Japan urged the Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday to help ensure that biotechnologies used to create genetically modified foods are safe and that consumers' concerns are properly addressed.
Shigeru Shiba, senior state secretary for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said that while biotechnology is expected to be key in solving world hunger, "in its application, it is important to ensure food and environmental safety based on scientific knowledge" and to fully discuss the concerns the public harbors over the long-term safety of the new gene-manipulating technology.
In an address to a ministerial meeting of the FAO's 25th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Shiba urged the U.N. agency to strengthen its assistance to its members in the areas of risk assessment of GM organisms and in the conservation of genetic plant resources.
The ministerial meeting opened earlier Thursday, on the fourth day of a five-day regional conference being held in Yokohama.