Experts outline the serious risks of genetically engineered foods

10.30 am, Friday 6th September, Sherlock Holmes Hotel, 108 Baker Street, London W1

SPEAKERS:
John Fagan, PhD,
Michael Antoniou PhD

At this press briefing, US geneticist John Fagan will present a solution to the current conflict between retailers, the government, and food producers, over the genetically engineered soybean now being harvested in the USA and imported into Britain for the first time. His solution will allow the public to choose between products that contain genetically engineered soybeans and those which contain only natural soybeans – something that consumers and retailers want but which they have been told is impossible.

The problem

Reflecting the wishes of the majority of consumers, the British Retail Consortium (representing 90% of the industry) has called for all genetically engineered foods to be clearly labelled as such. However, the US biotechnology industry claims that due to the logistics of harvesting and storage the new genetically engineered soybeans will inevitably be mixed up with natural soybeans and there is no way either to separate them or to detect the difference between them. Scientific advisers to the British government claim that products derived from the two kinds of soybean are to all intents and purposes indistinguishable, and they are therefore advising that labelling of the soybeans is not necessary, to the great dissatisfaction of many retailers and consumers.

The issue is causing concern because soybean products are used in as much as two-thirds of all processed foods, and there are many scientists, including Dr Fagan and Dr Antoniou, who warn of the huge potential risks of these and other genetically engineered foods.

The solution

Dr Fagan’s solution is two-fold. First, he has located soybean wholesalers in the USA who can supply the UK market with large quantities of natural soybeans that they guarantee to be free from contamination with genetically engineered soybeans. Second, in collaboration with a US company, Dr Fagan has developed a sensitive and precise assay to confirm the purity of the soybeans – a test that is capable of detecting one genetically engineered soybean in a batch of 10,000.

"Our solution fulfils the demands of consumers and retailers, at the same time as allowing producers and wholesalers to supply a product that the consumer wants," Dr Fagan says. He has no commercial interest in the venture himself. At the press briefing he will present details of the companies involved. (See attached list of companies that can supply natural soybeans.)

About the speakers

John Fagan, PhD, is Professor of Molecular Biology at Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, USA. In November 1994 he became famous when he took the unprecedented step of returning $600,000 of genetics research grants to the US National Institutes of Health, because he was so concerned at the possible harmful applications of genetic engineering.

Since then he has devoted his time to alerting public and scientific opinion to the hazards of genetic engineering. He has lobbied extensively, with some success, at the United Nations committee responsible for deciding whether genetically engineered foods should be labelled. His book Genetic Engineering, the Hazards; Vedic Engineering, the Solutions, discusses these issues in depth.

Also speaking at the press briefing will be Michael Antoniou, PhD, a senior lecturer in genetics who runs a research department in London, and who shares Dr Fagan's concerns about the risks of gene technology. Together they will present the scientific arguments for a complete ban on genetically engineered foods, with mandatory labelling as a possible first step.