Get to know your tomato

SHOULD products that have been altered by genetic engineering carry a
special label? In Britain, we don’t seem able to make up our minds (see p
10).

Some people argue that a label is misleading because genetic engineering is
no different in principle from conventional breeding, except that it is
faster. Others argue that a label is necessary only when genetic engineering
passes limits that conventional breeding could not overcome, such as
introducing an animal gene into a plant.

And still others say that the consumer has a right to know and so every
genetically-engineered product should be labelled, regardless of what kind of
new genes were introduced.

Respecting an individual’s right to knowledge seems a sound principle. The
only problem is that just adding a label saying “genetically-engineered” might
frighten rather than inform.

Calgene, which created the Flavr Savr tomato, probably has the right
solution. In the US, their tomatoes come with a detailed point-of-sale
brochure describing how they were genetically-engineered. In Britain, Safeway
provides a comprehensive leaflet for their “genetically modified” tomato
pure´e.

Encouraging companies to tell the public all about their products – and
show they have nothing to hide – is surely more effective than a compulsory
label that groups all genetically-engineered products together.