Soy bean field (Image: earthopensource.org)
“Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science?
Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat
between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational
GM-supporting scientists on the other?”
These questions
are posed by Earth Open Source,
a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assuring the sustainability,
security, and safety of the global food system. They answer their own
questions in a new study “GMO Myths and Truths.” The myth, they say, is
that GM foods have been proven safe. The truth is that there are hidden
dangers which corporate-funded research has not yet adequately
investigated.
What makes this report unusual is that it was authored not by the
usual food activists and environmentalists, but by two well known
genetic engineers with help from an investigative reporter. The team
conducted an exhaustive survey of hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific
studies and concluded not only that GM food crops pose significant, if
largely under-evaluated, health risks, but that they have so far failed
to deliver on their promise to increase crop yields and lower herbicide
and pesticide use.
The authors argue, moreover, that there are already safer
environmentally friendly ways to grow more food for the planet’s
exploding population. By focusing on the false panacea of genetic
modification as a way to feed the world’s hungry, vital research dollars
have been siphoned away from more promising lower-tech approaches to
increasing the efficiency of the global food system.
The report’s
authors include Dr
Michael Antoniou of King's College London School of Medicine in the UK,
who helped to develop genetic engineering for medical applications, and
John Fagan, a biomedical researcher and expert in food system
sustainability and GMO testing, who returned $614,000 in grant money to
the National Institutes of Health in 1994 because of his concerns about
the safety and ethics of genetic modification.
The paper, produced together with Claire Robinson, research director
of Earth Open Source, comes out at a critical moment as California
voters are considering a referendum which will appear on their ballot in
November calling for the labeling of genetically modified foods in the
state. Such labeling is already mandatory in Europe, China, India and
many other nations.
Seventy percent of the foods that Americans purchase in the
supermarket contain ingredients (mostly corn, soy and canola oil) that
are genetically modified. The food industry, and often the media, assure
us that there is a scientific consensus that GM foods are equivalent
nutritionally to foods that have not been modified and not a danger to
those who consume them. But it is just not true that all scientists
agree. Given the uncertainties in the field and the lack of long-term
health studies, some groups like the American Academy of Environmental
Medicine and the Union of Concerned Scientists have called for labeling
of GM foods.
If Californians agrees, it could have a big impact on the rest of us.
Some believe that if the labeling referendum there passes, other states
may follow suit. Furthermore,
as I reported in the Guardian last
month, if food companies are made to label GM foods in California, the
nation’s most populous state, they may well do so all over the country,
rather than maintain a costly two-tier packaging and distribution
system.
The food and biotech industries are expected to fight the labeling
initiative with a multi-million dollar statewide PR blitz, like the one
which helped to defeat a similar measure in Oregon in 2002. But nearly
90% of Americans-- Republicans and Democrats equally according to a
recent survey-- want to see GMOs labeled. This latest report on the
dangers of genetically engineered foods will give the referendum’s
advocates valuable ammunition in the upcoming California debate.
Here are some of
the conclusions of the report:
*Genetically modifying crops, which involves the transfer of
genes between biologically unrelated species, is not an extension of
traditional plant hybridization, but a radical departure which can
produce new toxins or allergens in food that are unlikely to be spotted
in current regulatory checks.
*GM foods have not been adequately safety tested. There has been no long
term research, and the few short term studies have been inadequate. In
many cases proprietary restrictions put in place by biotech companies
like Monsanto have prevented independent research by scientists not
connected to the corporations which are making claims about their
safety.
*Animal studies of the effects of GM foods have disclosed clear signs
of toxicity– notably disturbances in liver and kidney function and
immune responses.
*Over 75% of genetical modification are to to increase crop tolerance
of herbicides. Where these crops are grown there has been a massive
increases in herbicide use.
*Over half of GM crops are engineered to withstand application of
Monsanto’s best selling Roundup. Contrary to the company’s claims
Roundup is not safe at the levels it is being use, but has been found to
be associated with miscarriage, birth defects, neurological development
problems, DNA damage, and certain types of cancer. A public health
crisis has occurred in GM soy-producing regions of South America, where
people exposed to spraying with Roundup and other agrochemicals report
escalating rates of birth defects and cancer.
*There is insufficient evidence that the BT toxin engineered into the
plant structure of corn and cotton (whose seeds are used in food oil
production) is safe for human consumption. Bt crops have been found to
have toxic effects on laboratory animals in feeding trials. These toxins
have also been found circulating in the blood of pregnant women in
Canada and in the blood supply to their foetuses.
*GM crops have not been shown to offer higher crop yields, enhanced
nutritional value or greater drought tolerance, as they have been hyped
to do. The products of conventional breeding continue to outstrip GM in
all of these arenas.
*Conventionally bred, locally adapted crops, used in combination with
environmentally sustainable farming practices, offer a safer, cheaper
and more efficient way to ensure global food security than genetic
modification.
“Crop genetic engineering as practiced today is a crude, imprecise, and outmoded technology,”
says the report's coauthor John Fagan. “Recent advances point to better ways of using our knowledge of genomics to improve food crops, that do not involve GM."
Selling patented genetically modified seeds, and the agro-chemicals
designed to be used with them, has earned biotech giants like Monsanto,
Dupont, Bayer and Syngenta untold billions of dollars in the past two
decades. But what is good for these corporate bottom lines may not be
good for human health, or the integrity of the environment.
Richard Schiffman is the author of two books and a former
journalist whose work has appeared in, amongst other outlets, the New
York Times and on a variety of National Public Radio shows including
Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
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