Ottawa Promoting Safety of GMOs
Critics say money spent on food pamphlets shows watchdog too close to biotech firms
By Colin Freeze
The Globe and Mail
INVESTIGATIONS UNIT
February 5, 2002
Agriculture Canada and its food inspectors have spent at least $3.3-million to tell citizens that what they are eating is safe, even if it is genetically modified, activists looking into government records say.
The activists, members of Greenpeace Canada and the Canadian Health Coalition, also say that money spent on promotional pamphlets shows a growing closeness between government food regulators and biotechnology corporations.
Canada is already a world leader in food biotechnology, producing much of the world's genetically modified crops. Ottawa wants to use the science to boost exports of crops such as canola, corn and soya.
The hitch is that many Canadians view food with transplanted DNA as unsavoury -- and potentially dangerous. Only 45 per cent believe the food is safe, according to polls cited by the government.
Caught in what has been called a public-relations "crisis," biotechnology interests have asked for help from the agriculture minister to debunk claims that altered foods will harm humans and the environment.
The Agriculture Department helps corporations research and develop the foods, even as its food-inspection branch regulates the crops.
The $3.3-million figure is the running tally kept by Greenpeace Canada and the Canadian Health Coalition, which say they have not yet been able to price all efforts. They say the funds have been spent over the past five years mostly on pamphlets circulated in Canada and around the world.
The government records were obtained through Access to Information legislation. The figure is limited to Agriculture Canada money and does not include millions more spent on promotion by other departments, such as Industry Canada.
Tax dollars should be spent protecting "human and environmental health," rather than helping companies profit, Greenpeace's Holly Penfound said.
"These documents show the government is in collusion with the food biotech industry," she said.
Government officials say they are only feeding public interest in biotechnology.
"What we communicate from here is strictly the fact that we have a regulatory system," said Bart Bilmer, biotechnology director at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
"Obviously we believe that products that come out of it are safe products, but we certainly don't endorse the technology as a whole."
Government records show that at least $2-million has been spent on a direct mailing to households, while at least another $1-million more has been routed to less-targeted communications efforts.
In 2000, food-inspection agency staffers, including Mr. Bilmer, took the lead in drafting an international booklet "urging APEC member economies to enhance their efforts to address public information needs," government records say.
The booklet urged Asia-Pacific economies to form biotech food media strategies. One tip was to disseminate pamphlets to targeted audiences, including schoolchildren.
It also noted food labels that include the words "biotechnology" or "genetically modified" tend to turn off consumers. (A Liberal MP's private bill to label genetically modified foods in Canada was voted down this fall.)
The food-inspection agency has also distributed brochures across Canada through direct mail. It took the lead in publishing millions of copies of a food-safety brochure that cost at least $2-million.
The Food Safety And You brochure touched on various subjects, including biotechnology.
Not all communications have been as direct. Both the Agriculture Department and the food-inspection agency have worked closely with a private umbrella group called the Food Biotechnology Communications Network (FBCN).
Records show the network received at least $700,000 in tax dollars to support its efforts, including booklets about biotechnology that appeared in a magazine.
Bradford Duplisea is an independent Ottawa-based researcher
who often works on health care and food safety issues for the Canadian Health Coalition.
He can be reached at:
Bradford.Duplisea@videotron.ca
Click here to read more GM food exposés based on Access-to-Information research by Bradford Duplisea