Fears over genetically-modified foods have failed to make much impact in the United States where consumers and the US media are less fired up about the issue than Europeans, activists say.
"The media doesn't talk about these issues, there is more apathy," Michael Hansen, a biologist with the major New York-based Consumers Union, told AFP."When the public is asked in the survey, a high percentage wants food labels, they just don't realize the extent to which certain food such as corn or soybean are genetically engineered, and often they have not heard of any of these food safety concerns."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday banned the only genetically modified crop grown in France, the Mon 810 maize produced by the US agriculture giant Monsanto.
"It simply means that with the principle of precaution at stake, I am making a major political decision to carry our country to the forefront of the debate on the environment," the French leader said.
GM foods have also sparked a US trade dispute with the European Union, after the World Trade Organization ruled that an EU moratorium on the authorization of GM products between 1999 and 2004 broke world trade rules.
The European Commission on Friday failed to meet the WTO deadline to comply with the September 2006 ruling and normalize trade.
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Hansen said the US government must bear the blame for American apathy for simply failing to address the issue.
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"Most people don't know the food they are eating has at least trace levels of genetic, in soy and corn."
Supermarket tests have revealed that at least 70 percent of all foodstuffs contain GM products, he said.
If there was compulsory labelling fewer GM components would end up in the products on the shelves, added Hansen. "Because they have blocked any kind of labelling, it's widespread out there in the US."
The same consumer apathy however does not apply to meat and diary products from cloned animals.
A survey carried out two years ago by the International Food Council found that 65 percent of Americans were opposed to eating such products -- a level of concern matched in Europe.
Despite the opposition though, the US food safety authority on Tuesday approved meat and milk from cloned animals, clearing the way for them one day to appear on store shelves.
"Meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Randall Lutter said.
He added his agency would not require food made from cloned animals or their offspring to be specially labeled, but producers could apply for the right to label their foods "clone-free."
The ruling had been delayed by strong resistance from food safety and animal rights groups, as well as the US dairy industry, which fears its image and exports will be damaged.
Source-AFP
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