Agence France
Presse

G8 Summit To Ponder Plan For World Forum On Transgenic Food

The Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan in July will, according to this story, be asked to set up a global forum to help assess the safety and impact of genetically-modified foods. The proposal was announced Friday by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the 29-nation club of wealthy industrialised countries, which has been asked by the G8 to help clarify the debate on transgenic foods.

Sir John Krebs, a top British scientist who authored the proposal, was quoted as saying, "Worldwide, many people are eating GM foods (especially in North America and China) with no adverse effects on human health having been reported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature." But, he warned, "There could, in theory, be long-term effects on humam health that have not yet been detected because GM foods have been available for less than 10 years." He recommended that an "international forum" be set up "to provide governments with a state of the art assessment of scientific knowledge about GM technology."

The social and environmental impacts of the novel foods would be part of the remit, he insisted. Krebs was further cited as saying it was up to others to decide the nature of the forum, but said it should be controlled by governments and stressed it must be "inclusive," implying that it should not be restricted to wealthy countries or the biotech industry, adding, "People want to know how decisions are reached and to be consulted."