media release - GM potatoes

Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 01:36:39
To: slabchuk@isn.net
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
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EARTH ACTION

81 Prince Street  Charlottetown  PEI C1A 4R3   Tel: 902-621-0719   Email:
slabchuk@isn.net



MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 1999


PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT AND POTATO INDUSTRY HELP FAST-TRACK MONSANTO'S GM
POTATOES THROUGH REGULATORY SYSTEM



Charlottetown - The provincial government and the PEI potato industry
participated in backroom meetings with Monsanto and federal food regulators
which resulted in two varieties of genetically modified potatoes being
fast-tracked through the regulatory approval system, says Earth Action
spokesperson Sharon Labchuk.

Information about the private deal between Monsanto and the federal
government was obtained under the Access to Information Act by Ottawa-based
researcher Ken Rubin and publicized on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen
on November 30.  

"Confidence in Canada's food safety system is at an all time low," says
Labchuk. "This year Health Canada scientists blew the whistle on corporate
pressure tactics to approve inadequately tested products like BGH. Then
Canada's Commissioner of the Environment revealed our pesticide regulatory
system is seriously deficient Just two weeks ago, 200 Health Canada
scientists signed a petition warning that there are not enough scientists
on staff to properly evaluate genetically modified foods.  And now this."
 
According to information obtained by Rubin, approval for the two new GM
potatoes was held up because Monsanto refused to provide key scientific
information to regulators assessing the potatoes' health and environment
effects.  But potato growers wanted the GM potatoes approved quickly so
that they could plant them in the coming season.  So potato growers from
PEI, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta, along with deputy ministers of
agriculture from  PEI and New Brunswick organized a meeting in February
with federal officials.  Another meeting was held in March, chaired by PEI
deputy minister of agriculture Rory Francis, this time with senior Monsanto
executives  in attendance.  

"They cooked up a deal where, in exchange for Monsanto coughing up the data
government wanted, the GM potatoes would be fast-tracked through the safety
approval system.  In fact the GM potatoes were on the market in less than
two months," says Labchuk.  "It's very disappointing that deputy minister
of agriculture Rory Francis and the PEI potato growers would be party to
this kind of distasteful  backroom dealing, especially when it could affect
human health and the environment.  This further substantiates popular
public opinion that government and industry put profits ahead of ethics."

In the Ottawa Citizen article, Dr. Michelle Brill-Edwards, a former Health
Canada drug regulator and critic of the system said, "What you're seeing is
a high-level example of a very dirty game that practically nobody knows
about. These kinds of meetings go on all the time and it's almost never
captured because people are careful not to let this kind of thing be known."

Labchuk says Agriculture Minister Eric Hammill's recent remarks in the
legislature about making sure farmers control the agriculture agenda rather
than "some environmental group", coupled with his department's interference
in the federal food safety regulatory system reveal a flagrant disregard
for public safety and environmental protection. "Both Hammill and Francis
should do the honourable thing and resign."

	- 30 -

Contact: Sharon Labchuk    902-621-0719

Note: We have a copy of the document obtained by Ken Rubin and can fax it.







********************************
Sharon Labchuk
Earth Action
81 Prince Street
Charlottetown, PEI  C1A 4R3
Phone: 902-368-7337 / 621-0719
Fax: 902-621-0719 
slabchuk@isn.net



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