Biopharming- Is Our Food Safe?

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Is Our Food Safe?

Genetically Engineered Crops Are Here -- Whether We Like It Or Not

 

Karen Charman is an investigative journalist specializing in

agriculture, health and the environment.

 

Americans are continually told we have the safest food supply in the

world. But recent revelations about genetically engineered food

crops -- specifically ones that grow pharmaceutical drugs or

industrial chemicals in their plant tissue -- raise serious

questions about the safety and future of our food.

 

The practice in question is called biopharming. It is being touted

as the agricultural biotech industry's next bonanza, the savior that

will bring chronically broke commodity grain farmers not only

desperately needed profits, but riches. And in today's harsh rural

landscape of bankruptcies and broken dreams, promises of generating

$2 million an acre -- the figure commonly bandied about in the farm

belt -- are enticing indeed.

 

This particular dream, however, is more likely to turn into a

nightmare -- for both farmers and the eating public. Biopharming may

even be the proverbial straw that breaks the back of American

farming. Why? Because crop plants and farm fields are not closed

units. As biological entities that exist in an open environment,

plants evolved to spread their traits and mix with,

or " contaminate, " other crops. It's in their nature.

 

So, if the government allows biotech companies to test and grow

experimental drug- and chemical-producing food crops in the open

environment, we better get used to the idea of eating those

pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals in our food. As Dirk Maier,

a professor of agricultural and biological engineering points out in

a Purdue University fact sheet: " Whenever new genetic material is

introduced into the agricultural crop mix, trace contamination of

non-target crops is unavoidable. This fact is common knowledge in the

seed industry. "

 

What foods are we actually talking about? At this point, mainly corn,

the biopharmers' crop of choice. But biopharm companies are also

tinkering with soybeans, canola, rice, barley, tomatoes, potatoes,

lettuce, wheat and sugarcane.

 

Widespread consumer rejection of genetically engineered food in

foreign markets has already cost American grain farmers dearly.

European officials have said Europe would prohibit American grain

exports if transgenic crops producing pharmaceutical or industrial

compounds are planted because of health concerns about pharma-

tainted food crops.

 

Too Late?

U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that more than 300

experimental pharma plots have been grown in the open environment in

36 states since 1991, most in the farm belt in the last three years.

 

In November 2002, the Texas-based biotech company, ProdiGene, was

busted in Nebraska for contaminating 500,000 bushels of soybeans with

pharmaceutical corn the company had grown in the same field the

previous year. The tainted soybeans were confiscated at a grain

elevator in Aurora, Neb. -- but not before they were mixed in with

500,000 bushels that had been destined for the food supply.

 

Two months before, ProdiGene was ordered to burn 155 acres of a

neighbor's corn crop in Iowa that USDA inspectors said may have had

been contaminated by the company's experimental test plots.

 

At the moment, federal regulations don't permit pharma crops to

contaminate food crops. However, the biotech industry and some of its

promoters would like to change that, because, as Prof. Maier's

comment above reveals, it won't be possible to keep them out of our

food.

 

Grain handlers and processors -- those who collect, clean and store

commodity grain -- learned this lesson in 2000 when StarLink, an

unapproved biotech corn, ended up in more than 300 food products.

StarLink contamination prompted massive food recalls and a quagmire

of lawsuits. Now this segment of the grain industry is demanding that

federal regulators set threshholds that allow measurable quantities

of pharma crop contamination.

 

Grain industry representatives aren't the only ones pushing to allow

these substances into our food. So are some biotech researchers at

leading agricultural universities. According to The Washington Post,

even the consumer group, Center for Science in the Public Interest,

is arguing that trace amounts of pharma crops should be permitted if

the substances undergo early safety tests.

 

Food manufacturers have been enthusiastic supporters of biotech food.

But they are understandably mortified at the prospect of expensive

recalls and the potential to damage consumer confidence in their

products. They have come out strongly against using food crops for

biopharming.

 

But after speaking with John Cady, president of the National Food

Processors Association, my hunch is that if the government set

tolerance levels and deemed those levels safe, the food

manufacturing sector's concern would diminish. " As long as the rules

are the way they are, there has to be zero tolerance, " Cady said.

 

Downplaying Health Risks

Federal agencies are now grappling with the question of how to cope

with pharma crops -- largely outside the public's gaze. Instead of

raising the alarm, some media reports are downplaying the risks.

Both The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times recently reported

that in most cases, the bioengineered industrial or pharmaceutical

proteins would not be harmful, because as Los Angeles Times reporter

Stephanie Simon put it, they would " dissolve harmlessly in the gut. "

 

Michael Hansen, a scientist with Consumer's Union, says that blanket

assumption can't be made. Many of these compounds may break down in

the gut, but to know for sure, each one would have to be tested for

digestibility in a form it is likely to be ingested. " We don't know

if those tests are being required, because this is all confidential, "

Hansen said. " Right now we're talking in a data vaccuum. "

 

As with all biotech food crops, safety testing of bioengineered crops

that produce industrial compounds is currently voluntary. If the crop

produces a drug, it must undergo safety tests.

 

But the testing procedures typically used are inadequate. They don't

examine either the whole food or even the biopharmaceutical actually

produced in the plant. Instead, standard practice is to use a

surrogate version of the inserted protein that is produced in

bacteria. This method may be cheaper and easier for companies. But

plants and bacteria process genes very differently, so testing a

bioengineered protein in bacteria can't detect whether the protein

creates toxic or allergenic substances in the plant.

 

We are not designed to ingest industrial compounds. Pharmaceuticals -

- which often have unpleasant and sometimes dangerous side effects --

are generally prescribed in specific doses for specific illnesses.

They don't belong in our food. But if these substances are grown in

food crops, they will undoubtedly end up in our kitchens and on our

plates -- whether we want them there or not.

 

Published: Feb 13 2003

 

 

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

Fax: 603-825-5841

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign

for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass

legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered

foods in the United States. "