Surging Corn Prices Causing Rethink of GMO Foods

Surging Corn Prices Causing Rethink of GMO Foods. February. 26, 2008 03:21. wiseweb@donga.com savoring@donga.com.

Korea imports all the corn it uses to make sugar starch, amounting to 1.7 million to two million tons a year.

Conscious of consumer antipathy towards genetically modified organisms (GMO), domestic starch producers imported only non-GMO corn, which is 30 percent more expensive than GMO corn.

According to the Korea Flour Mills Industrial Association, the price of non-GMO corn jumped to 300 U.S. dollars per ton last year from 150 dollars at the end of 2006. The crop is now traded at 430 dollars per ton.

Worse, securing enough corn is difficult because of the bad harvest last year in major corn-producing areas such as Europe and Brazil. Moreover, China has limited its export of crops since early this year to stabilize food prices.

An official of the flour mills association said, “GMO corn is sold at 330 dollars per ton. Korea will buy them from the U.S., which produces half of the world’s GMO crops.”

Though the safety of GMO foods remains disputed, consumers have no way to know if the food they purchase contains GMO ingredients.

According to regulations of the Korea Food and Drug Administration, nothing prevents food manufacturers from selling and marketing GMO products or those containing genetically modified ingredients as long as they pass government safety standards.

Most major food companies such as CJ CheilJedang and Sajo O&F use GMO beans as ingredients in their oil products, but this is not indicated on the product labels. Detecting GMO ingredients in finished starch sugar products is also hard because the ingredients are modified by heat and high pressure.

Choi Jun-ho of the civic group Korean Federation for Environmental Movement said, “Current law does not mandate food companies to indicate the use of GMO ingredients in starch sugar and oil on product labels. This must be changed to protect the consumer’s right to know.”

Park Seon-hee of the Korea Food and Drug Administration said, “The government has no legal grounds to ban the sales of GMO products as long as their safety is certified, since no scientific evidence shows that GMO products are harmful.”

Nonetheless, the import of GMO products is expected to expand to other types of products.

A law on living modified organisms that took effect this year guarantees a market for GMO products that pass government safety standards.