Fwd: Wheat contamination + Jeremy Rifkin on WTO case

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Mon, 2 Jun 2003 03:02:17 -0700

 

News Update from The Campaign

Wheat contamination + Jeremy Rifkin on WTO case

 

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

Posted below are two interesting articles.

 

The information discussed in first article titled " Tests find traces of

GM crops in U.S. wheat supply " is likely to stir up controversy.

Genetically engineered wheat is not even approved yet and already the

regular wheat is getting contaminated by biotech corn and soy.

 

As a source in the article is quoted: " If we can't keep the corn and

soybeans out of the wheat, how are we going to keep the GM wheat out of

the wheat? "

 

The second article is an editorial opinion by activist Jeremy Rifkin,

author of The Biotech Century, titled " Bush's evangelising about food

chills European hearts. " This opinion piece appears in Monday's edition

of the British newspaper, The Guardian.

 

Rifkin criticizes the recent WTO case the U.S. filed against the

European Union over their moratorium on genetically engineered foods. He

is even more critical of President Bush charging " The White House has

made a bad situation worse by suggesting that European opposition to GM

food is tantamount to imposing a death sentence on millions of starving

people in the third world. "

 

It will be interesting to see what is discussed regarding the WTO case

in the next few days as President Bush attends the G8 meeting in Evian,

France.

 

Craig Winters

Executive Director

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

 

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. "

 

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Tests find traces of GM crops in U.S. wheat supply

 

Reuters, 05.30.03

By Carey Gillam

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Tests have revealed that traces of

genetically modified grains are repeatedly creeping into U.S. wheat

supplies, even as the debate rages over whether the world's first

biotech wheat variety should be released in North America, grain

industry sources said.

 

Biotech soybeans and corn, the two most widely grown genetically

modified crops in the world, are the common culprits. Traces of the GM

crops have been found not only in unmilled wheat but also in flour used

to make bread and other foods, sources said.

 

The findings come at a time when debate over biotech wheat is reaching a

near-fever pitch.

 

Critics fear that Monsanto Co.'s plans to release a genetically modified

spring wheat in the United States and Canada will cripple wheat exports

and add complications and costs for domestic players. The Canadian Wheat

Board, which controls that country's wheat exports, pleaded with

Monsanto this week to drop its bid for North American regulatory

approval.

 

Many countries that buy grain from the United States refuse to purchase

bioengineered varieties, saying their consumers fear that the long-term

health and environmental impacts of the GM grains have not been

established.

 

At Rank Hovis, the largest miller in the United Kingdom and an importer

of U.S. wheat, testing for biotech contamination has repeatedly found

evidence of genetically modified soybeans and corn particles mixed in

with wheat supplies, wheat director Peter Jones said.

 

" We routinely find beans and maize (in wheat) and we must accept that

these are genetically modified, " said Jones.

 

U.S. industry sources are reluctant to discuss the matter openly because

of fears of scuttling U.S. wheat sales to countries wary of genetically

modified crops.

 

But they say the findings of biotech materials in nonbiotech wheat

illustrate the difficulties that lie ahead in trying to segregate wheat,

the most actively traded grain in the world.

 

" We've already got GM contamination in wheat in small levels from non-GM

sources, " said one U.S. milling source. " If we can't keep the corn and

soybeans out of the wheat, how are we going to keep the GM wheat out of

the wheat? "

 

" The slightest little detection can complicate wheat shipments going out

of this country, " said Steven Tanner, director of the U.S. Grain

Inspection Packers Stockyards Administration technical services

division.

 

" The question comes down to what is reasonable. If you're going to say

zero tolerance you might as well stop world trade, " Tanner said.

 

Millers said cleaning techniques remove most if not all traces of

foreign matter, though some small amounts are making it into flour.

 

In the United States, some major flour companies have started testing

wheat for customers who do business in other countries where no

genetically modified foods are allowed. Samples have turned up positive,

causing headaches and revisions to contracts, industry sources said.

 

The wheat most likely mixes with foreign materials as it moves through

storage and transportation systems that handle a variety of grains,

experts said.

 

The issue is not a new one. Four years ago, Thailand detected

genetically modified materials in a shipment of U.S. wheat and

determined that GM corn was to blame. The government then announced it

would ban the import of all GM seeds.

 

U.S. Wheat Associates said that it is not only U.S. wheat that often

contains small amounts of biotech grains.

 

In the European Union, which imports about 2 million tonnes of spring

wheat from the United States and Canada annually, many European grain

companies have developed tests to determine the presence of nonwheat

biotech material down to a level of 0.1 percent, according to U.S. Wheat

Associates.

 

Wheat industry sources said most grain traders -- both sellers and

buyers -- would rather avoid testing wheat. They prefer to rely on the

" letters of assurance " that routinely accompany U.S. and Canadian wheat

sales. The letters certify there are " no transgenic wheat varieties for

sale or in commercial production. "

 

But once regulatory approval is granted, even if Monsanto still has not

released its biotech wheat, those assurances could be lost.

 

" Europe has already been testing wheat, " said U.S. Wheat Associates vice

president Nelson Denlinger. " When you get down to commercialization

you're going to have a major problem if people want non-GM wheat. "

 

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Bush's evangelising about food chills European hearts

 

The fight over GM crops exposes the weaknesses of globalisation, says

Jeremy Rifkin

 

Monday June 2, 2003

The Guardian

 

In case you thought that the Bush administration's rift with its

European allies ended with the Iraqi military campaign, think again. The

White House has now set its sights on something far more personal - the

question of what kind of food Europeans should put on their table.

