Fwd: Pandora's Pantry

December 2, 2001

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<TD vAlign=top><PRE> </PRE><FONT color=#003366

face=times size=6>Pandora's Pantry</FONT>

<P><FONT face= " helvetica, & #10;arial,sans-serif "

size=4>In its rush to approve genetically engineered

food, the government ignored warnings from its own

scientists about threats to human health and the

environment. Finally, the tough questions are being

asked.</FONT>

<P><FONT color=#003366 face= " geneva, arial,sans-serif "

size=2>by</FONT> <!-- «a

href= " backtalk " --><FONT color=#003366

face= " geneva, arial,sans-serif " size=2>Jon R.

Luoma</FONT><BR><A

href= " http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/JF00/toc.html "

--><FONT color=#003366 face= " geneva, arial,sans-serif "

size=2>January/February 2000</FONT></A>

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<P>Trudy Burgess stands beside an orange-and-black bus

parked in downtown Invercargill, New Zealand, urging

residents to think before they eat. As people pass the

eye-catching vehicle on this October day, Burgess

warns them of a potential danger they probably faced

over breakfast: food from plants that have been

genetically altered. " The reality is that 60 percent

of all processed foods are at risk, " Burgess explains

to a local reporter. " We want people to be more

discerning when they are shopping. "

<P>

<TABLE align=right border=1 cellPadding=5

cellSpacing=0 width=170>

<TBODY>

<TR>

<TD bgColor=#ffffcc><B><FONT color=#003366>Talk Back

to the FDA:</B></FONT>

<P>Thursday, Jan. 13, is the deadline for public

comment on the Food and Drug Administration's

genetically engineered food policy.

<P>Make your opinions heard <A

href= " http://www.foodsafetynow.org/send.asp?cam_id=31 " >here</A>.

<P></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Burgess and other

activists also want to keep genetically engineered

(GE) foods off the market while the New Zealand

government studies the health and environmental

effects of taking genes from one species and inserting

them into another. So far, more than 91,000 New

Zealanders have signed a petition calling for a

moratorium on genetically engineered foods imported

from the United States. Throughout Europe and Asia, a

growing number of scientists, elected officials, and

activists have sounded the alarm over bioengineered

agriculture. Japan, the largest importer of American

crops, is now considering mandatory labeling of GE

products. Some European nations have stopped buying

U.S. corn in order to stop any gene-altered grain at

their borders.

<P>The mainstream media in the United States has

mainly portrayed the widespread international concern

as little more than a foreign backlash against the

increasing Americanization of the planet. " Where it

was once the deployment of American Pershing-2

missiles that caused alarm, " <I>The New York Times</I>

declared last summer, " now it is McDonald's,

Coca-Cola, genetically modified American corn and

American beef fattened with growth hormones that have

Europe up in arms. "

<P>In the past few months, however, the worldwide

revolt over gene-altered foods has begun to take root

in this country -- sowing apprehension in the

boardrooms of biotechnology giants like Monsanto and

Novartis Seeds. In November, the industry launched a

multimillion-dollar public relations blitz to

counteract the growing chorus of opposition. The

protests have " crossed the boundaries of

reasonableness, " Edward Shonsey, chief executive of

Novartis, told the <I>Times</I>, " and now it's up to

us to protect and defend biotechnology. "

<P>But polishing the image of biotech foods won't make

them any easier to swallow -- or any less risky.

Research suggests that genetic engineering of food

products could create unexpected new allergens or

contaminate products in unanticipated ways, resulting

in threats to public health. Critics of the rapid

introduction of GE crops into the food supply point to

one particularly alarming incident in which dozens of

people were killed and 1,500 others afflicted by an

excruciatingly painful disorder scientists suspect is

linked to a bacterium engineered to produce the food

supplement L-tryptophan. In addition, many scientists

fear that bioengineered crops could spark widespread

ecological damage, creating insecticide-resistant bugs

and herbicide-resistant " superweeds " that would make

kudzu and purple loosestrife look like so many summer

dandelions.

<P>The potential impacts on human health are the ones

that have stirred the most consumer protest. Instead

of thoroughly responding to such concerns, critics

say, the Food and Drug Administration -- the agency

charged with safeguarding the food supply -- has bowed

to the influence of major biotech corporations -- in

particular, Monsanto, which has enjoyed an especially

cozy revolving-door relationship with FDA regulators.

