WHO Endorsement of GM Foods Misleading, Scientist Says

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a list of 20 questions promoting genetically modified (GM) foods (available online at who.int/fsf/) that has at least one Canadian scientist concerned.

The document is "very misleading in that it claims GM foods have faced strict safety evaluations," says Dr. Joe Cummins, emeritus professor of genetics at the University of Western Ontario. "The WHO prefers to ignore the assumption behind 'substantial evidence'" the idea that GM foods are equivalent to unmodified foods.

"The assumed 'substantial evidence' has made it unnecessary to test the foods in animal and human volunteer (clinical) studies, and such tests have not been done. Furthermore, countries deploying GM foods on a large scale have not labeled the products in the market, so no meaningful evaluation of the safety of the foods can be made."