Australian Financial Review

GM Foods Will Find Their Niche

Consumers would benefit from cheaper food as a result of genetically modified crops, delegates to the Australia Japan Joint Business Conference in Brisbane were told this week.

The regulatory regime and safe manufacturing processes will ensure there were no adverse health effects, according to Professor Adrienne Clarke of the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne.

Professor Clarke also told the conference the likely result of the debate about genetically modified foods was that the market would segment.

``GM foods will find a market because they will be cheaper than conventionally grown crops and organic food,'' she said.

``Food produced from conventionally grown crops will be more expensive and organic food will be the most expensive of all.''

There was no basis for concern about the adverse effects of the GM ingredients presently being produced on human health, Professor Clarke said.

The government regulatory system and the safety of the manufacturing process should provide a high level of confidence, she told delegates.

Acceptance of GM foods would accelerate when direct consumer benefits became available, she said.

These could include enhanced nutritional qualities, the elimination of allergens from some foods and the enhancement of the active components in health-promoting foods.

People were always suspicious of new technologies, Professor Clarke said, particularly when they applied to food. ``The introduction of GM foods will probably run a similar path to the introduction of other new technologies, such as pasteurisation of milk and fluoridation of water,'' Professor Clarke said.

``Eventually the benefits will be so great and the risks so low that they will be accepted.''