The global battle over genetically engineered (GE) foods has reached a
new level of intensity. While in Europe and Asia strong resistance
continues, and in Africa and Latin America a debate has begun, in
North America the gene-foods issue has moved from being a back-burner
item for most people to a major topic in the media. Under attack on
all sides, frustrated by growing global marketplace and activist
opposition, agbiotech corporations and the White House have been
forced to go on the offensive.
Regulatory Arrogance On January 17, the FDA announced a set of highly
controversial proposed regulations on genetically engineered foods and
crops. The regulations, disregarding the overwhelming sentiment of
consumers, require neither pre-market safety testing nor labeling–nor
do they require biotech corporations to assume financial liability for
damage to public health and the environment. Nearing the close of the
public comment period on May 3, the FDA had already received over
100,000 negative comments from irate consumers (including nearly
30,000 comments from the Organic Consumers Association), but
Washington insiders predict that the Bush administration will ignore
this avalanche of public criticism and proceed with the industry’s
favored “no labeling, no safety-testing” policy. Underlining public
rejection of the FDA’s “Shut Up and Eat Your Frankenfoods” policy, 75%
of Americans stated in a poll released by the Pew Charitable Trust on
March 26 that they wanted mandatory labeling of all gene-altered
foods, with 58% saying they would not buy them.
Propaganda Barrage The North American mass media recently have spewed
out an unprecedented number of stories and fluff pieces on the wonders
of “bioengineering” and the willful arrogance of anti-biotech
Luddites. Even PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, supposedly the
most liberal TV network in the US, aired a biased two-hour special
program on April 24 called “Harvest of Fear,” which praised the
supposed virtues of genetically engineered crops (fewer pesticides,
better nutrition) and attacked activist and so-called “eco-terrorist”
groups for falsely maintaining that GE foods are unsafe. “Food
companies have learned that the [anti-genetic engineering] groups are
not intent on having a reasoned debate about biotech or helping
consumers find out about biotech,” stated Gene Grabowski of the
Grocery Manufacturers of America. “It seems that their motive is to
scare people.”
Suing Farmers Monsanto has now sued or threatened thousands of
farmers across the US and Canada for the “crime” of saving seeds or
for having the company’s patented Frankencrops growing on their land
without paying royalty fees. On March 29, in a troubling and likely
precedent-setting case, a Federal Court judge in Canada ruled that a
70 year-old, fifth generation Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser,
was guilty of growing herbicide-resistant canola in 1998 on his farm
near Bruno, Saskatchewan without paying Monsanto. Schmeiser, now
liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to Monsanto,
claimed the seed for his crop came from his own fields, which were
contaminated by genetic drift from neighboring farms. According to a
Washington Post story filed on April 30, the Court ruled that
Schmeiser was liable for damages, even if he didn’t deliberately plant
the GE canola. Monsanto’s legal victory comes at a high cost however,
in terms of enraging the majority of the world’s farmers who are not
using genetically engineered seeds. A spokeswoman with the National
Farmers Union, which represents 300,000 small farmers and ranchers in
the United States, told the Post “the organization has been following
the Schmeiser case with apprehension. We’re extremely concerned by
what liabilities may unfold for the farmer, particularly with
cross-pollination of genetically modified plants.” The National
Farmers Union of Canada, where two-thirds of all canola acreage is
genetically engineered, has called for a moratorium on all GE crops.
Canada previously exported $400 million dollars of canola each year to
Europe. Now that market has been lost, due to EU rejection of GE
crops. Analysts warn that Canada may soon lose most of its canola
markets in Japan and Asia as well.
Manipulating Statistics Last spring BioDemocracy News reported on a
USDA survey that acreage of the two largest GE crops in the United
States was in decline (GE soybeans were down from 57% of all soy
planted in 1999 to 54% in 2000; corn was down from 25% to 19.5%).
