FYI, Steve ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 13:41:06 +1000 (GMT+1000) From: Carole Renouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> A quick summary of our lay panel's report for those who may be interested, but I am sure you will find more detail in due course on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Website at <http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/consconf/splash.htm> Major recommendations include: 1. Regulation which better serves community interests, namely a statutory authority for gene technology with well-balanced representation, and commercially significant sanctions. Its deliberations should also be public. 2. The regulation of gene technology should not be moved from the Department of Health to the Department of Agriculture. 3. All genetically modified foods should be labelled to allow free and informed consumer choice. We reject the use of the term 'substantial equivalence' because of its narrow scientific application. 4. No new commercial releases or unlabelled importation of genetically modified foods, both whole or processed, until the GTO is in place, a clear Australian position on the Biosafety Protocol has been established, and an all-encompassing labelling system has been introduced. 5. Decisions by any regulatory body should take into account more than just science. The overriding principle when drafting legislation should be the environment and the physical, mental and social health of individuals. 6. Australia should support a regulated and precautionary approach to trade in relation to GMOs in the Biosafety Protocol, the provision of a specific liability regime, and segregation and labelling of all products. 7. Environment and Health Departments should develop strategies to prepare for any health or environmental problems from GMOs, for example, an adverse reactions register. 8. Independent assessment of the viability and impacts of choosing non-GMO options should be carried out, and this information communicated to the public. 9. Ethicists should be included in all GMO policy-making. 10. There should be an inquiry by the ACCC (Consumer and Competition Commission) into multinational monopolies in the food industry. 11. Public awareness programs must include varying perspectives, like the Consensus Conference has. 12. Government should embrace a commitment to bring together all stakeholders to reach agreement on mutually beneficial solutions, rather than the way different interests now compete to lobby government. -- "To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it." Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy"
