Originally published February 5 2011
EU Commission tries to destroy zero tolerance policy for GMO food contamination
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The European Union (E.U.) Commission, at the behest of lobbyists from the biotechnology, food, and animal feed industries, is proposing to undo a long-held "zero-tolerance" policy that protects the European food supply from contamination by unapproved genetically-modified organisms (GMO). If successful, the Commission's efforts will open wide the floodgates for imported GMO foodstuffs to further contaminate its food supply.
The E.U.'s zero-tolerance policy states that any imported food or feed material cannot contain even trace amounts of GMO substances that have not been approved by the E.U. Council. This includes many of the GMO food crops grown in the U.S. and Canada.
Several varieties of GM soy, corn, cotton, potato, sugar beet, and canola (rape seed), however, are currently approved for planting and use in the E.U. So GMOs are already pervasive in the European food supply, despite the policy. Nevertheless, the elimination of the zero-tolerance policy will make things worse, particularly in consumers knowing which products contain GMOs and which ones do not.
Unlike the U.S., the E.U. has restrictions in place that require GMO food products to be labeled as such. This mandate gives consumers the ability to know exactly what they are buying, and allows those wishing to avoid GMOs the opportunity to make educated and informed buying decisions. But with the import restrictions lifted, identifying the difference between GMO and non-GMO products will likely become more difficult.
A recent poll in Europe found that as many as 95 percent of Europeans view GMOs with some type of skepticism. Seventy percent said GMOs are fundamentally unnatural, and 60 percent said the "Frankencrops" are a threat to public health (http://www.naturalnews.com/030422_GMOs_Europ...).
To learn more about the dangers of GMOs, visit:
http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html
Sources for this story include:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/...
http://www.corporateeurope.org/system/files/...
http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/gmo/db/
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