Oceans Apart in Precaution.

• Author: Halweil, Brian

In May, a women's group in England demanded mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, because its more than 250,000 members "are concerned for the health of their families." Such declarations have become commonplace in Europe, where consumer opposition to transgenic foods has spread rapidly (see this issue's Environmental Intelligence). Major food manufacturers (including Nestle, the world's largest), food retailers (including Safeway), and even fast-food chains (including Burger King) have rushed to ensure that the products they sell in Europe are free of transgenics.

An ocean away, American soil nurtures nearly three-quarters of the global transgenic harvest, and the government seems more facilitator than regulator of the biotech industry. Public discourse on biotech foods has been almost nonexistent, though most of the processed foods in U.S. supermarkets contain engineered ingredients.

But that seeming lack of interest may be changing. In June, an Iowa-based group called Mothers for Natural Law presented President Clinton and the U.S. Congress with half a million signatures demanding "the right to know" if foods are genetically modified.

U.S. regulators, who have relied exclusively on industry's good word for their assessments of human risk, refuse to require labeling of genetically altered foods, arguing that they "are not aware of any evidence showing that these foods are dangerous," according to Jim Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

European officials note, in contrast, that there is no evidence that these foods are safe, since no long-term assessments of health risks have ever been done. Yet, because transgenic foods encode for many...