UK's IFST Statement on Genetic Modification on Food

The Institute of Food Science and Technology in the United Kingdom has issued an updated statement dated September 2008 on genetic modification and food. It said that:

"Food scientists and technologists can support the responsible introduction of genetically modified (GM) techniques provided that issues of product safety, environmental concerns, information and ethics are satisfactorily addressed. IFST considers that they are being addressed, and need even more intensively to continue to be so addressed. Only in this way may the benefits that this technology can confer become available, not least to help feed the world's escalating population in the coming decades".

The statement noted that GM crops have already provided "significant improvements in the quantity and quality of the food supply while reducing economic cost, energy usage, pesticide usage, fuel usage, soil erosion and carbon emissions, with no scientifically-documented evidence of harm to human health." It also adds that the second generation of GM crops have the potential to deliver crops to provide much needed nutritional benefits, among others.

Download http://www.ifst.org/uploadedfiles/cms/store/ATTACHMENTS/gm.pdf for a copy of the statement.