Food Fight: Americans are Unknowing Participants in a Vast Genetic Experiment

In 1999 British scientist Arpad Pusztai set up an experiment to test the health effects of a potato that was genetically engineered to produce an insecticide called lectin. When he fed the potatoes to lab rats, they developed damaged immune systems and underweight internal organs. Rats fed on normal potatoes plus lectin developed none of these problems.
A debilitating new disease appeared in the U.S. in the late 1980s. Its source was eventually traced to a brand of L-tryptophan food supplement that was created from genetically engineered bacteria. About 100 people died and 5-10,000 got sick, some of whom were permanently disabled.
When genetically engineered soy was introduced in the UK for the first time, soy allergies increased by 50%.
These examples are part of a growing body of evidence pointing to the dangerous and wildly unpredictable nature of genetic engineering, a scantly regulated and very new branch of the broader biotechnology industry.

NEW LIFE FORMS
This June I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco and take part in the “Reclaim the Commons” mobilization against the biotech industry’s yearly tradeshow, Bio2004. Biotechnology is a broad term. It includes technologies ranging from genetic engineering to cloning to such futuristic notions as the implantation of microscopic bio-robots into the human bloodstream.
Over 15,000 representatives from hundreds of corporations as well as government reps from around the world attended Bio2004. The primary sponsors were agribusiness, pharmaceutical and defense industry corporations.
“Reclaim the Commons” is a group that formed to draw attention to the dangerous nature of many technologies being promoted at Bio2004 by organizing a conference and street protests. As an organic farm worker in Benzie County, genetic engineering and corporate control in agriculture were my motivations for going to the conference. I had a chance to talk with people from around the country and the world who are active in the movement against genetically modified food. I also learned a few things about genetic engineering and biotech in medicine and other fields.
Genetic engineering (GE – also called genetic modification or GM) usually involves the splicing of DNA from unrelated organisms to create new life forms. This is completely different from traditional plant breeding or hybridization techniques in which closely related organisms are bred together through natural reproductive means. Bt corn, for instance, was created by implanting genes from a soil bacteria into corn so that the corn plant produces a compound that is toxic to certain insects. A GE tomato was made by splicing arctic flounder genes into tomato DNA.

DESIRED RESULTS?
The problem is that genetics are extremely complicated, despite what we may have learned in high school. Traditional models for understanding genetics, like gene theory and even DNA are increasingly being seen as insufficient because of the complexity involved in the inheritance of genetic traits. (“Scientific American,” Nov. 2003)
When an organism’s genetic code is altered by adding a piece of DNA thought to contain a specific trait, the desired result may or may not occur, and there are likely to be unintended results. These have included unexpected allergens, toxins, poor yield, pigmentation changes and increased potential to interbreed with related or even unrelated species. Genetic engineering has been likened to trying to fix an engine with a sledge hammer.
GE crops first hit the markets (and farmers’ fields) in the U.S. in 1996. Today, 80% of the soy beans and 40% of the corn grown here is genetically modified. Corn, cotton, canola and soy are the major GM crops, and most of the varieties have been modified either to be resistant to herbicide or to produce insecticide (Bt for the most part). Papaya and summer squash are also on the market.
Though only these six crops are being grown commercially, most processed and cooked foods contain genetically modified material – whether in the form of oil, corn syrup, flavor enhancers or other additives. Some 70% of the food found in supermarkets contains GE ingredients. There is little regulation and no labeling. Most people don’t know they are eating GE food.

NO RESEARCH DONE
In 1994, the FDA went against the recommendations of its own scientists, who said that further study was needed on GE crops, to issue the blanket statement that GE crops are “substantially equivalent” to normal crops. So although the FDA sometimes performs limited tests, they start with the assumption that the GE crops they look at pose no health risks. There has been no research done on long term health effects. Instead, Americans have ended up as de facto test subjects in a huge experiment on GE food.
In sharp contrast, Japan, Korea, Mexico, India, all of Europe and many other countries have banned commercial growing of GE crops. Several of these countries also prohibit genetically modified ingredients in food.
In fact, GE crops are only grown commercially in a few countries, and most is grown and consumed in the U.S. Vandana Shiva, an agriculture activist from India who came to the conference, said that “it is important that we offer solidarity to you in the U.S. who are eating the most GE food, but know the least about it. If we cannot choose, we are not free,” she added.
The U.S. is far behind in the global movement against GE food. Activists in the U.K. have successfully campaigned to keep meat from animals fed on GE grain out of supermarkets. Direct GE ingredients are completely out of the picture. In India, where over 4,000 “freedom villages” have chosen to ban all chemical pesticides, seed patents and GE crops (no commercial GE crops are grown in India at present), farmers’ movements have burned several GE test plots.

