Codex guidelines for non-approved GMOs

EU BLOCKS GMO POTATOES, CORN: European Union governments blocked approval of a genetically modified potato made by BASF AG and three corn varieties developed by Monsanto Co..The opposition by health regulators from countries including Italy,Poland and Hungary prevents fast-track approval of the Amflora potato for animal feed and the corn types for feed and food. The European Commission,27-nation EU ’'s executive,must now ask government ministers to give their verdict in a step that will add months to a process the US says is too slow. The potato and corn varieties pose ''no risk to human or animal health or to the environment,''the commission said.A split among ministers,who have about three months to decide,would give the commission the power to approve the BASF and Monsanto applications on its own.The EC is seeking to push through approvals of products in the $6-billion global biotech crop market over the resistance of a group of countries that also include Austria, Greece,Cyprus and Luxembourg. Surveys show opposition to such foods by more than half of European consumers,who worry about risks such as human resistance to antibiotics and the development of ''superweeds''impervious to herbicides.

GENE BANK FOR U.P.: The Uttar Pradesh Council of Agriculture and Research (UPCAR)will be setting up the first-of-its-kind gene bank in the state,in an attempt to preserve rare varieties of food crops from extinction.A proposal for setting up the gene bank has already been sent to the government.Apart from food crops,the gene bank will also have provisions to preserve medicinal plants.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission is to create guidelines for  assessing the risk of imported food made with non-approved genetically modified plant material,which would help relax trade barriers.

Codex establishes food standards, ensures fair trade practices in the food trade and  promotes the coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international organisations on behalf of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)and World Health Organisation (WHO).

It has decided to advance a proposal that addresses the risk assessment of low-level presence of biotech plant materials, found in food or feed, which have been authorised in one or more countries but not yet in the importing country.

Codex's proposal will be submitted to the Codex Commission next July for approval, and will subsequently be incorporated in the Codex Plant Guidelines as an annex. This system would not substitute the full food safety assessments under the Codex Guidelines for products to be marketed in an importing country.

It will also not address risk management measures, so individual countries will need to decide how to use the guidelines within the context of their regulatory systems. No country would be obliged to adopt the document.

However, some have criticized Codex's proposals, disagreeing with only applying regulations to new foods merely because a certain technique has been used. Also, current Codex language on the controversial marker genes is already five years old,based on science that is even older. All antibiotic resistant marker genes should be banned.

The current text for animals is similar to the guideline for plants. In the case of animals, there are ethical considerations that must be taken into account. "Other Legitimate Factors"(OLF),such as ethical concerns, environmental issues and animal welfare problems are also not clearly mentioned in the text In case a GM food is promoted as having health benefits, consumers may be misled to eat a less healthy diet based on false and misleading claims. In addition, it is likely that unintended or unexpected effects will occur. Terms such as "nutritional disadvantage" or "nutritional risk" were suggested, but finally, the term "adverse nutritional effects "was agreed upon by the delegates.

How should countries deal with normal foods that have been contaminated with GM traits? The US and other food exporting countries have tried to water down the proposals at previous meetings, but in the end, countries agreed to language that in some cases should make it possible for importing countries to control GM contamination.

Organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are entirely against genetic modification. They say this amounts to attempts to legalise contamination of unapproved GM ingredients through Codex.GM crops are increasingly being cultivated in major crop exporting countries. In 2006,10.3m farmers in 22 countries cultivated biotech crops on 102m hectares. Ninety per cent of farmers who switched to these crops were from developing countries.

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