<P>According to internal documents, the FDA ignored

objections from several of its own top scientists when

it ruled, in a landmark 1992 policy statement, that

genetically engineered foods are similar to those

produced by traditional plant breeding, and are hence

" generally recognized as safe. " Despite mounting

scientific concern, the Clinton administration still

adheres to that policy, requiring nowhere near the

intensity of testing that would apply to a food

additive, such as an artificial sweetener -- let alone

a drug. In addition, the FDA requests only that firms

conduct their own safety assessments of new products

containing GE components. The FDA has received such

self-assessments for each GE product it has approved

so far, but " does not conduct a scientific review of

the firm's decision [to bring the product to market], "

according to an agency spokesperson. It also allows

the companies to place these foods on supermarket

shelves without providing any information on the label

to tell consumers what they're getting.

<P>Today an estimated 60 percent of all processed

foods -- from candy bars and tortilla chips to tofu

dogs and infant formula -- contain at least one

genetically engineered component. This year, American

farmers planted an estimated 60 million acres -- an

area the size of the United Kingdom -- with

genetically engineered crops, accounting for nearly

half of all soybeans and a third of all corn in the

United States. Without rigorous testing and accurate

labeling, there is simply no way to predict what kinds

of dangers such foods may pose, say critics of the FDA

policy.

<P>The current lack of regulation " is like playing

Russian roulette with public health, " says Philip J.

Regal, a biologist at the University of Minnesota who

has published widely on the risks of GE foods. " We've

had years and years of scientific discussion about

this, and the conclusion is very clear, " he adds. " If

it continues along this path, some of these foods are

eventually going to hurt somebody. "

<P>In a sense, humans have been genetically

manipulating food for centuries. Traditional plant

breeding could be called a form of genetic

engineering: Farmers routinely select strains of crops

for desirable characteristics such as higher yields,

disease resistance, and more pleasing textures or

colors. But there is one key difference: In

traditional plant breeding, genes are mixed between

apples and apples, so to speak -- that is, between

plants that are closely related, if not virtually

identical, from a genetic standpoint. The protests

over genetically engineered foods center instead on

the potential hazards of " clipping " a gene sequence

from the DNA of one plant or animal species (using

specialized enzymes as the scissors), then inserting

it into the DNA of another species.

<P>Consider one way scientists create seeds for corn

that carries a gene for toxicity to certain insects --

a gene captured from the bacterium <I>Bacillus

thuringiensis</I>, or Bt. Geneticists link the Bt gene

to a DNA strand containing a " marker " gene for

antibiotic resistance. This combined DNA fragment is

then literally blasted into plant cells with a " gene

gun, " and some of these target cells spawn plants that

secrete the Bt toxin -- and are able to kill the

insects that would otherwise eat them. Farmers

purchase the engineered seeds from these plants,

typically at a high cost premium, on the assumption

that they will need to spray less chemical pesticide

on their crops.

<P>The problem with such gene splicing, say some

leading scientists, is that transferring genes between

different plant species -- or even between animals and

plants -- can change the characteristics of crops in

unintended and perhaps dangerous ways. Even those who

believe that many or even most bioengineered foods

will ultimately be proven safe have serious concerns.

Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, a biologist with the

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) who has followed the

new science closely for more than a decade, cautions,

" Companies are manipulating the food supply in ways

never before possible. People need to know that some

of these foods could turn out to be unhealthy to eat

or harmful to the environment. "

<P>Gene-altered crops may endanger human health in

several ways. New crops could produce unexpected

allergens, or chemicals that can interfere with

enzymes or hormones in the body. (Disruption of

hormones in a pregnant woman's body can be profoundly

damaging to her offspring.) One of the most disturbing

prospects is that engineered proteins from living

things that humans have never consumed will end up in

supermarket foods, and that some could trigger

heretofore unknown health effects.

<P>Some of the earliest attempts at modified foods

indicate just how risky genetic tampering can be. Seed

company Pioneer Hi-Bred developed a soybean containing

DNA from Brazil nuts that boosted levels of the amino

acid methionine, making the beans more nutritious as

animal feed. Many observers were quick to endorse the

new bean. " Because brazil nuts and methionine are

known to be safe, " the <I>Washington Post</I> declared

in 1992, " the new soybean variety might not require

formal FDA approval. " As it happens, the <I>Post</I>'s

optimism was unfounded. The company later realized

that people allergic to Brazil nuts might also be

allergic to the beans -- some of which would have

inevitably found their way into soy-based products for

human consumption. In 1996, Pioneer withdrew the

product.

