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The Edmonton Journal
Tue 28 Mar 2000

Taxpayer-funded ads to promote biotech foods: Critics complain federal food agency shouldn't take sides

The federal government is paying two of the largest magazines in
the country to publish supplements asserting the safety of
genetically engineered food.

The $302,000 special supplements are scheduled to hit the
newsstands in July editions of Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce,
which in French means Nudge in the Right Direction.

The supplements are sponsored by the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency, which falls under the Department of Agriculture and
Agri-Food. The agency's stated mission is ``to provide safe food,
consumer protection and market access.''

Since its founding in 1997, however, the agency has also become an
enthusiastic backer of biotechnology.

``There seems to be a real thirst for information about what we
do,'' said Margaret Kenny, director of the agency's biotechnology
office.

``These supplements are a vehicle for us to provide balanced,
factual, unemotional information about biotechnology and the
regulatory system.''

Critics charge that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has other
agendas in mind.

``The CFIA keeps saying they don't have a dual mandate,'' said
Bradford Duplisea of the Canadian Health Coalition.

``But they're blatantly promoting biotechnology. It's a conflict
of interest and an inherent contradiction.''

Kerry Mitchell, publisher of Canadian Living, says the editorial
content for the supplement is to be written by members of the
magazine's New Business Initiatives Group, with information from
the food inspection agency.

Mitchell said it will be clear to readers that the supplement does
not form part of the regular magazine.

Peter Downie, who teaches a course in media ethics at Concordia
University's journalism program, said ``it's incumbent on Canadian
Living to make it very clear that they're being paid to present
this information.''

``It's a matter of making sure that the reader knows where the
information is coming from. Then it's up to the reader to use his
or her own brain.''

Ottawa has an ongoing strategy to persuade Canadians that the
increasing use of genetically engineered foods poses no major
risks to public health or the environment.

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