Agrichemical Corporations
Sci-Fi Food
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1/3 of our soy crop is genetically
engineered. Photo: İRick Gerharter, Impact Visuals |
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Agrichemical corporations have won a new round in their fight to gain
control over the nation’s food supply, generating new threats to our food and our
environment. U.S. corporate interests recently managed to weaken and block the Cartagena
Protocol, a United Nations treaty to govern the international transport of genetically
engineered organisms and foods made from them.
Unbeknownst to most Americans, corporations like Monsanto and DuPont have
been buying up the world’s seed companies (like Pioneer Hi-Bred) and biotechnology
companies. Ultimately, these corporations aim to not only sell chemicals to farmers to
help them grow crops, but to actually own the soybeans, corn, and wheat plants themselves.
They can do this by replacing natural strains with genetically modified strains which they
have patented and therefore "own." Throughout the Cartagena treaty negotiations,
these transnationals have been pressuring the U.S. government to oppose any form of
international regulation that would interfere with their increased control over the food
supply, including the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) food.
Why Regulate Genetically Modified Foods?
Genetically modified plants, animals, and microorganisms pose clear risks
to the environment and human health. For example, a gene from a genetically engineered
plant that escapes (by way of its pollen) could imperil our future food production. The
gene might make plants resistant to an herbicide, or cause the extinction of a plant that
contains useful genes for future plant-breeding needs.
What’s more, eating genetically engineered organisms may be bad for
your health. Scientists worry that products of the novel genes incorporated into food
crops will cause allergic reactions in some people — ranging in severity from a case
of hives to death. For this reason, among others, consumer groups have been calling for
mandatory labeling of GE foods.
Genetically engineered foods are already all around us, and in us. Last
year more than one-third of the U.S. soy crop was genetically engineered — and all
the varieties planted are owned by Monsanto. Lots of common food products are made from
this GE soy, everything from ice cream to baby formula. But you won’t see a label on
the baby formula telling you this. In the U.S., none of this food is identified as
containing products of genetic engineering. Why? Because Monsanto and their corporate
allies have successfully opposed all efforts to allow consumers to know what we are
eating.
On the other side of the Atlantic things are a bit different. European
consumers have demanded and been accorded the right to know how their food is produced;
labeling of genetically engineered foods is mandatory.
Polls of Americans show that over 80 percent of us want to see labels on
GE food. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ignored this consumer
sentiment, and the U.S. negotiating team at the Cartagena Protocol talks has taken an
aggressive stance against labeling.
Four years ago, the international community decided that genetically
engineered organisms posed enough of a risk that rules needed to be negotiated to regulate
their movement across international boundaries. That’s what the Cartagena protocol is
all about: requiring that nations be informed if a particular organism is going to be
exported to their country, and given information about the organism’s environmental
and health risks.
After four years of negotiation, the overwhelming majority of countries of
the world were in agreement that this would be a good idea, given both the known and the
unknown risks associated with the novel organisms. But the U.S. government negotiators,
along with those from five other countries that are current or future exporters of
genetically engineered grains, thought otherwise. They objected to labeling even though it
would be the only way to identify the organisms in international commerce.
Furthermore, this small group of nations wanted to exempt grains destined
for consumption from the notification requirements. But as biologists noted at the recent
negotiating session, the environmental risks are the same whether the seed is intended for
planting or for processing. If the seed falls on the ground and germinates, it has the
potential to cause environmental harm.
The governments of the European Union have not approved most varieties of
GE crops, and are unlikely to approve any more before the end of the current growing
season. The main reason is that they’re worried about human health: the banned GE
varieties contain a gene for resistance to antibiotics. European authorities are rightly
concerned that transfer of this gene to the bacteria in human stomachs could lead to an
increase in the amount of antibiotic resistance we already see in deadly human diseases
like tuberculosis. Scientists have already shown that genes can survive digestion, and
that bacteria in the stomach can pick up those genes and transfer them to other bacteria,
including those that cause disease.
European Union authorities are not the only ones refusing GE foods.
European consumers are also voicing loud concerns about novel foods, flatly refusing to
buy them. Major supermarket chains like Tesco and Safeway are now deciding not to sell
them, certifying that their own store brands are GE free, and in some cases declaring that
their entire stores will soon be GE free. Just recently two of the world’s largest
food manufacturers, Unilever and Nestle, have announced they will be GE free in Europe.
Corporate Profits Before Farmers and
Consumers
When it comes to genetically engineered foods, the U.S. is putting its
trade considerations ahead of environmental and human health concerns. As the delegate
from Mauritius (a small island country in the Indian Ocean) noted at the recent Cartagena
negotiating session, instead of a bio-safety protocol, the U.S. wanted a bio-trade
protocol. And indeed, lobbyists from all the major biotechnology transnationals attended
the negotiations, hoping to maintain influence over the U.S. position. The lobbyists
included a Monsanto representative and the vice president of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization, who up until a year ago was a government employee and a member of the U.S.
negotiating team.
The U.S. negotiating position does a great disservice to farmers as well
as consumers. Both Canadian and U.S. farmers have recently lost a huge amount of the
European market in soybeans, canola, and corn to competitors in Australia and Brazil
precisely because Europeans don’t want genetically engineered foods.
Monsanto, AgrEvo, and Novartis have convinced farmers to grow the new
seeds, but they haven’t provided the market. This year, the large U.S. grain
growers’ associations are cautioning their growers not to plant GE crops unless they
are certain that these crops are currently allowed for consumption in the European Union.
Because of the stubborn protection of corporate interests by the U.S. government, export
markets for US farmers are being lost.
Next Steps for the Cartagena Protocol
The good news is that while the Cartagena talks are momentarily suspended
because of the U.S. and its grain-producing allies, they are not dead. Negotiations will
resume in late 1999 or early 2000. Until then, consumers should continue to pressure the
U.S. government to do the right thing — label GE foods and accept regulation for ALL
genetically engineered organisms in international commerce.
The lead negotiator for the U.S. government is Melinda Kimble. The
representative from the Food and Drug Administration, the agency denying consumers the
right to know, is Eric Flamm. Call or send them a letter or email:
Ms. Melinda Kimble, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and
Scientific Affairs, Dept. of State, 2201 C Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20520-7818;
phone: 202-647-3004; fax: 202-647-0217.
Dr. Eric Flamm, Food and Drug Administration, HF-23, 5600 Fishers Lane,
Rockville, MD 20857; phone: 301-827-0591; fax: 301-443-6906; email: eflamm@oc.fda.gov.
The Labor Party and Labor Party affiliates are encouraged to become
involved in the movement for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food. For more
information: Council for Responsible Genetics, 5 Upland Rd., Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone:
617-868-0870.
— Doreen Stabinsky
Doreen Stabinsky teaches in the Environmental Studies Department of
California State University in Sacramento and is a member of the Labor Party’s
Science and Technology Committee. |
