The Grocer

Who's The True Hypocrite?

(Letter to the Editor of The Grocer)

Sir:

Anne Palmer asks (Letters, The Grocer, March 11, p.17) "can anyone be 100% sure that when the herbicide glyphosate is inserted in soya, that it will not come through?"

Herbicide is not inserted in GM soya. The plant is made tolerant to glyphosate but rather than take my word for it go to http://www.soybean.com/bseries.htm where the boss of Lumen Foods can explain the benefits of GM soya and why his company believes in biotechnology.

There are no pesticides residues in the finished product. January's report from the UK's Pesticide Safety Directorate shows that, in 1999, of all the samples of GM and conventional soya tested from Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Plymco, Safeway, Sainsbury's and Tesco, no glyphosate could be found above the 0,1 ppm detection level, let alone the EU maximum of 20 ppm. In other words, the levels of glyphosate found in GM soys were 200 times lower than the permitted safety levels.

Your reader says it is hypocritical for a 0,1% tolerance of GMOs in food to be accepted as GMO-free. What about the 5% tolerance for processed organic foods?

Tony Combes
Director of Corporate Affairs
Monsanto plc