World Opposition to Frankenfoods Growing

by Ronnie Cummins, Free Press contributor

Consumer rejection of genetically engineered (GE) foods is spreading around the world, and prospects for a so-called Biotech Century, at least in agriculture, are dimming.

GE foods and patents on living organisms have become hot-button political issues in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, and at recent international conventions, the US government has become increasingly isolated in its "no labeling, no safety-testing" position.

Following is a sample of some of the agonies of the ag/biotech industry in various countries:

JAPAN & SOUTH KOREA: Public concern about GE foods is rising here and worrying the biotech industry, as these two nations alone buy $11.3 billion of US agriculture exports every year. Japan dropped a regulatory bombshell in mid-April when the Ministry of Health announced that starting next year agricultural producers must "screen" imported genetically modified foods for potential food allergies and other health hazards. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Japanese importers and manufacturers of many common food products are almost certain to switch to non-GE ingredients once they are forced to label. The director of the Tokyo office of the American Soybean Association, told the Star-Tribune, "I don't think anybody will label containers genetically modified. It's like putting a skull and crossbones on your product."

Greenpeace parody of a product containing biotech corn. see related "kellog's" article below.

SRI LANKA: The government of Sri Lanka banned the import of GE foods and crops on April 23.

INDIA: Environmental activist Vandana Shiva of India, together with public interest activists in Europe, registered a major victory in mid-May when the European Patent Office withdrew a controversial patent previously granted to pharmaceutical giant W.R. Grace on a chemical formulation derived from the Neem tree, which has been used as a bio-pesticide and medicinal agent for generations by indigenous villagers and farmers in India. Biotech corporations fear that the revocation of the Neem patent will set a precedent that could put billions of dollars of their "biopirated" patents on drugs and seeds at risk.

EUROPE: A recent survey showed that consumers are "deeply wary of genetically modified food." A four-year food fight by European consumers and farmers is slowly but surely driving GE foods and crops off the EU market, the largest in the world. US corn exports to the EU have fallen from $360 million a year to near zero, while soybean exports have fallen from $2.6 billion annually to $1 billion--and are expected to fall even further as major food processors, supermarkets, and fast-food chains ban GE soy or soy derivatives in animal feeds. Canada's canola exports to Europe similarly have fallen from $500 million a year to near zero. Meanwhile Brazilian exporters are doing a brisk business selling "GE-free" soybeans to European buyers.

US & CANADA: Even in the US, the heartland of biotech, consumer aversion to GE foods is increasing. Since July 1999 a number of major US food corporations--including Gerber, Heinz, Mead-Johnson (infant formula), Iam's (pet food), Frito-Lay; and supermarket chains including Whole Foods and Wild Oats--have announced plans to go "GE-free." Monsanto announced in May that it was closing its plant in Crystal, Maine that had been producing biotech potatoes since 1992.

Recent reports indicate that biotech cotton fields in North Carolina and Georgia are becoming infested with stink bugs that are eating up the cotton crop. Not only does the biotech toxin not kill the Stink Bugs, but apparently they love the mutant plants. Recent studies from the University of Nebraska indicate that Monsanto's gene-altered Roundup Ready soybeans produce 6-11 percent less yield than conventional soybeans.

On March 21 over 50 groups filed a legal petition against the FDA in Washington, D.C. calling for a moratorium on all GE foods and crops unless the FDA can prove that these products are safe for human health and the environment. In Washington DC 52 members of the US House of Representatives are co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) calling for mandatory labeling of GE foods.

A prestigious panel of Swiss scientists, commissioned by Greenpeace, on April 19 issued a peer-reviewed critique of the shoddy science endorsed by the EPA to certify the environmental safety of biotech corn. The EcoStrat report revealed that tests by Novartis and Mycogen to determine whether their GE corn could harm non-target insects were so poorly designed that there was virtually no chance that adverse effects would be observed. Despite the flawed methodology, the EPA accepted the tests as scientific evidence that the gene-altered crop was harmless to non-target insects.

On April 5 the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) tried to reassure the public that GE foods were safe, but nearly every media organization reported that the NAS report was plagued by charges of conflict of interest. The majority of the dozen scientists on the NAS panel receive money from biotech corporations or labs under contract to the industry. But a close reading of the NAS report is actually quite damning. It admits that with GE foods:

1. New allergens and toxins may be introduced into foods.
2. Existing toxins in foods may reach new levels, or may be moved into edible portions of plants.
3. New allergens may be introduced into pollen, then spread into the environment.
4. Unknown protein combinations produced in plants might have unforeseen effects when new genes are introduced into the plants;
5. Nutritional content of a plant may be diminished.

In summary, the NAS report has turned into yet another public relations debacle for the biotech industry.

Similarly, the Food and Drug Administration's long-anticipated announcement of regulatory reforms on GE foods and crops on May 3 was met with indifference or hostility on the part of the general public. Headlines across the country emphasized that the FDA was refusing to label GE foods. In Canada, finally, a coalition of groups filed a legal petition against the federal government for failing to protect public health and the environment in regulating genetically modified organisms.