<P>Not every company has acted so quickly. Scientists

are still questioning whether gene-altered bacteria

used to make the dietary supplement L-tryptophan

caused deadly consequences. L-tryptophan is an

essential amino acid that occurs naturally in such

foods as turkey and milk. It plays a crucial role in

the production of the brain chemicals serotonin and

melatonin, and consumers have used it as a dietary

supplement to treat depression, sleep disorders, and a

variety of other physical and psychological ailments.

In the past, manufacturers produced it by extracting

it from bacteria. But in the 1980s, a Japanese

company, Showa Denko K.K., developed a method to boost

production of the chemical: It inserted new genes into

the bacteria, inducing them to make greater amounts of

L-tryptophan.

<P>In 1989, shortly after the product hit the shelves,

more than 1,500 Americans became afflicted with a

mysterious ailment dubbed Eosinophilia-Myalgia

Syndrome, a debilitating disorder that can cause

severe muscle pain, heart problems, memory defects,

and paralysis. Thirty-seven people died during the

outbreak. Nearly all the victims had been taking Showa

Denko's L-tryptophan, which was found to contain

potent traces of toxic compounds. Scientific studies

were unable to prove conclusively what generated the

toxins. But scientists in the United States and Canada

have published analyses indicating that the genetic

engineering may have boosted the concentrations of

L-tryptophan produced by the bacteria, causing

molecules of the compound to bond, thus producing the

toxins.

<P>Beyond human health concerns, genetic engineering

poses potential threats to the environment. One of the

biotech industry's goals is to develop crops that are

resistant to herbicides. That, in turn, would enable

farmers to saturate their fields with potent

herbicides, killing all the weeds but allowing the

crop to survive; for the seed makers, this could lead

to greater demand for their own herbicides. Monsanto,

in fact, has already developed corn and soybeans that

are highly resistant to its commercially successful

herbicide, Roundup. After 2002, the company plans to

introduce " Roundup Ready " wheat. But there's a catch:

Many scientists fear that the wheat will hybridize

with -- and pass its herbicide tolerance to -- a

closely related weed called goat grass. The resulting

hybrid could become what the EDF's Goldburg calls a

" superweed, " invulnerable even to an herbicide as

powerful as Roundup.

<P>Other genetically engineered crops might also cause

unintended damage to ecosystems. Last year, scientists

from Cornell University reported in the journal

<I>Nature</I> that pollen from Bt-laced corn could

escape from farm fields, settle on nearby milkweed

plants, and kill the larvae of beneficial insects,

such as monarch butterflies, that feed on milkweed.

Though the biotech industry's leading trade group

dismissed the report, the Union of Concerned

Scientists and four leading environmental groups

called on the EPA to restrict the planting of Bt corn

and study the product's effects.

<P>All of this -- the threat to monarchs, the

potentially allergenic Hi-Bred soybeans, the illness

and death linked to tainted L- tryptophan -- comes as

no surprise to Dr. Richard Lacey. A professor of

medical microbiology at the University of Leeds and an

expert on food safety, Lacey predicted the malady that

descended on Britain in the mid-1990s and came to be

called " mad cow disease. " " Recombinant DNA technology

is an inherently risky method for producing new

foods, " insists Lacey. " Its risks are in large part

due to the complexity and interdependency of the parts

of a living system, including its DNA. Wedging foreign

genetic material in an essentially random manner into

an organism's genome necessarily causes some degree of

disruption, and the disruption could be multifaceted. "

<P>The danger, adds Lacey, lies in how little we know.

" It is impossible to predict what specific problems

could result in the case of any particular genetically

engineered organism, " he says.

<P>Given the potential risks -- and the warnings from

respected scientists -- how did genetically engineered

crops find their way onto farms, and then into

supermarkets, with such ease? A review of the federal

policymaking process, supported by testimony and

documents from a lawsuit against the FDA, suggests

that the political influence of the biotech industry

effectively silenced government regulators charged

with safeguarding the public.

