PRESS RELEASE from SAFeAGE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
 

CONSUMER RIGHTS RECOGNISED: GM FOODS WILL BE LABELLED IN SOUTH AFRICA

 

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Cape Town: History was made yesterday when the Department of Trade and
Industry handed down a ruling for mandatory labelling of genetically
modified foods.

 

The decision came after a clause to this effect, which had been removed
from the draft Consumer Protection Bill last year, was
reinstated.National Co-ordinator of SAFeAGE, a consumer GMO watchdog
that has been lobbying for two years to have this clause reinstated
said, "The GMO Act does not protect consumers, it is rather a
permitting system that welcomes untested, unlabelled and irresponsible
genetic modification to run rife in our country. Consumers will finally
have the right to choose once this Bill is implemented".

 

Parliament's Trade and Industry committee also withdrew a clause from
the original Bill that rendered GMOs exempt from liability for damage
caused by them. "Why should food that has been spliced with virus,
anti-biotic resistant and herbicide genes be exempt from liability,"
questioned Treherne."These foods should be subject to more stringent
labelling, not exemption."



The Department of Trade and Industry's labelling laws have not gone
unopposed. Both the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health
have opposed mandatory labelling saying it would send out a confusing
signal to consumers. However, spokesperson for the Safe Food Coalition,
Andrew Taynton said that "the Department of Trade and Industry should
be congratulated for this bold move. Current GM labelling laws in South
Africa are so flawed that they do not label any of the GM foods
currently on the market."

Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) commented that
"government has embarked upon the first step towards regulating
agribusiness involved with GMOs. Not only have consumers been given a
choice to reject GM foods, now, GM food can  also be tracked from farm
to fork in order to hold Monsanto and others liable when we discover
that something has gone wrong."

Treherne was however concerned that the Department of Agriculture would
still be responsible for determining the thresholds and technical
requirements of these new regulations, saying, "We hope this does not
undermine the excellent work done by Parliament and the Department of
Trade and Industry on the Consumer Protection Bill.

 

ENDS

For more information contact:

Charmaine Treherne, National Coordinator, SAFeAGE

Phone 021-4478445or072-450-8229

Email safeage@...

www.safeage.org

 

Andrew Taynton, spokesperson for the Safe Food Coalition,

Phone 083 662 0411,

Email taynton@... <mailto:taynton@...>

 

Notes for editors:

-Clause 61 was removed from the Draft Bill, which read ..........

-Approximately 60% of our maize crop is GM, 70% of our soya crop, and
90% of our cotton crop is now genetically modified.South Africa also
imports GM canola oil used in vegetable oils and margarine. Rice,
beans, wheat, fresh fruit and vegetables are still non-GM

-SAFeAGE recently released the results of random tests conducted on a
number of food products, including breakfast cereals, baby foods and
staple foods. Some breakfast cereals include a high content of
genetically modified organisms (GMO's) while one of the baby products
contained a staggering 97.49%.

-The GMO Executive Council is currently assessing an application to
bring a new GM food crop onto the market, potatoes. Potato SA is
opposing the application.