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GM foods/crops can benefit mankind, but risk assessment necessary: WHO
BY OUR SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
26 June, 2005: GM foods are here to stay, believes the World Health Organisatin. In a report released on June 22, the global body said that genetically modified (GM) foods can contribute significantly to enhancing health and development. The WHO said this in its report on GM foods titled "Modern food biotechnology, human health and development".
WHO has also said that continued safety assessments on GM crops must be done before they are in the market, to prevent risks to humans and the environment.
Potential benefits and risks associated with GM foods are listed in the report. WHO says that crop yield, diversity of foods which can be grown in a given area and food quality can be increased with the use of GM crops. These will, in turn, lead to better health and nutrition and help increase health and living standards, says the international health body.
Despite its appreciation for the potential and promise of GM crops, the WHO says safeguards for GM crops are necessary. Genes used in some of the GM foods have not been in the food chain before, and they may cause changes in the existing genetic make-up of the crop. Possible effects of this on human health due to this should be assessed before their commercial cultivation, marketing and consumption, the WHO cautions. Long-term monitoring to catch any possible adverse effects early is also necassary, the WHO report adds.
Pre-market risk assessments have been conducted on all GM products where these products are marketed, WHO points out. On this, GM foods/crops are examined with more rigour than normal foods for their potential health and environmental effecs. In an important push to the proponents of GM foods & GM food companies and a setback to their rivals, the WHO report clearly says that "till date, the consumption of GM foods has not caused any known negative health effects."
The report on GM foods suggests that in future, GM foods evaluations should be expanded to include social, cultural and ethical considerations, to help ensure there is no "genetic divide" between groups of countries which allow the growth, cultivation and marketing of GM products and those who dont.
"Currently, evaluations primarily focus on the agronomic ramifications and on possible health effects. The GM food aid crisis in southern Africa in 2002, where a number of countries did not permit GM food aid as a result of mostly socio-economic concerns, illustrates the need for broader evaluations," the a WHO release said.
According to Dr Jorgen Schlundt, Director of WHO's Food Safety Department, "GM foods should be examined from many standpoints, including the social and ethical, in addition to the health and environmental. If we help our Member States to do this on a national level we can avoid creating a 'genetic divide' between those countries which permit GM crops and those which do not."
Different nations have differing socio-economic conditions, and their people have different histories of what they consume and what food means in their society. All of them can affect how GM foods will be regarded, and taking proper account of these concerns will affect the long-term acceptance or rejection of GM foods and their possible health benefits and potential hazards.
As of now, there are about 15 global legally-binding instruments and non-binding codes of practice, which address some aspects of GM organisms. While some of the richer countries have set up specific pre-market regulatory systems mandating thorough case-by-case risk assessment of GM foods prior to their release, many developing countries lack similar capabilities for setting up such systems.
WHO is partnering the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to help nations study the introduction of a given GM food from all angles.
Says Dr Schlundt: "We can hope to gain the health and nutritional improvements of GM foods when we can help countries to research how they can control and exploit the introduction of GM products for the benefit of their own people."
It was in the mid-1990s that the forst significant GM crop was introduced. Since then, GM varieites of maize, soybeans, rapeseed and cotton have been marketed and traded. Besides, GM varieties of papaya, potato, rice, squash, sugar beet and tomato have been released in certain countries. The production of GM crops has increased significantly over the last decade, and although most of this production is centred in relatively few countries, it is estimated that at the end of 2004, GM crops covered almost 4% of the total global arable land.
BY OUR SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT |
