- Food producers using genetically modified components
have launched a fight against public ad that tell people more information
about food they buy
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- Activists of the ecological movement "Be Aware of
What You Buy!" in the Russian city of Volgograd compile information
about genetically modified components in food. This week activists of the
movement have faced undisguised threats issued by a large food producer
of the city. Director General of the ecological project Sergey Shavlak
says he got several threats demanding that the movement must cease "its
useless activity". Sergey Shavlak claims that last year the movement
circulated a questionnaire among the leading enterprises of the city asking
whether they used genetically modified components.
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- Unfortunately, only a confectionary filled in the questionnaire.
"This year we sent the questionnaire to 16 enterprises of Volgograd
and warned that in case we got no reply to the questionnaire we would name
enterprises that didn-t deny usage of genetically modified components on
the website of the ecological movement. In a couple of days, I had a call
on my mobile phone (by the way the number of my phone wasn't mentioned
in the questionnaire) and had to listen to threats from one of Volgograd's
largest enterprises."
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- Volgograd is a city with highly developed food industry;
recently it has become a target for producers of genetically modified components,
ecologists say. At that experts say that reaction of food producers to
information about usage of genetically modified components is typical of
other Russian cities as well, not only Volgograd.
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- A resolution of Russia's Chief Sanitary Inspector Gennady
Onischenko "On Implementation of Sanitary Regulations" came into
effect on September 1, 2002. In accordance with the document, food producers
are obliged to supply their products with detailed information about genetically
modified contents. According to information provided by the international
organization "For Biological Safety", there are just few producers
that provide this information on the labels.
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- Spokesperson for the organization Olga Berlova told RBC
Daily that she saw this marking only on two products, on crab sticks and
stewed meat produced in the city of Uryupinsk. At that, if this marking
still appears on labels it is placed so that it is incomprehensible or
inconspicuous for consumers. Director of the Timiryazev Institute for Physiology
of Plants Vladimir Kuznetsov says that it is rather infrequent that information
about genetically modified components is actually marked on food. As a
rule, the whole phrase informing about the genetically modified contents
is tiny and undistinguishable for ordinary consumers.
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- There are several reasons explaining why the resolution
issued by the chief sanitary inspector is still invalid. First of all,
a complete list of genetically modified components that must be marked
on food hasn't been compiled yet. There is a previously made list of genetically
modified components; but it is outdated and doesn't include widely spread
components that are not yet declared officially as genetically modified.
Olga Berlova says aspartame is one of such components; it is widely used
in production of drinks, ketchup and chewing gum. Usage of the component
makes the production cycle much cheaper. Although aspartame is not mentioned
on the official list of genetically modified components, producers admit
that it is the product of genetic engineering. There was an incident in
California when a great number of pregnant women appealed to court and
complained that food with genetically modified components caused problems
to pregnancy and child-bearing. In that case, Americans dodged: they admitted
that phenylalanin (an element of aspartame) was harmful for pregnant women.
Did you see that packs with chewing gum are supplied with an inscription
saying that it contains phenylalanine which is contraindicated to people
suffering from phenylketonuria? In fact, aspartame is dangerous for all
people.
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- One more problem connected with genetically modified
components is poor knowledge of food producers about such components. Ecologists
say it often happens so that producers do not know exactly what components
they use, let's take modified soy beans for example. Food producers often
fall victims to smart importers who persuade them that usage of such components
will reduce the end product cost. Ivan Blokov, the Greenpeace Russia campaign
director says that 70-80% of soy beans produced in the USA is genetically
modified. It is the USA that is Russia's largest supplier of soy; import
of soy beans and soy products from the USA increased three times within
the past three years.
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- Under conditions when almost the whole of Europe has
given up eating food with genetically modified components, Russia is now
an important target for sale of such products, especially that the country
has no stringent legislation on labeling of food with genetically modified
components. On the other hand, many producers deliberately hush up information
about the contents of their products. Olga Berlova says that mentioning
of genetically modified components on food means the same as the scull
and bones sign: if customers see such sign on food they will never buy
the product.
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- In addition to the lack of legislation on biological
safety of products, there are no methods that should be applied to determine
the percentage of genetically modified components in food. Ivan Blokov
says that there are no methods for determination of quantitative contents
of genetically modified components in food, there are some that are applied
to qualitative analysis. Unfortunately, qualitative analysis of food with
genetically modified components is often held in laboratories that work
by order of companies importing genetically modified stuff. Such laboratories
sometimes popularize genetically modified components themselves. It is
strange but the procedure for determining safety of food in Russia contradicts
the international rules. It is nonsense that safety of product is determined
by its producer.
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- Experts say that strict punitive measures must be introduced
in order to punish those producers who don't mention genetically modified
components on labels. One more problem of the Russian legislation on genetically
modified components in food is that percentage of modified components in
products that is obligatory for mentioning on labels. According to the
Russian rules, the minimal contents of genetically modified components
in food which are obligatory for mentioning on labels make up 5%, while
this amount is considered dangerous for health in many countries. Ivan
Blokov, the Greenpeace Russia campaign director says: "On Wednesday,
the European Parliament adopted new regulations according to which contents
of genetically modified components exceeding 0.9% are obligatory for special
labeling. The 5% limit provided by the Russian legislation sounds nonsense."
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- Olga Berlova says that the situation with genetically
modified food in Russia is quite understandable. "The action was started
long ago. The law on genetic engineering developed by Academician Skryabin
appeared in Russia in 1996, just exactly at the time when Americans wanted
to expand the export of genetically modified soy beans. Now when the USA
has practically lost the market for such products in Europe, they send
them as humanitarian aid to Africa and Asia. In this respect, Russia is
getting an important target for the USA. The USA probably expected to have
a kinder welcome in Russia; they were shocked with the wave of protests
against genetically modified food that is gaining steam in Russia. We hope
that the situation with genetically modified food in Russia will seriously
change soon."
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- http://districts.pravda.ru/districts/2003/9/30/87/11908_produkt.html
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- http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/360/10402_food.html
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