<P>The hands-off approach to regulation began during

the Bush administration, which was eager to foster a

nascent biotech industry with the potential to

generate corporate profits and foreign trade. On May

21, 1992, only days before the FDA issued its

permissive policy on GE foods, a top administration

official weighed in. James B. MacRae Jr., assistant

administrator of the Office of Management and Budget,

sent a memo to White House counsel C. Boyden Gray

suggesting that the policy " should avoid emphasizing

obligatory FDA review and oversight, " and instead

allow the industry to regulate itself " with informal

FDA consultation only if significant safety or

nutritional concerns arise. " MacRae also suggested

that the FDA policy " should state that newer

techniques actually may produce safer foods. " (The

budget bureaucrat's sanguine prediction appeared,

verbatim, in the final document.)

<P>But the FDA did more than yield to political

pressure -- it also ignored the concerns of its own

experts. According to internal memos and computer

files uncovered during a lawsuit brought against the

agency in 1998 by two public interest groups, the

Alliance for Bio-Integrity and the International

Center for Technology Assessment, some of the

government's own scientists disagreed with its

developing policy.

<P>In 1992, the year the policy was issued, Dr. Louis

J. Pribyl of the FDA's Microbiology Group warned in an

internal memo of " a profound difference between the

types of unexpected effects from traditional breeding

and genetic engineering. " Dr. Linda Kahl, an FDA

compliance officer, concurred that plant breeding and

genetic engineering are different processes, adding

that " according to the technical experts in the

agency, they lead to different risks. "

<P>In a letter written the previous October, James

Maryanski, manager of the FDA's biotechnology working

group, acknowledged that some scientists felt strongly

that more testing was needed. " As I know you are

aware, " he wrote to Canadian counterparts working on a

policy of their own, " there are a number of specific

issues for which a scientific consensus does not exist

currently, especially the need for specific toxicology

tests. "

<P>And that December, Dr. Mitchell J. Smith, head of

the Department of Health and Human Service's

Biological and Organic Chemistry Section, drafted a

memo to the FDA urging regulators not to repeat the

errors of the past: " Just because the agency failed to

evaluate 'new substances' introduced by conventional

breeding, " Smith wrote, " gives it no reason to

continue to do so now with new biotechnology. "

<P>But when the FDA was confronted in court with

evidence of such internal opposition, the agency

responded by suggesting that the comments were only

from low-level employees. " The FDA has not denied in

court that their scientists made those statements, "

says attorney Steven Druker, who directs the

Iowa-based Alliance for Bio-Integrity. " They're now

claiming that those were the views of a handful of

'low-level employees,' which is a misrepresentation. "

<P>Other testimony offered in the lawsuit indicates

that some government experts had been questioning the

safety of GE foods all along. Biologist Regal

testified that while attending a 1988 conference in

Maryland he spoke with several FDA scientists

concerned about biotech crops. " I was shocked to learn

the extent of uncertainty " over the safety of GE

foods, he recalled. " Government scientist after

scientist acknowledged there was no way to assure the

safety of genetically engineered foods. Several

expressed the idea that, in order to take this

important step of progress, society was going to have

to bear an unavoidable measure of risk. "

<P>Some observers expected that the Clinton

administration would adopt a harder line against

genetically modified foods, especially since Vice

President Al Gore had taken a keen interest in the

subject well before the 1992 election. In the early

1980s, then-Senator Gore had chaired a congressional

subcommittee that criticized the government for

inadequately assessing the risks of biotech organisms;

he had again criticized the biotech industry in a 1991

law journal article. But under Clinton, the FDA has

stuck to its laissez-faire policy, and the

administration itself has taken up biotech promotion

with gusto, leaning heavily on foreign governments to

accept genetically engineered foods created by U.S.

biotech giants. In 1998, for instance, the

administration threatened to withdraw from a proposed

trade pact if New Zealand required labeling of

gene-altered foods.

