GMW: Don't Fall for the Hype Over Biotech

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GMW: Don't Fall for the Hype Over Biotech

" GM WATCH " <info

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:39:43 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Great to see an article as incisive as this in the N. American press.

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Don't Fall for the Hype Over Biotech Leake

Grand Forks Herald, June 27, 2005

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/opinion/11987971.htm

 

EMERADO, N.D.: Pro-biotech activists such as Al Skogen get pretty

frothed up about the alleged wonders of biotechnology. But after 10

years,

the real questions are, " Where's the science? " And " Where's the

economics? "

 

Are the markets there for biotech wheat? Of course not. Otherwise, it

probably would be on the market now. Wheat customers both in the United

States and abroad categorically rejected the proposal of genetically

modified wheat. Monsanto responded to massive market rejection of its

proposed Roundup Ready hard red spring wheat in May 2004 by suspending

field trials and withdrawing permit applications. It was the only

rational thing to do.

 

Lucky for wheat farmers that Skogen wasn't in charge at Monsanto. Lucky

for Monsanto, too. He probably would have run both wheat farmers and

Monsanto out of business - and blaming the customers who didn't want the

product wouldn't have been much consolation.

 

Speaking of consumers, their attitudes aren't changing very fast,

despite the propaganda efforts of Skogen and others. According to a

report

issued by agricultural economist Dr. Robert Wisner of Iowa State

University one year after Monsanto pulled the plug, U.S. farmers still

stand

to lose one-half of foreign markets and one-third of their wheat price

if Roundup Ready wheat were to be introduced.

 

Also last week, Japan rejected shipments of U.S. corn contaminated with

Syngenta Corp.'s BT-10 corn, an unapproved variety suspected of health

problems. Many countries around the world have been buying only corn

guaranteed free of BT-10, cutting U.S. corn farmers out of those markets

and decreasing family farm income.

 

So, are biotech products safe to eat? There's not much proof - because

not much research has been done, and what has been done has been kept

secret. Only last week, a British court ordered Monsanto to release a

1,139-page report it kept secret, indicating that a genetically modified

corn variety caused disease in rats fed the corn. Hiding research of

negative health impacts of genetically modified crops does nothing but

instill suspicion of the integrity of the science and public heath

regulatory process behind GM foods, and rightly so.

 

In spite of Skogen's claims, no federal agency conducts scientific

research to determine the safety of new biotech crops before they are

introduced, and that's the way the companies that market GM crops want

it.

Other independent research also is rare. Two Norwegian researchers

published a review in 2003 of the scanty research on biotech safety and

concluded that " much more scientific effort and investigation is

necessary

before we can be satisfied that eating foods containing GM material in

the long term is not likely to provoke any form of health problems. "

 

But at least biotech crops cut down on pesticide, right? Not according

to independent researcher Charles Benbrook, whose October 2004 report

found that Roundup Ready crops have increased herbicide use on corn,

soybeans and cotton by 138 million pounds since 1996 - about nine times

the 15.6 million-pound decrease in insecticide applications due to Bt

corn and cotton.

 

Most of the hype surrounding GM foods is just that: hype. It is hype to

promote corporate products despite the concerns of food safety and the

adverse economic impact to farmers. It's well past time for the United

States to catch up on the safety and economic scrutiny of GM foods.

 

Leake is an Emerado farmer and member of the Dakota Resources Council.

 

 

 

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