THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

19 November 2002

Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: UN FOOD RAPPORTEUR: GM FOODS DANGER TO HEALTH

As controversy brews over the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food aid and the current famine in Southern Africa, a heated exchange is taking place between the UN Special Rapporteur of the Commission of Human Rights on the right to food Jean Ziegler and the US ambassador to the UN over America’s food aid to the region.

The US, which maintains that GMOs are safe and have been pressuring African countries to accept its GMO-tainted food aid, issued a statement on 11 November in which its ambassador to the UN, Sichan Siv took Ziegler to task for the latter’s reservations on the use of genetically modified corn as food aid of which the US is the major contributor, citing concern over the health effects of consuming such food.

In the 11 November statement, the US ambassador strongly criticized Ziegler, accusing him of being responsible for “placing millions in greater peril” by his actions. However, the UN envoy stood firm to his position.

“The argument that genetically modified produce is indispensable for conquering malnutrition and hunger is not convincing,” said Ziegler, as there are sufficient supplies of non-GMO food for those in need.

He added that the precautionary principle should prevail if accepting US food aid would involve the wide spread of GMOs.

Meanwhile, the US have publicly admitted that “the principal beneficiary of America’s foreign assistance programs has always been the United States”1 and the US Agency for International Development had said that its role is to “integrate (biotech) into local agri-food systems”.2

For your information, we have enclosed along with this letter the following items:

1. Statement on issue of genetically modified food by the UN special rapporteur on the right to food

2. Statement by Ambassador Sichan Siv, United States Representative to the Economic and Social Council, on the Report of Mr. Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food at the Fifty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, in the Third Committee, November 11, 2002

With best wishes,

Lim Li Lin and Chee Yoke Heong

Third World Network

121-S Jalan Utama

10450 Penang

Malaysia

Email: twnet@po.jaring.my

Notes:

1 “Direct Economic Benefits of US Assistance Programs (By State)”, USAID (http://www.usaid.gov/procurement_bus_opp/states/nc.html

2 “USAID Announces International Biotech Collaboration”, June 12, 2002 (http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/summit/2002/statearchive/USAIDbiotech.htm)

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REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2002/J

Item 1

12.11.02

STATEMENT ON ISSUE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHT TO FOOD

Following the press release published on 11 November 2002 by Ambassador Sichan Siv, Representative of the United States to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur of the Commission of Human Rights on the right to food, made the following statement for the record:

“The Special Rapporteur has no doubt of the grave and immediate threat posed by famine for more than 14 million inhabitants of southern Africa, nor of the generosity of the Government of the United States in donating to the World Food Programme essential provisions for the organization’s emergency response.

“The Special Rapporteur nonetheless has publicly expressed his reservations about the massive use of genetically modified food.

"His concerns are motivated by three factors:

“1. Genetically modified organisms can pose dangers in the medium and long term for human beings and for public health. On this question, the international scientific community is deeply divided.

“On the question of the massive use over wide territory of genetically modified organisms, the principle of precaution should take precedence. A number of European and developing countries, as well as the vast majority of non-governmental organizations and rural movements (Via Campesina, MST of Brazil, Federation paysanne of France, etc.) continue to oppose the introduction of such organisms into the food chain.

“2. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 815 million people are currently seriously and chronically undernourished. But as FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has said, there are sufficient supplies of non-modified food to feed this population.

The argument that genetically modified produce is indispensable for conquering malnutrition and hunger is not convincing.

“3. The massive use of genetically modified organisms risks making rural users of such food dependent on multinational corporations which produce and sell such food.

“Instead of taking seeds from the last harvest and using them to plant the coming harvest, as has been done traditionally, the peasant must buy from a multinational corporation, at a price dictated by that corporation, the seeds for subsequent crops.

“Also, among the 1.2 billion persons in the world suffering from extreme poverty, according to the statistics of the World Bank, 75 per cent are subsistence farmers, their wives and their children. The extensive use of genetically modified organisms risks aggravating their misery.

“In publicly stating his reservations, the Special Rapporteur has not in any way violated his mandate, as contended by the representative of the United States. On the contrary, he has fully assumed it.”

Item 2

USUN PRESS RELEASE #189 (02)

November 11, 2002

Statement by Ambassador Sichan Siv, United States Representative to the Economic and Social Council, on the Report of Mr. Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food at the Fifty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, in the Third Committee, November 11, 2002

Thank you Mr. Chairman,

Mr. Ziegler,

As you know, some fourteen and a half million people are facing starvation in Southern Africa. Since the beginning of this year, my country has pledged over half a million metric tons of food to meet this crisis. The food, mostly corn, comes from our own stocks and silos and is identical to the food which Americans eat every day.

As you are also aware, some countries in Southern Africa have raised questions about the safety or environmental risk of American corn because it contains biotechnology corn. Of course, this corn complies with all United States standards for safety; standards which are the most rigorous in the world. The grain in question has been consumed by millions of Americans, Canadians, Australians, South Africans and others all over the world for years, with not one known case of any apparent ill effect.

Mr. Ziegler,

Earlier this year, the Secretary General of the United Nations requested that United Nations agencies review their policies on biotech food aid. In August, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Gro Brundtland told a meeting of African health ministers, quote: “We know, for example, that GM foods are eaten by people in other regions: these foods are no less safe for people here in Africa than they are for people who eat them in other parts of the world.”

Dr. Brundtland stressed that governments of Southern Africa, quote: “must consider carefully the severe and immediate consequences of limiting the food aid that is made available for the millions of people so desperately in need.”

Mr. Ziegler,

In a joint UN statement of August 27, 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme concluded that, quote: “based on national information from a variety of sources and current scientific knowledge...they hold the view that the consumption  of GM food now being provided as food aid in southern Africa is not likely to present human health risk. Therefore these foods may be eaten.”

On August 23, the European Union reiterated that, quote: “there is no reason to believe that GM food is inherently unsafe to human health” and “that EU scientists have found the GM corn varieties that they have looked at to be as safe as their conventional counterparts.”

And yet, Mr. Ziegler, on October 15 you informed the world that the scientific evidence on biotechnology is wrong; that you, and I quote, “put the views of nongovernmental organizations who say humans are at risk if they consume GM food over a period of time before that of the World  Health Organization which says it is safe.”

Mr. Ziegler,

In the face of imminent famine in southern Africa, with hundreds of thousands of tons of donated American corn in the region and arriving in port, you stated, and I quote again: “There is absolutely no justification to produce genetically modified food except the profit motive and the domination of the multinational corporations” To the millions starving in southern Africa, your message was, and this is the last time I will quote you: “There is plenty of natural, normal good food in the world to nourish the double of humanity.”

Mr. Ziegler,

As the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, your mandate is: “to establish cooperation with Governments, intergovernmental organizations, in particular the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations, on the promotion and effective implementation of the right to food, and to make appropriate recommendations on the realization thereof, taking into consideration the work already done in this field throughout the United Nations system.”

Instead you have called on governments to starve their people by denying them access to the only food available to them right now.

You have used your office to challenge the food offered by the American people to avert the scourge of famine and to encourage governments to deny food to their hungry citizens. By ignoring both science and the considered policies of the United Nations you bear responsibility for placing millions in greater peril.

Mr. Ziegler, Actions have consequences, and your actions can cause people to die.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.