Vancouver -- When it comes to science and food, the Canadians, according to this story, used to have more in common Americans than with fussy Europeans. No longer, to judge by two recent announcements. First, McCain Foods, a New Brunswick firm that is one of the worldıs largest suppliers of frozen chipped potatoes, revealed that after January 1st it would no longer buy any genetically modified spuds. Then, on December 17th, the federal government said it would set up a committee of experts to review its system for approving GM foods.

Public confidence in Canadaıs food-regulation system has, the story says, been sinking for several years. It has not been strengthened by a Food Safety and Inspection Bill, sent to Parliament last spring. The bill simply modernises existing regulations, say officials, making no changes in standards. That is the problem, counter the critics. They say the existing system is aimed more at easing new products into the market than ensuring safe food. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which is supposed to enforce food-safety regulations, reports to the minister of agriculture and also promotes farm production and trade. This conflict of interest, unreformed by the bill, poses ³an imminent threat to the future health of Canadians², according to a memo to the health minister signed by 200 government food-safety experts and published in September. They want enforcement of food safety returned to the health ministry, which had it until two years ago.

Regulation of GM foods has become especially controversial. The story says that some 70% of processed foods in Canada now have transgenic ingredients, but are not required to be labelled to show this. The scientists said that, because of staff cuts, they had been unable to do their own tests on GM foods. Instead, the government relied on data provided by biotechnology companies in approving the 42 GM crops and foods now on sale. The companies were required to show only that their new products were ³substantially equivalent² to conventionally bred crops, a test that many scientists consider insufficient.

Farmers, too, are grumbling, saying that instead of greater yields, transgenic seeds lead to greater use of chemicals and the probable contamination of nearby conventional crops. A Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, has become a celebrity by taking on Monsanto, an American biotechnology company. It is suing him for patent infringement, accusing him of illegally obtaining and planting its oil-seed rape (canola). Mr Schmeiser, who says he plants only conventional seed, claims the GM rape probably blew in from his neighbourıs land. He is counter-suing Monsanto for defamation and contamination of his land. And many other farmers (of rape, maize, soyabeans and now potatoes), sensing a shift in consumersı attitudes, are giving up biotech experiments.

A group of 21 health, environment, farming and consumersı organisations is campaigning for tougher regulations, a ban on new GM crops and mandatory labelling of all foods containing genetically altered products. The government rejects this; it wants the food industry to develop voluntary labelling standards. It says it will reintroduce the food-safety bill in Parliament this spring, with only minor changes. Public opinion may yet insist on a different outcome.

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