As you may have heard or read from numerous sources circulating widely, FSANZ (Food Standards Australia and New Zealand) is proposing to end any requirement for labelling certain foods which have been genetically modified. In brief, foods that they judge through various technical criteria are ‘substantially equivalent’ to natural foods will no longer be labelled as such or even referred to as ‘genetically modified’.
This article is also available as an audio version here.
You can read a detailed discussion of the issues in a Substack post by Jodie Bruning entitled “FSANZ’s paradigm shift in gene-edited food regulation to exclude a wide range of gene edited foods from being categorised as GMOs.“. If you would like to register your concern you can make a submission to FSANZ here but be quick, the deadline is 10th September which has left very little time for the public to respond.
According to FSANZ the new regulations will:
- make it clear which foods are genetically modified (GM) foods for Code (???) purposes
- accommodate (???) new technologies
- regulate (???) foods according to the risk they pose.
In reality the new Code exempts the following processes from labelling:
- Cell-cultured food: Food derived from animal cell lines grown in biotech cell culture vats and then processed to resemble traditional meat or seafood.
- Foods that have processed through genetically modification where the modification is supposed to be deleted or no longer detectable
- Food from grafted GM plants: where the food portion does not contain novel DNA or novel protein.
- Food additives, processing aids and nutritive substances.
In essence, the regulations will be accommodating the commercial biotechnology food sector ensuring that they will no longer be required to label many gene modified foods. In other words, the public will be left in the dark about the GM origin of a wide range of foods and thereby denied their right of choice.
This is a key part of the government’s programme for biotechnology deregulation. They are well aware that if GM foods are labelled, the public will not buy them in any quantity. So their simple solution, take away labelling thus forcing the public to buy into the biotech paradigm. Food is of course a sensitive subject, traditional foods are a part of our daily life. The government apparently doesn’t care about this. They want to ride roughshod over tradition. This is not small government, it is the antithesis of small government.
It is interesting to see how they are going about enacting these huge changes to the food chain. Firstly, it is being achieved through regulation rather than parliamentary legislation. This has a lower profile and occurs over a short time period. It avoids any meaningful opportunity for the public to lobby their MP. In any case, a regulator will now decide the menu for us.
Secondly, a PR barrage has been launched suggesting that without these changes NZ will be left behind the times and economically disadvantaged. In other words, we will be outmoded rather than contemporary and fashionable. In fact, many of the PR arguments have been turned on their head and can be easily debunked. See our article “Fact Checking the Incredible Claims of Prime Minister Chris Luxon, Judith Collins and the New Zealand Biotech Lobby.”
Clear, comprehensive full-disclosure food labelling was one of the great advances of the twentieth century. The new FSANZ exemptions will be turning the clock back to the dark days of the nineteenth century when you very often didn’t know what you were eating.
The reasons for food labelling are very compelling from the health perspective, without labelling there is little prospect of identifying a cause if adverse health impacts occur over the short or long term. As our post “A Brief Peek into Tomorrow” revealed, the incidence of illness has been rising especially in the USA where gene altered foods have been proliferating.
The notion of “substantial equivalence” is a discredited ploy long used by the food processing industry to allow the substitution of ingredients with cheaper synthetic or chemical alternatives which appear to look or taste similar to the natural products they are replacing. In reality, these substituted ingredients are identifiably different in chemical composition. And hence will react differently through the digestive process.
The problem becomes far more serious and concerning when genetically modified ingredients are substituted. In my experience working in the gene safety testing and certification industry, genetic modification and production is plagued by contamination and by significant differences from natural products. This is always detectable. In this light, substantial equivalence is a bogus concept.
In my book Your DNA Diet I advance the many reasons why the unadulterated genetic content of natural foods is an essential part of our nutritional paradigm. Research shows we are literally eating the genetic intelligence of nature. It maintains our health. We have co-evolved over millions of years in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with our natural food sources. Changing the genetic profile of foods means entering uncharted territory.
But you may ask, will small molecular changes to our food really make that much difference? FSANZ is applying a rough rule of thumb, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. A fact that has cost many a duck dearly when they encountered a duck decoy. Only reflect for a moment, the genetic world is far more powerful than the world of chemicals. Single codon mutations out of billions are capable of causing catastrophic illnesses like Huntington’s or sickle cell anaemia. The gene world is very exacting with no safe room for approximations.
Unfortunately we have a government intent on implementing wide scale changes over the wishes of the public. Already many of the changes proposed in the FSANZ document have been implemented using their existing regulatory powers. Unlabelled synthetic ingredients, additives, flavours, nutritional components, preservatives and processing aids manufactured using genetic modification tools are already finding their way onto our supermarket shelves. The present proposals are there to regularise this under-the-radar bastardisation of our food supply which is contributing to the ill health of adults and children alike.
Home food preparation, organic ingredients, seed saving, local food networks and avoidance of processed foods are of increasing importance if we wish to continue to exercise food choice. The government is ignoring the well-documented adverse health effects of ultra processed foods. It is planning to support the further modification of our diet with untested unlabelled gene altered foods.
The removal of GM labelling is a bridge too far and a direct assault on our rights. It reflects on an arrogant government casually dictating our food choices to facilitate the untested, risk-heavy plans of biotechnology scientists, investors and giant corporations. You can register your concerns before the 10th September at these links:
https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/food-standards-code/consultations/submissions
And