Monsanto and the USDA had previously even claimed that the 1999
acreage of US corn was 33% GE-suggesting a massive decline in Bt and
herbicide-resistant corn varieties in 2000. But apparently after
hearing from Monsanto, Aventis, and Novartis (now Syngenta) that
projections like these were bad for their bottom line, the USDA
recently recalculated the figure for last year’s GE corn crop–now
claiming that GE corn constituted 25% of all corn acreage last year
and will amount to 24% this year. The USDA also maintains that GE soya
plantings will increase in 2001, even as global export markets shut
down. Before swallowing media stories that biotech is booming, it’s
important to keep in mind that current government or industry figures
on biotech crop acreage are all estimates, thereby subject to
manipulation. But in the wake of the StarLink debacle, which has
contaminated 10% of all the corn in storage in the US, you don’t need
a PhD to understand that a projected figure of 24% of all US corn
acreage in 2001 planted with Frankencorn is ridiculous. The real
figure will undoubtedly fall below 15%. Harder to conceal for the USDA
and the biotech industry is the fact that Monsanto has ceased
production of genetically engineered tomatoes (taken off the
commercial market in 1996) and potatoes (earlier this year), and that
global acreage of all genetically crops has leveled off. According to
the public interest group RAFI,
seeds almost flattened in 2000 with an increase of only 8% after years
of doubling and redoubling. Analysts predicted that, at least until
2003, demand would remain flat or decline.” Perhaps even more
significant, the two most important GE crops in the
pipeline–herbicide-resistant wheat and rice-may never even reach the
marketplace, due to global opposition.
Another big lie repeated ad nauseam by Monsanto since 1995–faithfully
regurgitated by the media–is that their genetically engineered
recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (now banned in every industrialized
country except for the US) is being injected into 30% of all US dairy
cows. Dairy farmers and analysts tell BioDemocracy News that the real
figure is closer to 10%. In 1998 Dow Jones reported that Monsanto was
anxious to sell rBGH to any company willing to take this product off
their hands. There were no takers, however– not surprising since
rBGH has been linked to increased cancer hazards as well as to an
increase in pus, bacteria, and antibiotic residues in rBGH-derived
milk and dairy products.
Fostering Fatalism The Gene Giants have been forced to change their
marketing and regulatory strategy over the past several years. Having
utterly failed to convince a significant number of consumers or
farmers around the world that genetically engineered foods and crops
are safe, “substantially equivalent,” or that they have any beneficial
characteristics whatsoever, the industry has adopted a new hard-line
attitude. Basically the chilling new message is that agricultural
biotechnology is inevitable, that genetically engineered crops, food
ingredients, and drift are everywhere, and that anyone who labels
their products as GE-free is lying. As former USDA Secretary Dan
Glickman stated on the PBS special, “Harvest of Fear” (4/24/01) “We
will not be able to stop this technology. Science will march forward.”
Or as John Wichtrich, a top Aventis executive, admitted to a Knight
Ridder news service reporter on March 19, “the food supply will never
be rid of the new strain of corn (StarLink) that the company
genetically engineered.” And since the genetic pollution caused by
hundreds of thousands of acres of this likely allergenic Bt corn will
be permanent, Wichtrich and Aventis have called “for a change in
federal regulations to allow some level of the engineered corn, known
as StarLink, in human food.” With former biotech lobbyists such as
Monsanto’s Linda Fisher occupying prominent roles in the Bush
administration. Aventis will very likely soon get their wish for an
“allowable limit” of genetic contamination.
In a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on April 5, Scott
Kilman and Patricia Callahan report that many leading US natural food
brands with “GMO-Free” labels are contaminated with significant
quantities of genetically engineered ingredients. The WSJ tested
top-selling brands such as Yves, Health Valley, Hain’s, Clif Bar,
Whole Foods, White Wave, and Gerber-and found that they were all
contaminated with GE ingredients. As Frank Palantoni, chief executive
of the North American consumer-health businesses for Gerber parent
Novartis put it, “I don’t think anybody in the U.S. can guarantee
zero.” Gerber, the nation’s largest baby food manufacturer, announced
in 1999, under pressure from Greenpeace, that they were going GE-free.
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