Posted
15th May 2001
In a move reminiscent of the cold war in the 1950's, Sri Lanka's
ban on genetically modified (GM) food was Thursday attacked
by a US agricultural official who said there was no credible
scientific evidence to justify the Colombo government's action.
Politics as usual US style. Weyland Beeghly, the agricultural
counsellor for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, told reporters
here Thursday that Sri Lanka was the only country to have imposed
a total ban on GM food. "Even though it will affect only four
percent of US agricultural exports to Sri Lanka, we believe
it is totally unwarranted," Beeghly said. "There is a view in
some circles that this is a very risky technology and that the
US is testing it on the poor populations of developing countries.
This
is both false and offensive." Beeghly, who is resident in New
Delhi, said GM foods occupied more than one-third of the shelf
space of US supermarkets. Sri Lanka's ban on GM food went into
effect from the beginning of this month, but importers have
asked for more time to implement it, trade officials here said.
The new law introduced by the health ministry bans all imports
of raw and processed food in 21 categories if they have been
genetically modified. But importers are worried about the practicalities
of enforcing the new rules. "We have asked the ministry to give
us a transition period so we can gather the necessary certificates"
from exporting countries, said S. R. Balachandra, spokesman
for the National Chamber of Commerce. He said other nations
simply put labels on products that contain GM ingredients so
consumers still have a choice.
To comply with the legislation, importers must obtain official
proof from exporting countries' health authorities confirming
their products are non-GM. Beeghly said genetic modification
held great promise for protecting the environment as well as
improving harvests of food. "In the US, the use of insecticide
has declined significantly with the adoption of GM cotton varieties,"
he said. "The same is true of maize. "Scientists are now working
to develop a maize variety which will take free nitrogen out
of the atmosphere and fix it in the soil where it can be taken
up by the plant. "This would eventually reduce or eliminate
the need for large applications of chemical fertiliser, some
of which ends up polluting our waterways." Sri Lanka's two main
business chambers, the National Chamber of Commerce and the
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce are studying how the GM ban will
affect importers.
Many complained they were not given enough time to gather the
necessary proof from foreign health authorities and called for
at least another two months. Some 60 percent of imported food
contains GM organisms, importers said. "Most of the food is
genetically manipulated in one way or the other and it would
cost more to demand genetically unspoiled products," a spokesman
for the importers said. "If the importer cannot get the certificate
because the food is GM, then he has to change the source of
his product," Ceylon Chamber of Commerce spokesman Stanley Jayawardena
said. "The products themselves have not been banned, only the
method of production. There will be some level of protest initially,
but eventually the importers will change."
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