South Africa orders Monsanto to withdraw ad on safety of GM food

In the week that local American biotechnology giant Monsanto was ordered to withdraw "unsubstantiated" information about the safety of genetically modified foods, new research has cast further doubt on how these products are approved for sale and consumption.

This is according to a statement released by South African environmental watchdog organisation, Biowatch, on June 22.

South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority on June 18 ordered Monsanto SA to withdraw its advert which appeared in You magazine. In a full-page magazine advert entitled "Biotechnology - the true facts", the company sought to reassure South African consumers that it was safe to eat all genetically modified food products, and that they were even safer and more nutritious than natural food.

However, the truth of the advertisement was challenged by Mark Wells of East London, who lodged a complaint of misleading or false advertising with the advertising body. The company was then asked to provide substantiating evidence from an independent and credible expert for its claims, which it was unable to do. It was then ordered to withdraw or amend the advert immediately and that the claim that "no negative reactions have ever been reported" should not be used again, unless substantiated.

Director of Biowatch Leslie Liddell said a study conducted by French scientific research institute CRIIGEN on a Monsanto maize variety - which South Africa approved in 2002 - shows that rats fed the GM maize and those fed conventional maize differed in brain, kidney, heart and liver measurements and had significant weight differences.

IOL