Natural Law Party calls for total ban on genetically engineered foods

UN committee meeting this week urged to adopt mandatory labelling, because of serious health risks

London, 16 May 1996

The Natural Law Party has strongly condemned the introduction of genetically engineered food products as a dangerous threat to human health. These foods are coming on to the market without being labelled as genetically engineered, despite the serious health risks associated with them.

This warning comes as the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labelling, a delegation set up by the United Nations and the World Health Organization with representatives from every country, meets in Ottawa this week to decide whether genetically engineered foods must be identified through proper labelling. The decision reached by the committee this week will become the legally-binding standard in international trade. Currently both the British and American governments are resisting calls for labelling.

Natural Law Party chairman, David Lines, has written to the UK representative at the conference calling for a ban on all genetically engineered foods, and, as a first step, a requirement that these foods should be clearly labelled.

He cites the growing number of scientists throughout the world who are expressing serious reservations about the uses of genetic engineering and are calling for a "science-based precautionary approach". Already several deaths have occurred as a result of people eating genetically engineered foods.

Hazards of genetically engineered foods

Mr Lines points out that genetic engineering is not just an extension of the traditional breeding methods used for centuries in agriculture and horticulture, as is claimed by its proponents. "Genetic engineering is different because it allows the introduction of new genetic material even across different species, something that would be prohibited in natural breeding," he said.

37 deaths from a genetically engineered food supplement

There is no proof that genetic engineering produces safe food, Mr Lines emphasized. In fact there is evidence that these foods can have unpredictable side-effects. For example, one company used a genetically engineered bacterium to increase efficiency of production of the food supplement tryptophan. It turned out that this brand of tryptophan contained a toxin, which killed 37 people and permanently paralyzed 1,500 more. Because the product was not labelled as genetically engineered, it took several months before the US authorities could identify the source of the problem and withdraw the product.

In another example, recently a strain of soybeans (which are used in a huge variety of processed foods) was genetically engineered with a brazil nut protein. Only later was it discovered that the soybean produced a marked reaction in many people allergic to brazil nuts.

Given the huge complexity of genetic coding, even in very simple organisms such as bacteria, no one can possibly predict the effects of introducing new genes to any organism or plant, nor the extent of health-damaging effects on any person that eats it.

Public have the right to know what they are eating

"Genetically engineered foods containing pig, fish, insect, virus, and bacterial genes will soon be making their way to grocery shops," Mr Lines said today. "And in spite of the serious health risks, nobody will even know. The Natural Law Party believes that people should have the right to know what they are buying and eating, for both health and ethical reasons."

Appeal to lovers of life

Party leader Dr Geoffrey Clements added: "People who eat genetically engineered products will have a very short life. We appeal to all lovers of life to demand that these products are banned. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to learn Transcendental Meditation and study Maharishi's Vedic Science – the Veda and Vedic Literature – in order to enliven the full intelligence of Natural Law within their own physiology. This way they will make best use of the time they still have."