Centre for Safe Food press release - Draft ...
COMTEX Newswire
GUELPH, ON, Feb 07, 2001 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- Researchers with the
Centre for Safe Food at the University of Guelph today called on the
international scientific community to review the recently published Royal
Society of Canada's expert panel report on the future of food biotechnology, in
order to comment on areas of strength and weakness and to suggest improvements.
"There are some serious omissions missing from the report which could, at best,
call into question certain findings, but at worse, could be very misleading to
the Canadian public," said Shane Morris, a research assistant, with the Centre
for Safe Food, University of Guelph.
The Royal Society of Canada, in response to a request from Health Canada, the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment Canada, formed an expert panel
of 15 people to provide advice on a series of questions related to the safety of
new food products being developed through the use of genetic engineering
technologies.
The report was issued after nearly a year of work. It was first published on the
Internet on the evening of February 4th, 2001. The report is 263 pages in length
and divided into nine chapters (available at http://www.rsc.ca
).
An initial reading of the report raised concerns that some scientific material
seems to have been ignored or disregarded in the preparation of the report. An
opinion column outlining initial concerns was published by Powell and Morris in
the National Post on Feb. 7/01
( http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/gmo/dp-op-ed-royal-soc-feb01.htm
).
A preliminary critique of the Royal Society report was published today at
http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/gmo/royal-soc-tech-rept-feb01.htm
.
Scientists with expertise in the areas covered by the Royal Society report are
being asked to submit fully referenced briefs that may be supportive, critical
or provide contextual arguments, to conclusions and recommendations presented by
the Royal Society expert panel.
Morris will collect all responses for a 90-day period. Of course, this is an
on-going and rapidly evolving scientific and public discussion, but after 90
days, responses will be collated and analyzed, and a final critique of the Royal
Society report on genetically engineered foods will be published.
CONTACT: For further information: Contacts : Shane Morris, research assistant,
Centre for Safe Food, University of Guelph, (519) 824-4120 x2506,
smorris(at)uoguelph.ca; Doug Powell, assistant professor, dept. plant
agriculture, University of Guelph: (519) 821-1799 dpowell(at)uoguelph.ca
News release via Canada NewsWire, Toronto 416-863-9350 -ME-
Copyright (C) 2001 CNW, All rights reserved
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KEYWORD: GUELPH, ON
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: FOD
Copyright 2001