Precaution, including transparency and public participation, are essential elements in good regulatory practice. A second goal for consumers will be to ensure that developed countries provide sufficient funding to enable all countries to eliminate stocks of hazardous and obsolete chemicals. The use of biotechnology and other new food technologies may provide important benefits. However, new technologies have raised many concerns for consumers about the safety of foods for human consumption, implications for the environment, and potential social and economic impact. Consumer groups will be campaigning to ensure that new food technologies do not compromise efforts to achieve food security in the developing world, and the availability of full, factual labelling about nutritional content and any special manufacturing processes the food underwent.
Consumers have an absolute right to know when food is the product of genetic engineering.
Consumer groups from around the world will be making efforts to ensure that governments do not give in to pressure from international corporations wishing to impose genetically modified foods on consumers without adequate safeguards and labelling to ensure choice. They are demanding full premarket evaluation and social and safety impact assessments, a moratorium on the cultivation and marketing of new GM foods with effective evaluations in place. The World Consumers Rights Day kit is available from this website in English and Spanish . Briefing papers on the abovementioned four campaigning issues are posted on this site as well. Several spokespersons are available for interviews.