A rchive Date
[ 09-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Biotechnology ]
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[Frankenfood debate is on the horizon
By PAUL STANWAY
Edmonton Sun
A gentle prairie breeze which allegedly "contaminated" a field of Alberta canola appears to have pitted Prince Charles against his father and sister in a public argument over genetically modified foods. It really is a small world.
To understand how this story could be front-page news in Britain this past week you have to understand a couple of things. And, yes, your trusted agent is, as always, happy to oblige.
You see, the Brits are a tad paranoid over food quality, and rightfully so. In recent years they have been assured by their government that their eggs and beef were absolutely safe, only to discover that wasn't quite true.
Salmonella was found to be rampant in British eggs, which wasn't an issue if you cooked them thoroughly, but was a problem for those who like their eggs runny, or (like my dad) are fond of the old British breakfast tonic which involves mixing a raw egg in milk.
Then there was Mad Cow Disease. When it was first discovered the government claimed it was impossible for this potentially lethal condition to migrate from cows to people - except that's what it did, causing a number of deaths and giving British beef a bad rap.
With these experiences in mind, the issue of genetically modified foods - dubbed "Frankenfood" by the British press - has become a hot topic. Which is where Alberta comes in.
Last month the British government confirmed that a GM strain of canola had been discovered growing on UK farms.
The suspect seeds had been sold by a Dutch-owned Winnipeg company and the alleged contamination was traced back to a farmer's field somewhere in Alberta. The theory is that a breeze wafted pollen from a field of GM canola to a field of the regular stuff. And voila! Frankencanola!
According to Princess Anne, in a magazine interview published last week, all this talk of GM food is a lot of fuss about nothing. "Man has been tinkering with food production and plant development for a long time," said HRH. Suggesting everything should be organic and natural was a "huge oversimplification."
The very next day her pop, Prince Philip, joined the fray when he told an audience at Windsor Castle that there were more serious environmental concerns than worrying about "a genetically modified piece of potato."
Them's fighting words, because the leading spokesman for organic farming in Britain happens to be Prince Charles - a.k.a. Mr. Organic Potato. As repeated endlessly by columnist Allan Fotheringham, Charles is known to chat to his houseplants, but more significantly, he runs one of the largest organic farming operations in Britain at his Highgrove estate. And in a lecture on BBC radio last month Charles raised the stakes in the GM debate when he claimed the process was meddling with things better left to the Almighty (God, not his mom).
A lot of fuss about nothing? Perhaps, especially when you consider that canola is an artificial crop to begin with (created in a Canadian lab). But it's symptomatic of what's happening in Britain, where food companies, supermarkets, restaurants - even fast-food chains - assure consumers that they are GM-free, and enviro-terrorists have destroyed fields of GM crops.
A paranoid public finds itself, for once, agreeing with the heir to the throne.
From a field of Alberta canola to an issue which is helping restore Charles's battered image? Now that's cross-fertilization.
My guess is that it's only a matter of time before this issue migrates across the pond and we're subjected to our own Frankenfood debate.
Of course it will be different. The opinions of the royals don't matter much to Canadians, and I doubt if Jean Chretien has any deeply held convictions on the subject.
"For me, I don't eat the potato. I like the French fry."
Enjoy your lunch. I'll have the Boris Karloff Special.
Letters to the editor should be sent to sun.letters@ccinet.ab.ca. ]
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