Have You Heard of GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD? That too in Kuwait!! It’s a warming to be alert while shopping…..

KUWAIT: Two Greenpeace activists visiting Kuwait  warned the public about the presence of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in products available in retail outlets in Kuwait. The activists, however, failed to provide specific information on the direct impact GMOs have on human health.

Greenpeace is an international environmental advocacy group. In a press conference held in the headquarters of the Kuwait Journalist Association yesterday, Andi Freimueller and Arnaud Apoteker, both activists involved with Greenpeace's Genetic Engineering campaign claimed that traces of GMOs could be found in various corn-based food products imported to Kuwait.

Freimueller appealed to Kuwait's consumers to choose GMO-free food and respectfully appealed to the government of Kuwait to label imported food thus providing consumers a choice through a labelling requirement. "Consumers in the Middle East are likely to be eating GMO food, not tested for long term health impacts, without knowing it. Greenpeace calls for a ban on GMOs, or at least for consumers to be given the right to choose by having GMO products labelled," the advocacy group said in a statement.

Apoteker clarified that customers should be given a choice with the types of food they are sold. "Since labelling has been enforced in the EU [European Union], food companies have banned GMO ingredients from their products because European consumers refuse to buy GMO food. Unfortunately, GMO products opposed in Europe find their way to markets where consumers are either not aware or not told about the GMO content, in this case, the Middle East."

In regards to what Genetic engineering (GE) is, GE is a technology that allows scientists to insert genes from one species into another in a way that could not occur naturally. For instance, fish genes in tomatoes and human genes in rice. According to Greenpeace, GE organisms can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non-GE crops and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.

The two activists however could not provide specifics on what type of harm, if any, is caused by genetically modified food. "No one knows what the long term effects of GE organisms on the environment will be," a press release said.

Greenpeace advocates a 'better safe than sorry' strategy, although it admits it has no real proof of long-term harmful effects of genetically modified food. Apoteker claimed, "The unknown consequences of GE is irreversible," but could not explain how something unknown would be irreversible. In December last year, Greenpeace commissioned the testing of 35 products currently sold in supermarkets in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Freimueller explained, that 40 per cent (14 products out of 35) revealed positive results for contamination with GMOs.

In Kuwait, Freimueller pointed out that there were 14 products tested of which three revealed GE contamination. On the other hand, in Qatar and in the UAE, respectively four out of 10 samples and seven out of 11, tested GE contaminated.

None of the products that contained GMOs were labelled, as these countries do not require labelling of such products, Greenpeace said referring to Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. On the contrary, Saudi Arabia has been applying labelling laws for the last five years.

For more info here is link www.greenpeace.org