President Bush has charged that the EU's ban on genetically modified

food is discouraging developing countries from growing GM crops for

export and resulting in increased hunger and poverty in the world's

poorest nations. His remarks, made just days before the G8 meeting in

Evian, have further chilled US-European relations.

 

Last month, the US government launched a formal legal challenge at the

World Trade Organisation to force the EU to lift its " de facto

moratorium " on the sale of GM seeds and food in Europe. The EU has

countered that there is no moratorium in place and points out that in

the past year it has approved two applications for imports of GM seeds.

Regardless, the new thrust by President Bush is likely to force another

confrontation between the two superpowers - one whose long-term impact

could be even more serious than the breach over Iraq.

 

For most Europeans, GM food is anathema. Although Europeans are worried

about the potentially harmful environmental and health consequences,

they are equally concerned about the cultural consequences. While

Americans long ago accepted a corporate-driven fast food culture, in

Europe food and culture are deeply entwined. Every region boasts its own

culinary traditions and touts its local produce.

 

In a world of globalising forces, increasingly controlled by corporate

behemoths and bureaucratic regulatory regimes, the last vestige of

cultural identity most Europeans feel they have some control over is

their choice of food. That is why every public opinion poll conducted in

Europe, including polls in the new candidate EU countries, show

overwhelming public disapproval of GM food.

 

Global food companies doing business in Europe, such as McDonald's,

Burger King and Coca-Cola, have responded to the public's aversion by

promising to keep their products free of genetically modified traits. By

forcing the issue, the Bush administration is stirring up a hornet's

nest of public anger and resentment.

 

The White House has made a bad situation worse by suggesting that

European opposition to GM food is tantamount to imposing a death

sentence on millions of starving people in the third world. Denying poor

farmers in developing countries a European market for GM food, says the

White House, gives them no choice but to grow non-GM food and lose the

commercial advantages that go hand-in-hand with GM food crops. President

Bush's remarks on the many benefits of GM food appear more like a public

relations release than a reasoned political argument.

 

Hunger in the third world is a complex phenomenon not likely to be

reversed by the introduction of GM crops. First, 80% of undernourished

children in the developing world live in countries with food surpluses.

The hunger problem has more to do with the wayarable land is utilised.

 

Today, 21% of the food grown in the developing world is destined for

animal consumption. In many developing countries, more than a third of

the grain is now being grown for livestock. The animals, in turn, will

be eaten by the world's wealthiest consumers in the northern industrial

countries. The result is that the world's richest consumers eat a diet

high in animal protein, while the poorest people on earth are left with

little land to grow food grain for their own families. And, even the

land that is available is often owned by global agribusiness interests,

further aggravating the plight of the rural poor. The introduction of GM

food crops does nothing to change this fundamental reality.

 

Second, President Bush talks about the cost savings of planting GM food

crops. What he conveniently ignores is that GM seeds are more expensive

than conventional seeds and, because they are patented, farmers cannot

save the new seeds for planting during the next growing season because

those seeds belong to the biotech companies. By exercising intellectual

property control over the genetic traits of the world's major food

crops, companies such as Monsanto stand to make huge profits while the

world's poorest farmers become increasingly marginalised.

 

Third, the White House alludes to the new generation of crops with genes

whose proteins will produce vaccines, drugs and even industrial

chemicals. The Bush administration cites the example of " golden rice " , a

new genetically engineered rice strain that contains an inserted gene

that produces beta-carotene. Noting that half a million poor children

around the world suffer from vitamin A deficiency and become blind, the

US trade representative Robert Zoellick argues that to deny them this

valuable food source would be immoral. The biotech industry has been

singing the praises of the " miracle " rice for years, despite articles in

scientific journals that say it simply doesn't work. To convert

beta-carotene into vitamin A the body requires sufficient body protein

and fat. Undernourished children lack the body protein necessary for the

conversion.

 

What is equally galling to Europeans is President Bush's moralising

style. When the president said that " European governments should join -

not hinder - the great cause of ending hunger in Africa " , many European

leaders were incensed. EU countries spend a larger percentage of their

gross national income on foreign aid than the US. The US currently ranks

22nd in the percentage of its gross national income devoted to foreign

aid - the lowest of any industrial nation.

 

Bush's misguided plan to force Europeans to accept GM food is likely to

backfire. Indeed, it may well turn out to be the straw that breaks the

camel's back for European-US relations. The battle over GM food is

uniting the European public and giving people a new sense of their

common European identity, while distancing them even further from their

old ally across the Atlantic.

 

The struggle over GM food may also further diminish the already weakened

status of the WTO. Even if the organisation eventually sides with the US

and forces the EU to introduce GM food, the victory is likely to be

pyrrhic because any WTO order to accept GM food is going to have no

effect on European farmers, consumers and the food industry.

 

US strong-arming cannot make Europeans eat GM food. A European GM food

boycott will only expose the underlying weakness of globalisation and

the existing trade protocols that accompany it. In the unfolding

struggle between global commercial power and local cultural resistance,

the GM food fight might turn out to be the test case that forces us to

rethink the very basis of the globalisation process.

 

Jeremy Rifkin is author of The Biotech Century and president of the

Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington DC.

 

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If you would like to comment on this News Update, you can do so at the

forum section of our web site at: http://www.thecampaign.org/forums

 

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