但是,这不是目前讨论转基因食品安全问题的焦点。目前讨论的问题是,通过转基因所生产的、目前已经通过各国粮食安全检验机构检验并批准上市的这些转基因粮食,是否是安全的?
问题的关键在于,目前不存在这种“
已经通过各国粮食安全检验机构检验”的转基因粮食。(Governments around the world are hard at work to establish a regulatory process to monitor the effects of and approve new varieties of GM plants. Yet depending on the political, social and economic climate within a region or country, different governments are responding in different ways.)
以美国为例,转基因粮食规管涉及EPA,USDA和FDA三个部门。EPA评估转基因作物对环境的影响;USDA评估转基因作物是否能安全种植;FDA评估转基因粮食食用是否安全(the EPA evaluates GM plants for environmental safety, the USDA evaluates whether the plant is safe to grow, and the FDA evaluates whether the plant is safe to eat.)
但是负责评估转基因粮食食用是否安全的FDA,实际上并不对转基因粮食做安全检验。
The current FDA policy was developed in 1992 (Federal Register Docket No. 92N-0139) and states that agri-biotech companies may voluntarily ask the FDA for a consultation. Companies working to create new GM foods are not required to consult the FDA, nor are they required to follow the FDA's recommendations after the consultation. Consumer interest groups wish this process to be mandatory, so that all GM food products, whole foods or otherwise, must be approved by the FDA before being released for commercialization. The FDA counters that the agency currently does not have the time, money, or resources to carry out exhaustive health and safety studies of every proposed GM food product.
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php
加拿大政府机构更简单,就是认为转基因粮食同传统粮食一样,没任何区别。所以,不需对转基因粮食做任何特别的安全检验。转基因粮食是否安全,全凭转基因公司自己做。
Why does Health Canada not do its own testing of GM foods?
其他国家,日本,印度,巴西,欧洲等国家情况如下:
In
Japan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that health testing of GM foods will be mandatory as of April 2001
36, 37. Currently, testing of GM foods is voluntary. Japanese supermarkets are offering both GM foods and unmodified foods, and customers are beginning to show a strong preference for unmodified fruits and vegetables.
India's government has not yet announced a policy on GM foods because no GM crops are grown in India and no products are commercially available in supermarkets yet
38. India is, however, very supportive of
transgenic plantresearch. It is highly likely that India will decide that the benefits of GM foods outweigh the risks because Indian agriculture will need to adopt drastic new measures to counteract the country's endemic poverty and feed its exploding population.
Some states in
Brazil have banned GM crops entirely, and the Brazilian Institute for the Defense of Consumers, in collaboration with Greenpeace, has filed suit to prevent the importation of GM crops
39,. Brazilian farmers, however, have resorted to smuggling GM soybean seeds into the country because they fear economic harm if they are unable to compete in the global marketplace with other grain-exporting countries.
In
Europe, anti-GM food protestors have been especially active. In the last few years Europe has experienced two major foods scares: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in Great Britain and dioxin-tainted foods originating from Belgium. These food scares have undermined consumer confidence about the European food supply, and citizens are disinclined to trust government information about GM foods. In response to the public outcry, Europe now requires mandatory food labeling of GM foods in stores, and the European Commission (EC) has established a 1% threshold for contamination of unmodified foods with GM food products
40.