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YLKI calls for stricter regulation of GM products

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) says it is high time for the government to require genetically modified products to be labeled, as it is the public's rights to know what they are consuming

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Thu, July 30, 2009

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YLKI calls for stricter regulation of GM products

T

he Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) says it is high time for the government to require genetically modified products to be labeled, as it is the public's rights to know what they are consuming.

"The consumer protection law guarantees consumers the right to information on all products or services. If the public knows whether a product is genetically modified, they can make an informed decision," YLKI researcher Ilyani S Andang said Wednesday.

The call for labelling was first sounded nine years ago, but the government has never responded in a significant way.

"A presidential decree on labelling has actually been issued but we have yet to see it be implemented,

"The single achievement we've made so far is probably the ratifying of the Cartagena protocol," she said.

The protocol on biosafety, signed by Indonesia in 2004, allows the government to screen genetically modified products coming into the country.

However, the government has yet to make any noteworthy progress in the regulation of genetically modified products.

After the ratifying of the protocol, a presidential decree on forming a biosafety commission, which would supervise the production and distribution of genetically modified products, was issued in 2005; but the commission has yet to be formally established.

"The names of the members of the commission have been sitting on a desk in the state secretariat for the last couple of years," Ilyani said.

According to YLKI, the genetically-modified crop industry was worth around US$24 billion between 1996 and 2004.

"Planting areas for genetically modified crops also expanded by 20 percent in 2004, mostly in developing countries.

"The European Union and some countries in Asia have banned or at least imposed strict regulations on the distribution of these products. Since then, because of the lax regulations, producers have turned to Indonesia as a market," Ilyani said.

A 2005 report by the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service stated that the United States exported about US$600 million of genetically modified products to Indonesia in 2004.

This included herbicide-tolerant soybeans and meal, cotton, corn and a variety of food products derived from genetically modified crops.

The country imports around 70 percent, of 3 million tons of its soybeans every year, mostly from the United States.

Dwi Andreas Santosa, a researcher from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said some research has proven that certain genetically-engineered products have undesirable side effects when tested on animals.

"But all products that are released onto the market have undergone a series of tests to prove that they don't bear such side effects," he added.

Andreas stressed on that international institutions have agreed to test the possible effects on animals only.

"So it's rather hard to say if genetically modified products have negative effects on humans," he said. (adh)

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