Top Chefs in Australia Protest GM Foods After Mathaba Focus

After the wide circulation of a detailed Mathaba article concerning GM foods in Australia, more than 50 of the country's top chefs have united to protest against the introduction of genetically modified (GM) food crops to Australia. Mathaba.Net - Within weeks of the publication of a Mathaba article on GM Foods being introduced into Australia without labeling, which received a wide circulation among government ministers and members of parliament, organizations such as GreenPeace have taken up the issue which is gathering momentum within the country. Now more than 50 Australian celebrity chefs including Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong have signed on to the GM Free Chefs' Charter, launched in collaboration with Greenpeace in Sydney. The Mathaba article had highlighted exposures that came during an SBS Television "Insight" program concerning GM Foods but that had largely missed by viewers but which became apparent when Mathaba transcribed the entire program. One notable exposure was the FSANZ twice said that proponents requesting approval for the sale of any genetically modified product must submit ALL of the research and tests undergone. Mathaba believes that this is not the case and that bio-tech companies such as Monsanto and Bayer have withheld most of the documentation, including the tests which had negative results, and therefore that for as many as 12 years companies have put GM foods on Australia's super-market shelves without complying with the legal requirements set by FSANZ. The products are on supermarket shelves such as Coles without labeling and are not considered safe and healthy for consumption, with the long-term effects unknown, according to Mathaba, which says that FSANZ is negligent about Australian's health and safety and may have laid itself open to legal challenges for negligence in not enforcing its own rules, as well as not adequately informing the public. Bio-tech companies such as Monsanto would also be open to legal action and should face punitive fines from their billion dollar industry, especially if Monsanto caught lying in South Africa has not learned from its being nailed for contempt. GM canola crops were planted in NSW and Victoria after the two states announced they would let their bans on genetically engineered food crops expire. Canola oil is widely used as a cheap oil in Australia, and is present in almost all supermarket bread, many fast food products and used in most fish and chips shops. The charter, unveiled at chef Jared Ingersoll's Danks Street Depot restaurant in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Waterloo, calls for the NSW and Victorian governments to reverse their position on growing GM canola and demands thorough labelling of all food products that contain GM ingredients. Oils, starches and sugars, as well as animal feed derived from GM ingredients, should all come with a label, says the charter, which will be presented to Australian governments later this year. Meat from animals which have eaten GM feed should also be signposted, it says. There are currently no laws on the labelling of food containing GM canola. Speaking at the charter's launch, Mr Ingersoll said the unknown long-term effects of eating GM foods were a major concern to him, both as a chef and a parent. "I don't really want to put food in the mouth of my children that I'm not sure whether or not it's going to be damaging for them," he said. "I'm not the sort of person that stands in the way of technology making advancement to make things better for people ... but with genetically modified food, once we go down that path then there's no going back. "We are in the very unique position of having an amazing countryside that can produce lots of beautiful food and if we do take the path of Canada and other GM nations, it's going to be really limiting as to what direction we go in," he said. GM food crops are known to be difficult to contain, and a 2001 Western Australian parliamentary inquiry into gene technology found the segregation of GM crops from non-GM crops was not practical and cross-contamination was "inevitable". Mr Ingersoll said the rigorous labelling of GM foods was essential to allow consumers to make informed choices about what they ate. "What I want to see happen today is that we start to see some labelling, we start to see some responsible action being taken that gives the consumer the opportunity to make the decision, because one thing I know is that politicians will do what they want, big companies will do what they want, but everybody relies on customers," he said. "Without people supporting these (GM) businesses then these businesses won't be there. So we need to get this labelling in place to give consumers the ability to make their decisions."

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