Draft law aimed at
mandatory GM food labels hailed
By Guy Rogers
Source: The Herald Online
September 25, 2008
via CheckBiotech
Joel Sibiya, chairman of the economic affairs portfolio
committee in parliament, confirmed this week his committee had considered the
legislation as a section of the Consumer Protection Bill.
“It is part and parcel of transparency, better understanding
and informed choice. It gives consumers the confidence that they are getting
what they want.”
The Bill made its way from the national assembly after being
presented there by the department of trade and industry (DTI) last week. It was
handed down to the National Council of Provinces before being passed onto the
portfolio committee and is now back with the national assembly, Sibiya explained. It is not clear when the national
assembly will pass the Bill into law but the committee hopes this will happen
before the end of the year.
Agri EC president Cerneels Pietersen said while
some products would come under pressure, he welcomed the move because “it would
empower consumers”.
Details on the new legislation and which commodities were to
be targeted needed to be clarified, he said.
“There is an increased tendency to go into organic
production. It‘s a matter of survival. Besides escalating labour and fuel costs, the cost of fertiliser
alone increased by 67 per cent in the last year.
“The use of un-chlorinated water by organic farmers for
irrigation has brought concern because of the E.coli
levels in some dams but this is being tackled in partnership with local
municipalities,” he said.
Activists opposed to genetically modified foods say there
are serious doubts about the adequacy of testing and the validity of the
conclusions drawn from the results. They argue that independent long-term
testing is required to make sure GM foods are safe.
Another health concern is the possible accelerated
development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics due to the use of antibiotic
resistance genes in GM food production.
African Centre for Biosafety
spokesman Mariam Mayet said
of the new labelling system: “Government has embarked
on the first step towards regulating agri-business involved with genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).
“Not only have consumers been given a choice to reject GM
foods but they can now also be tracked from farm to fork in order to hold
companies liable when something goes wrong.”
SA Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SaFeAGE) national co-ordinator Charmaine Treherne said the move
was to be welcomed because the lack of genetically modified organism (GMO) labelling stipulationx in the
existing GMO Act afforded consumers no protection. Health department food
control director Andries Pretorius said unacceptable
costs would be incurred because a complex system would be needed to ensure labelling was accurate.
Safe Food Coalition spokesman Andrew Taynton
said the cost objections of the health department made no sense.
“A ‘farm to fork‘ tracing and
segregation system is already being implemented in order to meet the demands of
the export market, which does not want GM products,” he said.
Source: The Herald Online
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