The president of the biotech industry association CropLife wrote a letter to the Yukon News saying I needed more information about genetically modified crops and that I was incorrect to question the safety of GM foods. But instead of giving any information in his letter he just fed us some public relations lines.
“Health Canada has declared that GM crops are just as safe as traditional crops,” said Lorne Hepworth.
If that was true, Health Canada would not review the safety of each GM crop, but it does. Unfortunately, the only thing the department does is review corporately supplied data, it doesn’t do any of its own independent safety testing and all that company testing is kept secret from the public.
So, when CropLife says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada complete “extensive safety reviews” this is not actually correct à CFIA and Health Canada merely read corporately supplied reviews à and they are asking us to trust them because we never get to see the content of those reviews.
Why can’t independent scientists take a look at the science behind these GM products?
Is Hepworth telling us not to ask questions?
It looks like I asked the right questions because it rustled up a corporate lobbyist from Ottawa.
Barbara Drury
Whitehorse