Dear Editor:
In recent weeks we have heard from the maker and some of his investors of the genetically modified Arctic apple.
We have been told that the apple is safe, that it poses no threat to conventional apple growers or to the secondary manufacturing sector.
We have been told that the browning enzyme in the apple has simply been silenced, nothing more.
What consumers need to know is that in order to silence the browning gene, a virus, bacteria and antibiotic marker gene have to be inserted into the apple’s DNA — no simple procedure.
While congratulations have to be given for scientific ingenuity, one must question whether our community and our neighbours are ready to become world-renowned for the production of the GMO apple.
This is a big deal. It is only the second fruit produced in the world that is GMO.
If GMO products pose no threat to consumers or to the environment why has McDonald’s banned the use of the GMO Innate potato — a potato known for not browning?
Why has the North Okanagan Regional District of Lumby and Cherryville, in its Official Community Plan, opposed the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms?
Why did the Union of B.C. Municipalities ask the Provincial Government to ban any further GMO production in B.C.?
Why have 62 communities and 10 regional districts in B.C. declared themselves, through council, as GE free zones?
Why have countries such as India and China said no to growing GMO seed and a bigger no to importing GMO food?
The process by which Health Canada will likely approve this product for market is void of product safety testing. Health Canada is treating the Arctic GMO apple as a “plant with novel traits and novel feeds” and as such it will not be subject to the usual safety testing used for a new food additive or pharmaceutical.
The conversation over GMO fruit tress grown in our community has so far been one-sided.
We need a serious conversation about the GMO apple trees before we’re affected by a national and international, consumer-driven, anti-GMO apple campaign and the negative impact it would bring. Other communities have done this, and so must ours.
Vicki Lightfoot
Summerland