Lawyer calls on consumers to hold fast in face of GM pressure

Date: 10/07/03

STEVEN Druker, a US lawyer and anti-biotech activist, met with several like-minded MEPs yesterday (9 July) and called upon EU consumers to take a firm stance against genetically modified (GM) food products in the face of pressure from Washington.

Druker, founder and director of the Iowa-based Alliance for Bio-Integrity, claimed the US government has consistently ignored the advice of its own scientists and even operated against its own laws in branding GM food and feed as safe.

He told journalists at a briefing co-organized by Friends of the Earth Europe that a 1958 law that makes the "precautionary principle" a cornerstone of US food safety policy has been consistently flouted. The US regulation is even stricter than the EU's own interpretation of the broad legal term, for which Brussels has often been mocked by both US officials and the biotech industry as overly cautious.

Druker also emphasized a lawsuit he launched against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998 which forced the FDA to divulge some 44,000 pages of its previously clandestine files on GMOs, which are now available on Druker's website.

"The FDA admitted in court that they're not regulating this food at all - they're allowed to ignore what their own scientists say," he said. "The FDA's policy is clearly out of line I hope the US is exposed for what it's done."

Druker has said the lawsuit provides clear evidence that the FDA ignored the results of preliminary scientific testing that indicated GM foods may not be as safe as the government makes them out to be.

"There is overwhelming concern in the scientific community that they're not safe," he said. "It's time to end this charade and stop the fraud and start protecting public health."

New EU rules on the traceability and labelling of GM food and feed agreed by MEPs earlier this month, which could enter into force by this autumn, do not go far enough, he said. "They still allow for eggs, milk and meat products to enter the EU without labelling," he said.

But the European Commission has argued there is no scientific evidence that animals raised on GM feed would contain traces that could be detected in humans.

Proper testing of GM products, Druker said, could take between 12 and 18 years and would require a risk-benefit analysis framework that only the pharmaceuticals industry has.

An American lawyer and anti-biotech activist, Steve Druker, met with several MEPs with similar views on 9 July 2003 and called upon consumers in Member States to take a firm stance against genetically modified food products despite pressure from the US Government to accept them.