SnowBall archive 8.96-97
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GE -news 26th jan

 1)     Mark Inglefield finds the minister  accused over 'Frankenstein
foods' ready to rebut the scaremongers 
2)  Writers put names to campaign
3)  Monsanto gets new federal OK on GM milk hormone


The Times January 26 1999
 1)     Mark Inglefield finds the minister  accused over 'Frankenstein
foods' ready
          to rebut the scaremongers                                           ©
      Lord Sainsbury: denied conflict of interest between
     research at the Sainsbury Laboratory and his role as  Science Minister 
            Photograph: PETER TRIEVNOR 

  LORD SAINSBURY of Turville, the Minister
  for Science under attack over his links to
  research into genetically modified food,
  hit back at the Tories yesterday by calling
  them an "anti-business" party. 

  The Labour peer, who was until 1997 the
  chairman of the Sainsbury's chain of
  supermarkets, had been accused of
  funding experiments in food through a
  private charitable trust. He claimed the
  alleged "blatant conflict of interest" was
  impossible as his personal fortune -
  estimated at £2 billion - was controlled by
  a blind trust over whose decisions which
  he had no say. 

  The Tories had claimed that Lord
  Sainsbury had channelled money from the
  Gatsby Charitable Foundation, which the
  peer had set up in 1987, to the Sainsbury
  Laboratory in Norwich to experiment in
  genetically modified food. The foundation
  directs £20 million a year to worthy
  causes. 

  They also claimed that Lord Sainsbury's
  position on a Cabinet committee dealing
  with gene foods policy was a conflict of
  interest. Lord Sainsbury said: "What the
  Sainsbury Laboratory does is fundamental
  research into disease resistance in plants.
  It isn't remotely of value to Sainsbury's.
  That would conflict with charity law and a
  charity cannot personally benefit in any
  way a person who gives it money." 

  Lord Sainsbury, 59, would appear to be a
  very useful person to have in Government.
  Besides his business expertise, he is
  passionate about his brief - he even held
  his last wedding anniversary in the
  Science Museum - and he is reported to
  have given new Labour £3 million. But
  have the accusations that he is in a
  position to benefit from pushing the
  Government into allowing "Frankenstein
  foods" on to supermarket shelves ever
  made him feel like throwing in the towel? 

  "Not really," he says. "It's the post I've
  always wanted. I've always been
  interested in science and how it relates to
  quality-of-life issues. This is the ideal job
  to do something about that." 

  Lord Sainsbury, ennobled by Mr Blair in
  1997, says the Opposition have put two
  and two together and made five. 

  "I have very little to do with any
  genetically modified food," he says. "All
  that is handled by Ministry of Agriculture
  and the Department of the Environment.
  The only possible area where it might
  come up is the Cabinet committee, which
  covers the whole of biotechnology. The
  committee has only met once and it didn't
  come up then." He still appoints the
  trustees of the Gatsby foundation, but
  has a small say in where the money goes. 

  Lord Sainsbury joined the Labour Party
  after leaving Cambridge, but as the party
  drifted further to the Left in the 1970s he
  saw the need for a radical rethink. He
  joined the SDP in the 1980s. After it
  merged with the Liberals he devoted his
  time to Sainsbury's, resurfacing when
  Tony Blair became Labour leader. 

  He insists he is no bandwagon jumper. "I
  wrote a Fabian pamphlet in the late 1970s
  called Government and Industry: a New
  Partnership and basically that was new
  Labour before its time." 

  Were you or have you ever been a
  Socialist? 

  "Um. I've always been a member of the
  Labour Party," he says, again smiling. 

  Lord Sainsbury insists that he would
  stand aside if he ever felt there was a
  genuine conflict of interest. "I think it's
  very important that there aren't conflicts
  of interest in Government, but having said
  that I think it's very important that
  business people do come into politics," he
  says. He believes the Tories' point-scoring
  is further proof they are out of touch with
  modern commerce. "When we had
  Conservative businessmen in government
  I think the Labour Party accepted the
  conventions about blind trusts and those
  sort of issues," he says, "so it's really
  rather a shame that they are becoming an
  anti-business party." 

  Lord Sainsbury is also keen to point out
  that his shareholding has been handled
  correctly. "All my Sainsbury shares are in a
  blind trust," he says. On genetic
  modification of vegetables, or as the
  tabloids put it, "Frankenstein's grub", he
  says: "I don't think headlines about
  Frankenstein tomatoes really contribute
  much. There is a serious debate to be had
  about biodiversity and safety and the
  more the debate can be kept on those
  issues the better it will be, I think." 
===================
2)  Writers put names to campaign 

  More than 100 food writers are backing a
  campaign by Greenpeace for a ban on
  genetically modified food (Michael
  Hornsby writes). It will be launched today
  at the Savoy Hotel in London. 

  The writers have promised to promote the
  use of non-genetically modified
  ingredients in recipes and to endorse
  restaurants which do so. A declaration
  said that they objected to the
  foodbecause its introduction could have
  "unpredictable and irreversible adverse
  consequences". 

  They include Darina Allen, the Irish food
  writer and owner of the Ballymaloe
  Cookery School, Joanna Blythman of The
  Guardian, Fay Maschler, restaurant critic
  of the Evening Standard, Antony Worrall
  Thompson, restaurateur and broadcaster,
  and Frances Bissell, The Times cook. 

  "This campaign for safe sustainable food
  production will embrace consumers,
  chefs, food professionals, growers,
  gardeners. In fact, anyone with an interest
  in food," Peter Melchett, the executive
  director of Greenpeace, said. 

  A survey by Friends of the Earth last year
  showed that most chefs at restaurants in
  The Good Food Guide were opposed to
  genetically modified food. 

  Last week, however, the Lords said that
  the potential benefits greatly outweighed
  any risks. That report was described
  yesterday as "unfortunate" by English
  Nature, which advises the Government on
  wildlife and nature conservation. It said
  the Lords had failed to understand the
  implications for wildlife of crops
  genetically altered to be resistant to
  broad-spectrum herbicides and pests. 

  No genetically altered crops are grown
  commercially in Britain, but up to two
  thirds of processed foods may contain
  ingredients derived from modified soya
  and maize. 

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3)  Monsanto gets new federal OK on GM milk hormone

Forwarded by
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex

Monsanto gets new federal OK on milk hormone

ST. LOUIS -- Reaffirming that a Monsanto Co. (MTC) drug is safe, the
nation's top health officer has rejected appeals from critics to pull the
genetically engineered product from the market. Donna E. Shalala, secretary
of health and human services, said the critics of BST -- the drug that
increases cows' milk production -- have raised "no new scientific concerns"
about the drug's safety. That means the Food and Drug Administration, which
reports to her, "does not intend to remove the product from the market,"
Shalala said in a letter sent Thursday to Vermont Sens. Patrick J. Leahy and
James M. Jeffords. After a slow start, the drug, sold under the brand name
Posilac, has recorded
higher sales each year. Last year, it produced an estimated $200 million in
revenue. Canada's top health agency, HealthCanada, rejected BST last week.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Compiled by CBS MarketWatch
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