Survey indicates Americans are largely unaware about biotech foods

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" News Update from The Campaign " <newsupdate

 

 

 

Survey indicates Americans are largely unaware about biotech

foods

 

 

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 02:32:24 -0800

 

News Update From The Campaign

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

It has been a busy week for news about genetically engineered foods.

 

On Monday, we reported on a major study from the United Kingdom that

indicates biotech crops may be harmful to butterflies and bees.

 

On Tuesday, we learned that hundreds of tons of genetically engineered

corn

never approved for human consumption was sold to farmers for years.

 

And on Wednesday, the Associated Press (AP) released an article (posted

below) titled " Americans clueless about gene-altered foods. "

 

The AP article reports on a survey of consumer awareness conducted by

Rutgers Food Policy Institute through their Food Biotechnology Program.

Rutgers received a $2.5 million grant in 2001 from the US Department of

Agriculture to conduct this four-year study of consumer perceptions of

food

biotechnology.

 

The survey indicates that Americans are very ignorant about genetically

engineered foods. And some would argue that the biotech industry likes

it

that way. It is difficult to complain about genetically engineered

foods

when people they don't even realize they are eating them.

 

The survey indicates that a whopping 89% of the people asked think

genetically engineered foods should be required to be labeled. Only 10%

don't think they should be required to be labeled and 1% are unsure.

 

The article below gives a brief overview. If you would like to read the

entire 25-page report titled " AMERICANS AND GM FOOD: KNOWLEDGE,

OPINION AND INTEREST IN 2004, " here is a link to the PDF version:

http://www.thecampaign.org/NationalStudy2004.pdf

 

Craig Winters

President

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

E-mail: label

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

 

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Americans clueless about gene-altered foods

Few aware of how many genetically modified products they eat, study

finds

 

The Associated Press

March 23, 2005

 

TRENTON, N.J. - Can animal genes be jammed into plants? Would tomatoes

with

catfish genes taste fishy? Have you ever eaten a genetically modified

food?

 

The answers are: yes, no and almost definitely. But according to a

survey,

most Americans couldn't answer correctly even though they've been

eating

genetically modified foods - unlabeled - for nearly a decade.

 

" It's just not on the radar screen, " said William Hallman, associate

director of the Food Biotechnology Program at the Rutgers Food Policy

Institute, which conducted the survey.

 

Today, roughly 75 percent of U.S. processed foods - boxed cereals,

other

grain products, frozen dinners, cooking oils and more - contain some

genetically modified, or GM, ingredients, said Stephanie Childs of the

Grocery Manufacturers of America.

 

Despite dire warnings about " Frankenfoods, " there have been no reports

of

illness from these products of biotechnology. Critics note there's no

system

for reporting allergies or other reactions to GM foods.

 

Nearly every product with a corn or soy ingredient, and some containing

canola or cottonseed oil, has a GM element, according to the grocery

manufacturers group.

 

Little knowledge of GM products

 

In the Rutgers survey, less than half the people interviewed were aware

GM

foods are sold in supermarkets. At the same time, more than half

wrongly

believed supermarket chicken has been genetically modified.

 

So far, non-processed meat, poultry, fish and dairy products, and

fruits and

vegetables (both fresh and frozen) are not genetically modified.

 

GM food first hit supermarkets in 1994, with the highly touted Flavr

Savr

tomato, altered to give it a longer shelf life and better flavor. It

flopped, in part due to disappointing taste, and disappeared in 1997,

said

Childs.

 

By 1995, farmers in several countries had planted millions of acres of

GM

corn and soybeans, and processed products containing them were in

grocery

stores.

 

Genetic modification of crops involves transferring genes from a plant

or

animal into a plant. Nearly all GM changes so far are to boost yields

and

deter insects and viruses, cutting the use of pesticides, thus making

farming more productive and affordable - a particular aid to developing

nations.

 

More than 80 percent of the soy and 40 percent of the corn raised in

this

country is a GM variety. Global plantings of biotech crops - mostly

corn and

soybeans and much of it for animal feed - grew to about 200 million

acres

last year, about two-thirds of it in the United States.

 

The one billionth acre will be planted this spring, according to the

Biotechnology Industry Organization.

 

New foods on the horizon

 

Experts say within several years there will be new GM foods with taste

and

nutrition improvements: cooking oils with less trans fat, tastier

potatoes

and peanuts that don't trigger allergies.

 

At North Carolina State University, one of the biggest U.S. plant

breeding

programs, scientists are developing drought-tolerant wheat and are a

couple

years from field testing GM peanuts that have no life-threatening

allergens,

said Steven Leath, associate dean for health research.

 

At Rutgers University's agricultural college, plant biology professor

Nilgun

Tumer and colleagues modified potatoes to better keep their flavor when

processed as french fries and to limit browning when sliced, but she

said

farmers haven't adopted the new varieties. Now her team is trying to

give

tomatoes a gene to make a compound that helps prevent cancer and

osteoporosis.

 

Lisa Lorenzen, a liaison to the biotech industry at Iowa State

University,

said most Americans haven't worried about GM foods because they trust

the

regulatory system. She said many Europeans oppose GM foods because they

don't trust governments that wrongly insisted for years that the beef

supply, tainted by mad cow disease, was safe.

 

Worries about gene-altered products grow

 

Opponents say genetically modified foods could cause allergic or toxic

reactions and harm the environment. Worries include the mixing of GM

crops

with regular ones either by handlers, or pollen - already documented -

and

GM foods being sold where they're not approved.

 

On Tuesday, a Swiss biotech company said it mistakenly sold U.S.

farmers an

experimental, unapproved GM corn seed, and tons of the resulting corn

was

sold between 2001 and 2004. U.S. government agencies say there was no

health

or environmental risk.

 

In 2000, recalls, lawsuits and public uproar followed disclosure that

StarLink GM corn, approved only for animal use, had gotten into taco

shells

and chips.

 

University plant scientists, industry, the Food and Drug Administration

and

numerous European science agencies say GM foods are safe.

 

" Nobody's been able to prove that anyone's even gotten the sniffles

from

biotechnology, " Childs said.

 

But Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said there's

no

system to track health problems caused by GM foods.

 

Her group, along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest,

has

long pushed for labeling - only required when GM products have

properties

different from ordinary foods, such as a higher nutrient content. They

contend consumers deserve a choice if they want to avoid GM foods and

they

also want government regulation.

 

Currently, companies developing GM foods voluntarily send their data to

the

FDA, but there's no official approval before products go on sale.

 

" It's left up to the good nature of Monsanto or DuPont or other

companies to

do the right thing, " said Gregory Jaffe, director of the biotechnology

project at CSPI.

 

 

 

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