{{U}}Environmentalists and activists accused the world's rich nations of managing a global conference on genetically modified foods to calm public fears.{{/U}} Activists said a three-day Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conference on GM foods which began on Monday in Scotland was little more than an apology for the global biotechnology industry.
A handful of environmental grofips such as Green Peace and Friends of the Earth were invited to the conference, as well as one scientist known for his opposition to GM foods and an outspoken consumer rights group.
(62) {{U}}But activists said that was not enough to counter dozens of representatives from biotechnology companies and scientists keen to promote research and commercialization of GM crops and foods.{{/U}}
(63) {{U}}"The overall weight of the conference is skewed toward scientists and industry, officials who are in favor of GM foods.{{/U}}" Robin Harper. a Green Party member of the new Scottish Parliament, told a news conference.
Activists, holding a separate, smaller gathering about GM foods in offices of the new Scottish parliament, said US and British regulators were not listening seriously enough to fears about GM foods.
(64){{U}} The U. S-based Alliance for Bio-Integrity, a consumer activist group, said a 1998 lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration to obtain mandatory testing of all GM foods had exposed serious doubts among scientists within the FDA that GM foods were as safe as their conventional counterparts.{{/U}}
"People are eating these foods daily. We need to face facts that there are a lot of scientists unsure about the safety of GM foods and we need to thoroughly test these products before they are approved." Steven Dmker, coordinator of the lawsuit, told the news conference.
(65) {{U}}The FDA said its scientists who questioned the safety, of GM foods were doing their job as part of the agency's regulatory_ process, and that their views were taken into account in the FDA's final policy.{{/U}}
Although it is confident GM foods widely used in the US are safe, the FDA is considering the labeling of GM foods after three public consultations, said James Maryanski, biotechnology coordinator at the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.