CONTAMINATION
Then there are the ecological and economic issues. Pollen from certain GE crops is toxic to monarch butterflies, bees and other insects. GE pollen can and does fertilize conventional and organic crops that are growing nearby or even up to a few miles away. Organic farmers can’t sell contaminated crops as organic (GE crops are explicitly banned in organic standards), and conventional farmers can’t market contaminated crops in Europe and many other countries.
Several African nations have refused food aid from the United States because it contained GE corn. To make matters worse, conventional and organic farmers have no legal recourse to collect for damages caused by GE contamination. Farmers have actually been sued by agribusiness corporations for growing crops or saving seeds that contained (were contaminated by) patented genetic material.
Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian canola grower who unknowingly saved and replanted canola seed that had been contaminated, was ordered by a Canadian court to pay $172,000 to Monsanto in 2001. The Canadian Supreme Court overturned the damages ruling in an appeal, but upheld Monsanto’s patent rights.

FARM MOVEMENT
For the last several years in North Dakota and other high-plains states and provinces, a farmer-to-farmer movement has been working to stop genetically engineered wheat. Since a large percentage of the wheat is exported, the farmers saw this as critical to their economic survival. Attempts to pass legislative moratoriums were narrowly defeated, but Monsanto, the world’s largest marketer of GE seeds and the driving force behind commercializing GE wheat, decided to withdraw from its wheat program this May.
In addition to the commercial GE crops being grown, there are dozens of other crops undergoing open field trials, and many of these have already been approved by the FDA. Although the extent of the plantings is limited in acreage, the pollen is out there in the environment and is cross-breeding with nearby crops and wild relatives. Genetically engineered trees are one such experiment. Another open field experiment involves modifying plants like corn and rice to produce pharmaceutical drugs, raising more issues about contamination of food crops.
Super-sized genetically engineered salmon may soon be approved for salmon farms, whose salmon regularly escape into the ocean. Pig and human DNA is being crossed in an attempt to produce pigs whose organs can be transplanted into humans. This opens up new ways for viruses to mutate and jump species barriers, creating new health hazards.

NO PRECAUTIONS
Genetically engineered microorganisms are being used to create medicines, like artificial insulin and drugs to help in the acceptance of donated organs. Kirk Murphy, a San-Francisco based doctor I talked to at the conference, said that many of these drugs and treatments are effective and have saved lives. However, he said, necessary precautions are not being taken in approving them.
There is a revolving door between FDA regulatory positions and those at pharmaceutical corporations (the same for agribusiness corporations). It is not in the best interest of many FDA employees to apply full scrutiny to corporate requests. Murphy pointed to another problem: DNA from GE micro-organisms, which are completely novel entities, could have the ability to transfer genetic material to human DNA (or to other micro-organisms) in ways that normal micro-organisms can’t. This includes genetic resistance to antibiotics, a trait held by all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a by product of the gene splicing process. In one study, a single meal containing herbicide-resistant GE soy transferred herbicide-resistant genes to bacteria in the subject’s stomach.

MARKETING SCHEME
Genetic engineering persists because certain corporations continue to value future profits above safety and the public trust. Thousands of years of work done by our ancestors to maintain and develop seed supplies is being polluted or threatened, as are ecosystems and our bodies.
Most GE crops have not increased yields. Herbicide-resistant crops (the most prevalent of GE varieties) have increased herbicide sales. Monsanto makes a lot of its money selling the herbicide Roundup, much of it to accompany “Roundup-ready” GE crops. And by patenting seeds and prohibiting seed saving they are creating an environment in which farmers, compared to corporations, have even less control.

The protests of Bio2004 included a blockade of two intersections that delegates’ busses had to pass through to get into their convention on the morning of June 8. Twenty-two people locked themselves together in one intersection using improvised lock boxes made from PVC, wire and duct tape. Several people were arrested for sitting down in the other intersection, and some for halting busses on two occasions by crawling under them. About 1,000 protesters took part and over 150 were arrested, most of them for marching in the street. Some still have pending misdemeanor charges, but most were released without charges or cited with infractions. There were hundreds if not over 1,000 police on the streets around the Bio2004 conference.
Participants in the mobilization hope that a new window is opening up for activism against genetic engineering in the U.S. In addition to the recent victory on GE wheat, the state of Vermont passed a law early this year that mandates labeling of GE seeds. Some 92 towns in New England have passed non-binding resolutions against genetic engineering. Mendocino County, California recently became the first in the nation to pass a ballot initiative that bans the planting of GE crops, and six other California counties will have similar initiatives on the ballot in November.
Did you know that most milk sold in the U.S. since 1996 contains milk from cows treated with a genetically engineered hormone called rBGH? This milk has up to five times the normal level of a cancer-causing hormone called IGF-1. rBGH is banned the European Union and Canada. Most of us are eating this stuff. We all need to be informed and involved.

Sources: Genetic Engineering, Food and Our Environment; Luke Anderson, 1999
Redesigning Life; Brian Tokar (editor); 2001
Seeds of Deception; Jeffrey Smith; 2004
www.biotechimc.org,
www.reclaimthecommons.net,
www.bio.org/events/2004/,
www.percyschmeiser.com,
www.geaction.org,
www.seedsofdeception.com

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