www.czu.cz ; www.raupp.info

Genetically modified food many be healthier than conventional food is the
message presented according to a new report by the Union of the German
Academies of Science and Humanities, October 2004 .

The report, released in Cologne, Germany, during the AgBiotech
International Conference (ABIC) boldly declares that ?GM products offer the
advantage that they have been exceptionally thoroughly tested with respect
to health risks?.

Although the report - keen to maintain scientific accuracy - says that
?present scientific knowledge indicates that consumption of genetically
modified food poses no increased health risks compared with consumption of
conventional foods?, it also adds that the developed world has been
consuming food containing GM ?with no proven reports of undesirable health
effects?.

The report was compiled from information derived from publications in
peer-reviewed journals, where contributions are checked according to
scientific criteria. The report demystifies the myth of ?absolute food
safety? whether it is produced conventionally, organically or through
genetic modification. It explains that the original source of allergens is
nature which has provided plants with a huge variety of defense chemicals to
protect themselves from damage caused by insects, bacteria or fungal
infections; as evidence, the report says most of the ingested cancer-causing
substances swallowed in the Western world are in fact believed to come from
conventional food.

The report says that since absolute safety is not possible, the basis for
the approval of food products containing GMOs is the evidence that they are
at least as harmless and nutritious as the equivalent products from
conventionally grown crops. It says GMO products are put through highly
stringent allerginicity tests.

[www.ahbfi.org]

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