GMW: From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein

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GMW: From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein

" GM WATCH " <info

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:14:00 +0100

 

 

 

 

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Gene-Engineered Food

From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein

By DEBORAH RICH

Counter Punch, September 21 2006

http://www.counterpunch.org/rich09212006.html

 

We Americans are eating a lot of genetically engineered food, and

for

no good reason.

 

Since the mid-1990s, when corn and soybean varieties began being

injected with genes from bacteria and other unrelated species, we've

been

paying participants in a food experiment with potentially

unprecedented

effects on human health, the environment and food security.

 

By 2005, the Agriculture Department says, the vast majority of U.S.

soybean acres and 52 percent of corn acres were planted with

genetically

engineered seed.

 

The bounty of these acres is in our candy, crackers and chicken pot

pies, in our pizza and pasta sauce, in our Coca Cola and Campbell's

soups.

Corn and soybeans are ubiquitous: tens of thousands of processed

foods

contain soy, and the typical consumer takes in 200 calories of

high-fructose corn syrup per day. Alter the genomes of corn and

soybeans, and

you've altered the diet of most Americans.

 

Corn and soybeans are staples of animal feeds, so we're also

modifying

the diets of our beef cattle and milk cows, our pigs and chickens.

 

Yet lending our grocery dollars and stomachs to this venture gains

us

little.

 

The price of modified seed includes a technology fee that

effectively

siphons off the bulk of any additional revenue farmers might gain

from

reduced pest damage or decreased management costs.

 

Many hoped that genetically engineered crops would help the

environment

by cutting pesticide use. We should have known that growing crops

engineered to tolerate herbicides could lead to more chemical use. A

2004

analysis funded by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the

introduction of engineered corn, soybeans and cotton caused a 122

million

pound increase in pesticide use since 1996.

 

And because resistant crops have encouraged near constant use of one

or

two classes of herbicides, superweeds that withstand the chemicals

have

now emerged and will require ever more potent poisons to control.

 

Another hope was that gene tinkering would help end world hunger.

But

the dream of concocting drought-tolerant, insect-resistant,

nutrient-dense supreme species ignores the reality of global markets

already awash

in food. Hunger and malnutrition result from poverty, not a lack of

food in the world.

 

It's unlikely that we're getting health benefits from eating these

crops. Scientists are studying their possible effects. Among the

findings:

abnormal white and red blood cell counts and inflammation of the

kidney

in rats fed genetically engineered corn, accelerated growth of

stomach

and intestinal tissues of rats fed engineered potatoes, and immune

responses in mice fed altered peas. The findings are controversial,

but

they should, at the very least, give us pause.

 

Meanwhile, pollen from genetically engineered crops is on the move.

In

a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 50 percent of

nonengineered corn and soybean varieties tested by one laboratory

contained

DNA from engineered versions. Chasing down and eliminating this

freeflowing DNA from our seed supply, should the need arise, will

require

Herculean effort.

 

The only clear reason why we're eating so much genetically modified

food is that Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta, which together control

over 25

percent of global seed sales, want us to.

 

In the United States, Monsanto dominates many a menu. It owns half

of

the American corn seed market, and its modified traits are present

in

roughly 90 percent of soybean acres.

 

Monsanto is tossing salads too. In January 2005, it bought Seminis,

supplier of 3,500 varieties of fruit and vegetable seed to 150

countries.

Monsanto now controls more than 30 percent of the world's cucumber,

hot

pepper and bean seed sales, and more than 20 percent of onion,

tomato

and sweet pepper seed sales, according to the Action Group on

Erosion,

Technology and Concentration.

 

Now consider that Monsanto and its cohorts are free to undertake the

genetic modification of any plant variety they own. The plant

varieties

they don't modify, they can remove from the market. With one-fourth

of

the total value of the worldwide commercial seed market already

coming

from engineered seeds, our choices for unmodified crops and foods

are

rapidly dwindling.

 

As we relinquish control over our food to the gene engineers, we

must

ask: Does Monsanto really know best?

 

Deborah Rich grows olive trees near Monterey, Calif., and writes

about

agriculture for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.

She

wrote this essay for the Land Institute's Prairie Writers Circle,

Salina, Kan.

 

 

 

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