Dilemma over food
in a recent report, the Medical Council of Portugal said genetic manipulation of plants and animals could alter the environment and trigger health risks. "Rearing of genetically modified (gm) plants and animals may lead to environmental changes. These changes can theoretically have an indirect impact on our species and consequently our health,' the council's president J. Germano de Sousa told a news agency. But the Medical Council, which represents the opinion of Portuguese doctors, said it was hard to gauge the magnitude of the environmental impact of gm technologies.
"It does not seem that there is sufficient information to enable us to pronounce decisively on the implications of gm foods for human health,' the council said. Portuguese traders have spurned us maize in recent months because of concerns it could include gm varieties.