Retired microbiologist G.W. (Bill) Riedel of Ottawa writes regarding, Plan to label GM food in jeopardy, O.C., Aug. 2, to say that Mel Fruitman is to be congratulated for pulling the Canadian Consumers' Association from the Canadian General Standard Board's committee on the labelling of genetically modified foods.

Here is a challenge for all those involved in obfuscating as to whether, how and when GM foods should be labelled. If you really believe that GM foods can make a significant impact in reducing malnutrition and disease, especially in developing countries, then let's label them and get on with saving the world.

The next generation of GM crops that will make it possible to prevent and cure diseases will be functionally significantly different from those not genetically modified. They may include rice engineered to contain elevated levels of iron or vitamin A or other crops that act as vaccines. 
However, once these crops make claims for curing or preventing disease, they may be subject to regulation as pharmaceuticals, including extensive drug-test protocols, to establish safety and efficacy. Purity and identity will have to be maintained from seed to consumer use.

Even if some of these specially engineered crops can be sold as foods, they will have to be segregated and their identity will have to be maintained to prevent fraud, to ensure adequate dosing and above all, to make it possible to charge exorbitantly high, value-added prices so that the poor in developing countries won't be able to afford them.

The whole thing looks like deja vu a la green revolution, which was also designed to end malnutrition in developing countries and fizzled.

Mireille Brosseau of Chelsea writes regarding, GM food will end hunger: Vatican, Aug. 4, to say she found it sadly amusing to read about the Vatican's declaration that genetically modified food is the answer to world starvation and malnutrition because GM seeds have been found to be sterile, non-reproducible, and, even worse, in the hands of U.S. multinationals.

Robert Beriault of Gatineau writes that the Vatican claims that genetically modified food is the answer to the problem of hunger in the world and that it should be part of a policy of sustainable agriculture.

Agriculture could only be sustainable if our shortsighted practices didn't deplete water tables through irrigation; engender the loss of topsoil through wind and water erosion; sterilize the soil through salination and destroy the soil's foundation of micro-organisms with pesticides; contaminate surface waters through run-off from farmland; usurp wetlands and forests to create more cropland; and take existing farmland out of production for urbanization.

Unfortunately, GM technology will only accelerate depletion of the essential elements in the soil and increase the harmful ones we put into it. These destructive practices are in part due to hubris encouraged by the Church's philosophy of dominance of man over nature and in part due to an agricultural system that is bulging at the seams because of overpopulation.

If the Vatican were serious about reducing hunger in the world, it would promote population reduction and revoke its prohibition of contraception.