Gene Giants Get Nasty

Flaws in genetic engineering are exposed

opinion by Ronnie Cummins, contributor

The global battle over genetically engineered (GE) foods hasreached a new level of intensity. Frustrated by growing globalmarketplace and activist opposition, agbiotech corporations and theWhite House have been forced to go on the offensive.

• The North American mass media recently have spewed out anunprecedented number of pieces on the wonders of “bioengineering.”Even PBS aired a biased program in April called “Harvest of Fear,”which praised the supposed virtues of GE crops.

• Monsanto has now sued or threatened thousands of farmers across theUS and Canada for the “crime” of saving seeds or for having thecompany’s patented Frankencrops growing on their land without payingroyalty fees. In March, in a troubling and likely precedent-settingcase, a Federal Court judge in Canada ruled that a Saskatchewan farmerwas guilty of growing herbicide-resistant canola in 1998 on his farmwithout paying Monsanto. The farmer, now liable for hundreds ofthousands of dollars in fines to Monsanto, claimed the seed for hiscrop came from his own fields, which were contaminated by geneticdrift from neighboring farms. According to the Washington Post, theCourt ruled that the farmer was liable for damages, even if he didn’tdeliberately plant the GE canola. The National Farmers Union ofCanada, where two-thirds of all canola acreage is GE, has called for amoratorium on all GE crops

• Another big lie repeated by Monsanto since 1995 is that theirrecombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) (now banned in everyindustrialized country except the US) is being injected into 30percent of all US dairy cows. Dairy farmers and analysts tellBioDemocracy News that the real figure is closer to 10 percent. In1998 Dow Jones reported that Monsanto was anxious to sell rBGH. Therewere no takers, however—not surprising since rBGH has been linked toincreased cancer hazards as well as to an increase in pus, bacteria,and antibiotic residues in rBGH-derived milk and dairy products.

• The Gene Giants have been forced to change their marketing andregulatory strategy. Having failed to convince a significant number ofconsumers or farmers around the world that GE foods and crops aresafe, or that they have any beneficial characteristics, the industryhas adopted a new hard line. Basically the chilling new message isthat agricultural biotechnology is inevitable, that geneticallyengineered crops, food ingredients, and drift are everywhere, and thatanyone who labels their products as GE-free is lying. As former USDASecretary Dan Glickman stated, “We will not be able to stop thistechnology. Science will march forward.”

The bluster and bullying of the agbiotech industry are, in part, anattempt to cover up the fact that they are losing ground, not just inthe marketplace and in the court of public opinion, but also in termsof mounting scientific evidence that GE foods and crops are unsafe forpublic health and the environment.

Noted biotech expert Dr. Charles Benbrook, of the Northwest Scienceand Environmental Policy Center, released an explosive report onherbicide-resistant Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans in May. The report, atwww.biotech-info.net/troubledtimes.html reaffirms previous studiesthat RR soybeans produce five to ten percent less of a yield thanconventional soybeans, that weeds are growing resistant to Roundup,and that farmers growing the GE soybeans are using more herbicide thanthose cultivating non-GE varieties.

Moreover, a group of Canadian scientists warned in the TorontoGlobe and Mail in May that genetic drift or pollution from plantsgene-spliced to produce medical drugs or industrial chemicals is adisaster waiting to happen. The letter, signed by several prestigiousagricultural experts, including Dr. Hugh Lehman, an expert inagricultural ethics at the University of Guelph—warns there is a “highprobability” that a StarLink-type contamination incident could occurbecause of open-air testing and cultivation of crop varieties splicedto produce pharmaceutical drugs or industrial chemicals. In otherwords, a person could be eating corn or soybeans or some other commonfood and instead get a dose of a powerful medical vaccine or drug, ora toxic dose of an industrial chemical.

Finally, in 1999, researchers in Corpus Christi, TX, were alarmed tofind that aflatoxin levels in Monsanto’s Bt corn were significantlyhigher than in non-GE varieties. Aflatoxins, created by bacteria,appear in warm, humid environments on fungus spores on corn or othergrains and vegetables. It is illegal to sell corn or other grainscontaining toxic levels of aflatoxins, since they are powerful agentsfor causing liver cancer. One can only imagine, if aflatoxin levels inTexas Bt corn were reaching alarming levels, what’s happening with Btcorn in the more tropical and humid environments overseas, where thebiotech industry is working overtime to convince farmers to grow Btcorn.

The Organic Consumers Association can be reached at 6101 CliffEstate Road, Little Marais, MN 55614; www.organicconsumers.org;218-226-4164.