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Bio-engineered food controversy

PARIS: To their supporters, they are wonder foods that will yield sparkling benefits. To opponents, they are lab-created monsters that may ravage health and the environment.

Few questions generate such fervour as genetically-modified food, where reason, fear, high tech and big bucks all collide.

But a major effort will be launched on Monday with the goal of shedding light rather than heat, in the biggest international forum yet on the future of these revolutionary products.

The three-day meeting in Edinburgh, gathering all the major actors in the debate, comes at a critical point in the process that will determine whether biotech foods will be embraced or shunned.

Despite an accord at Montreal last month that set down guidelines for exporting genetically-changed crops, the United States, a supporter of the new foods, is muscling up for a fight with the European Union (EU), where there is growing public resistance to them.

"There's no question that if we get into a trade war with these major crop commodities, nobody knows where that will end up," says Peter Kearns, health and safety administrator at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD's forum next week will gather scientists, environmentalists, consumers, corporations and national officials.

The meeting will not make any decisions but draw up a report that seeks to provide a clear view about the state of knowledge on food safety. AFP