Back to Main

Landmark decision in Atan ak Balon¡¯s case
 

BANKS MERGER (4) (REVISED)

BANKS MERGER

Black eye" Again?!

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

Speech deliver by WONG SING NANG, DAP Sarawak

FOOD PRODUCTS CONTAIN GMOs BE LABELLED

GMOs - Mandatory Labelling

GMOs Labeling: A must !

GMOs – MORATORIUM on GM Crops
 
 

MEDIA STATEMENT 

GMOs – MORATORIUM on GM Crops 

25th March 2000: 

(1) While 136 scientists from 27 countries call for a moratorium on GM crops and ban on patents, our country should take a positive step by stopping the importation of any GMOs foods and products especially from USA, China, Canada and Argentina which account for 99% of the global transgenic acreage including corn, soybeans and canola. 

(2) The 136 scientists’ signed a statement call upon their Governments to: 

(a) Impose an immediate moratorium on further environment releases of transgenic crops, food and animal-feed products for at least 5 years; 

(b) Ban patents on living organisms, cell lines and genes; 

(c) Support a comprehensive, independent public enquiry into the future of agriculture and food security for taking account of the full range of scientific findings as well as socio economic and ethnical implications. 

(3) The scientists are extremely concerned over the continued release and commercialization of transgenic crops, food and animal-feed products in the face of growing scientific evidence of hazards to biodiversity, food safety, human and animal health, while neither the need nor the benefits of genetic engineering agriculture are yet proven. 

(4) New scientific evidence has convinced us of the need for an immediate moratorium on releases. Countries like Demark and Norway have already banned the commercialization of GMOs food. The European Union has banned the importation of GMOs crops in 1998 and imposed mandatory labeling of all GMOs food in the markets. 
 

(5) The question we have to ask ourselves why such a ban in European Union, Denmark and Norway if GM crops are safe for human consumption? 

(6) Research from Netherlands shows that antibiotic resistant marker genes from genetically engineered bacteria can be transferred horizontally to indigenous bacterial at a substantial frequency of 10-7 in an artificial gut. (See NEW SCIENTIST 30 Jan. P.4 (1999)). 

(7) We must take precautionary measures to prevent such GMOs food and products in our consumer markets. The ban imposed by these countries signals that the GMOs foods and products are not that SAFE as claimed by the various industries. 

(8) We must stop it before it is too late. The genes are not constant and unchanging, but fluid and dynamic, responding to the physiology of the organism and the external environment, and require a stable, balanced ecology to maintain stability.