increasingly isolated awareness and rejection grow",
Greenpeace International, briefing, March 2002
[4]
Unpublished
studies carried out for Calgene and at the request of the FDA
respectively, in early 1990s, in reviewed “Food safety – contaminants
and toxins”, CABI Publishing, 2003
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