GMO’s

All eyes will be on California as they campaign for the first-ever initiative vote on whether to label GM (genetically modified) food products. Regardless of opinions about their safety, according to a Thomson Reuters poll in 2010, 90% of Americans think that GM foods should be labeled. Many state legislatures have tried to pass labeling legislation and all have failed. Reading a report about the most recent defeat in Connecticut, I was struck by the statement that these bills have usually gone down because of fear of litigation by Monsanto and other major producers of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms). It seems to me that, the fact that an industry that could strike the fear of god in all these state governments, despite the overwhelming mandate from the people, is truly scary.

The industry rationale in opposing labeling was that people would avoid buying products with GM ingredients if they had a choice. They are probably right. The National Grocery Manufacturers Association has said that many companies would discontinue the use of GM ingredients rather than have to place a GMO label on their products. They also estimated that about 75% of prepared foods had GM ingredients, the labeling of which would make for a mind-boggling shakeup of the entire industry.

At present, 75% of all corn grown in the US is GM, 90% of soy, most of beet sugar, and appreciable percentages of canola and cottonseed. Look at almost any prepared food product in a box, bag, or can; you are likely to see a derivative of one of these foods listed in the ingredients. Only products labeled organic are specifically prohibited from using GM ingredients.

There has been some discussion with our local grocery stores about labeling GMO’s at the store level. Considering the previous paragraph, you should be able to see that this is an enormous task. It would be easier to label the products that are not GM. In addition, if state governments quake at the legal might of the GMO industry, what chance would a few lowly local stores have?

So what’s the problem with GMO’s anyway? It’s just another form of hybridizing and, we have been doing that for thousands of years, right? No. We have been developing strains of our favorite foods, selecting for size, flavor, hardiness, etc.; that’s hybridization. GMO’s mix genes from different species, even different kingdoms (animal to plant!); a new practice in the evolution of life as we know it, with consequences that are equally unknowable. Mutant genes are not new; they have driven evolution and appear on a regular basis, but they occur in individual organisms. If they are dangerous or faulty, they will probably die with that individual. GMO’s are manufactured on a grand scale and are set out to largely replace the existing parent species with little testing as to the effects on the consumers or on the balance of life itself! Some seeds are bred to produce poisons, some others to be resistant to poisons; almost all are sterile, thus requiring that growers must return to purchase seed year after year. Farmers that choose not to use GM seeds are finding their own seed contaminated with GM pollen. In fact it has been found that it is next to impossible to contain these genes. They have spread to other organisms, even other species, growing many miles away from GM plots. Imagine a world where most natural seeds are sterile, and we all must depend on a handful of mega corporations for existence. It is possible.

GM crops have been linked to the creation of pesticide and herbicide resistant species, thus nullifying the original intent. Eating GM foods has also been linked to food allergies, autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal problems, and childhood learning disorders. Toxins from GM corn have been found in the blood of 93% of pregnant women. See: http://responsibletechnology.org/docs/145.pdf

We need to regulate these products at the national level as they already do in the rest of the developed world (even China!). Unfortunately, biotech has friends and former employees in high places. The USDA is headed up by former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack, a strong ally of biotech firms; our senior FDA food safety advisor is Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President for Public Policy; and our director of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture is Roger Beachy, long time president of the Danforth Plant Science Center (the non profit arm of Monsanto). Even our State Department is putting pressure on EU countries to remove their bans on GMO’s. We are currently finalizing a master plan to remake agriculture in Africa on a model including industrial scale GM monocropping. This is in a place where 70% of the food is now grown on small diverse plots owned and managed at the local level, a practice that has been shown to be far more productive and sustainable than fossil fuel dependent factory farming, according to the FAO. We need to bear constant witness to all this until we stop it.

What can we do here? Stop buying GM products. We may not be able to get the stores to label just yet, but they will stop carrying products that we won’t buy. Shop the perimeter of the store. If you go into the middle isles, check the ingredients before you buy. In the produce section, buy organic and, otherwise, you need only avoid non organic zucchini, crookneck squash, and papaya. All the papaya we get is grown in Hawaii and 80% of that is GM. Ask the stores to carry the larger types that grow in Central and South America. Also tell the stores not to purchase the GM Seminis sweet corn that is coming on the market this year.

Comments? terry@vashonloop.com