<P>This heavy-handed approach has failed to quell

growing public suspicion of biotech products, both at

home and abroad. Last August two major Japanese

breweries, the Kirin Brewery Company and Sapporo

Breweries, announced that they would not use

gene-altered corn in their beer, and the Gerber and

H.J. Heinz baby-food makers have also rejected

modified ingredients. Whole Foods Market, the nation's

largest natural foods chain, requires suppliers of its

house brands to certify that their products contain no

genetically modified substances, and requests the same

of all other suppliers. And soybean exporter Archer

Daniels Midland has instituted a two-tiered price

system, offering farmers 18 cents extra per bushel of

traditional soybeans because it is having trouble

selling modified soybeans overseas.

<P>Public outcry has forced Congress to consider

regulation. After more than 500,000 people signed a

petition demanding tougher controls for gene-altered

foods, a bipartisan group of 20 representatives

introduced legislation in November that would require

labeling of genetically engineered products. A

parallel Senate bill is in development at this

writing.

<P>For its part, the FDA says it is already doing

enough to protect the public. " We do feel that the

current regulatory scheme is adequate, " an FDA

spokesperson told <I>Mother Jones</I>. That sentiment

is echoed by Dr. Nega Beru, a consumer-safety officer

in the agency's regulatory policy branch. Asked how

the FDA can maintain a policy that these foods are

" generally recognized as safe " when a large number of

well-credentialed scientists say they do not recognize

them as such, Beru responded, " We're not aware of any

information that shows that these foods possess any

unique health concerns, and we're not aware that these

foods are any different than foods produced by

traditional methods. " In short, the philosophic

underpinnings of the 1992 policy on GE foods still

prevail.

<P>Still, the FDA's spokesperson said the agency is in

" listening mode, " pointing to public meetings that it

had planned for late 1999 in Washington, Chicago, and

Oakland. The meetings, she said, were for " anyone who

is interested to tell us about any new science or

about ways we can better inform the public about these

products. " Afterward, she added, the FDA would review

the comments " over some unspecified period of time. "

<P>Given its wait-and-see attitude -- and its close

ties to the industry -- the FDA appears unlikely to

use its authority to slow the biotech juggernaut

without additional pressure from the public or

Congress. " They've been holding hearings like this for

15 years, " says Regal. " They spend a lot of money

holding meetings, listen and take lots of notes, maybe

even invite a few scientists in to be the conscience

of the republic. Then nothing changes. " <IMG border=0

src= " http://www.motherjones.com/endred.gif " >

<P>

<HR noShade>

<P><FONT color=#003366 face=times size=5>Additional

MoJo Coverage</FONT>

<P>

<UL>

<LI><A

href= " http://www.motherjones.com/wto/soriano2.html " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>WTO Hot Button:

Genetically Modified Foods</FONT></A>,br & gt;(MoJo

Wire, Nov. 24, 1999)

<P></P>

<LI><A

href= " http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/broydo.html " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>A Seedy

Business</FONT></A> (MoJo Wire, April 7, 1998)

<P></P>

<LI><A

href= " http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ98/broydo.html " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>Organic

Engineering</FONT></A> (May/June 1998)

<P></P>

<LI><A

href= " http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/JF97/biotech.html " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>A Growing

Concern</FONT></A> (Jan/Feb 1997) </LI></UL>

<P>

<P><FONT color=#003366 face=times size=5>Other

Resources on Genetically Modified Foods </FONT>

<P>

<UL>

<LI><A href= " http://www.foodsafetynow.org/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>The Center for Food

Safety</FONT></A><BR>Tell the FDA and your

Congressional representatives what you think with only

a few keystrokes. (The page includes a form letter

that you can send as is or personalized.)

<P></P>

<LI><A href= " http://www.bio-integrity.org/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>Alliance for

Bio-Integrity</FONT></A><BR>Read original documents in

which FDA scientists raised concerns over the 1992

policy.

<P></P>

<LI><A href= " http://www.fda.gov/oc/biotech/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>The Food and Drug

Administration's Bioengineered Foods

page</FONT></A><BR>

<P></P>

<LI><A href= " http://www.thecampaign.org/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>The Campaign to Label

Genetically Engineered Foods</FONT></A>

<P></P>

<LI><A

href= " http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>Center for Food Safety

Home Page</FONT></A>

<P></P>

<LI><A href= " http://www.purefood.org/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>The Biodemocracy

Campaign</FONT></A>

<P></P>

<LI><A href= " http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/ge/ " ><FONT

color=#cc0000 face=times size=4>Greenpeace Genetic

Engineering Page</FONT> </A><BR clear=all>

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