Retorts

Food Forum?

We are seeing more and more articles about genetically modified foods, but not many of them have a great deal to say. There are lots of calls for greater public debate on these new foods, but where could such debates be held and under whose auspices?

Some groups, mostly politically motivated, are calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry. This does not seem to be a particularly good way of getting information across to the public as a whole, and it is the public who needs the information if they are to decide what kind of foods they should buy.

Judging on past results, we can't really trust our media to cover tricky science stories with any degree of competence, even assuming that they would be interested in giving the necessary time or space to look at all the angles. So who does that leave?

K. Kerr, Auckland