OXFAM News Release

For Immediate Release
June 12, 2002

The Oxfam International delegation at the World Food Summit:
Thierry Kesteloot, Oxfam Solidarite – mobile phone ++ 33 339 632 9794
Fernando Almansa López, Intermon Oxfam - mobile phone 00 34 626 992 056
Maria Lidon, Intermon Oxfam - mobile phone 00 34 615 569 225
Rian Fokker, Novib
Michelle Beveridge, Oxfam Canada

Oxfam condemns the distribution of food aid contaminated with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

ROME: June 12, 2002: Oxfam supports the concerns expressed by a number of its partners who demand a moratorium on GMOs and the improved enforcement of monitoring systems to stop GMOs from entering vulnerable populations through food aid.

Food aid distributed by USAID recently tested positive for carrying StarLink, a genetically-modified variety of corn not authorised for human consumption anywhere in the world dueto its potential to affects human health.

The test was initiated by a coalition of organisations including Centro Humboldt and Friends of the Earth International, and conducted by Genetic ID, an independent laboratory located in Iowa, USA. StarLink is banned in the US.

Oxfam International is seriously concerned by these findings for the following reasons:

- Food aid programmes have historically been used inappropriately with industrialised countries using them to dispose of surpluses and create food dependencies. Such abuse continues today.

- Genetically modified food aid may have negative effects for human health and livelihoods, and therefore it is counterproductive to its declared objectives.

- Introducing GMO’s through food aid may have adverse effects on biodiversity, since part of it is used as seeds, contaminating local species.

- As such, food aid containing GMOs is in contradiction with the precautionary principle, secured in the Carthagena Biosafety Protocol .

Oxfam stresses the need to guarantee human health and biodiversity, and respect the social and cultural context of food aid recipient countries, and urges governments and FAO to develop and implement food aid standards that prevent the distribution of GMO’s in food aid.


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