BioDemocracy News #39 Exposing Biotech's Big Lies

[Guest guest]

BioDemocracy News #39 (May 2002)

Exposing Biotech's Big Lies

By: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association

www.organicconsumers.org

 

Quotes of the Month:

 

" The genetically engineered crops now being grown represent a massive

uncontrolled experiment whose outcome is inherently unpredictable. The

results could be catastrophic. " Dr. Barry Commoner, " Unraveling the

DNA Myth: The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering " Harpers

magazine, February 2002

 

" Nobody can afford to efficiently and affordably provide two different

products.We'll either go biotech or we won't. This is a war that we

will win-or that we will lose. " Gene Grabowski, Grocery Manufacturers

of America. Quoted in the book, Dinner at the New Gene Café, by Bill

Lambrecht (St Martin's Press 2001)

 

" [We're facing] a slow down of at least three to five years in North

America.But in Europe the story will be one of using conventional

breeding techniques. [in some cases] it will take at least 10 years to

develop the new [GE] varieties and win consumer acceptance for them. "

Heinz Imhoff, Novartis Seeds, quoted in Galloping Gene Giants, by Clarke and Brenda Inouye, February 2002 <www.polarisinstitute.org>

 

Frankenfoods: Beginning or End of the Biotech Century?

 

Despite repeated claims by the agbiotech industry that they are

conquering the world, the global controversy over genetically

engineered (GE) foods and crops continues. Are consumers about to roll

over and accept drug and chemical companies controlling our food

choices? Are the world's two billion farmers and rural villagers

willing to become mere " bioserfs " in the employ of Monsanto and the

Gene Giants? Or are we about to head in the opposite direction, away

from industrial agriculture and genetic engineering, toward a future

of organic farming, holistic health, and sustainable development? A

review of a number of important developments on the consumer, science,

and regulatory fronts indicate that agricultural biotechnology, far

from being triumphant, is in deep trouble.

 

Reading the mainstream press, it's hard to find anything critical of

genetic engineering. The public interest think tank, Food First,

released a report April 29 demonstrating that 13 of the US's major

newspapers and magazines " have all but shut out criticism of

genetically modified (GM) food and crops from their opinion pages. "

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/usnewsbias043002.cfm

 

In January the biotech industry boasted that global acreage of GE

crops had increased 18% in 2001 over the previous year. In

BioDemocracy News #38

http://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/biod38.cfm

we argued that this supposed " increase " in global Frankencrops is

misleading, since it is based upon multi-billion dollar US government

subsidies and below market cost dumping of Monsanto's Roundup Ready

soybean seeds in Argentina. In March, the US Department of Agriculture

predicted that the US's GE crops in 2002 would increase to include 74%

of all soybeans, 32% of corn, and 71% of cotton. In addition, 15% of

US dairy cows are being injected with Monsanto's controversial

recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), while two-thirds of the

Canadian and US canola crop is GE.

 

In early May, CEO Hendrick Verfaillie told Monsanto stockholders that

the company could increase revenues by up to a billion dollars next

year due to anticipated victories on the global regulatory front

including: approval of their Bt cotton for cultivation in India; an

" expected " approval for planting Roundup Ready soybeans by a Brazilian

appeals court; approval in the US for a rootworm resistant corn and

new GE cotton seed; and a loosening of EU import restrictions, where a

de facto moratorium on new GE crops has been in place for four years.

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5/3/02)

 

Yet despite Monsanto's rosy predictions, a March 28 Greenpeace report,

" Risky Prospects " points out that the agbiotech industry is in the

doldrums. http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/GreenPeace032802.cfm

Despite projections made five years ago by Monsanto and the White

House that most countries would soon adopt biotech farming, basically

only four countries are currently cultivating gene-altered crops (US,

Canada, and Argentina, with 96% of total acreage; and China with 3%).

In addition, only two crops, soybeans and corn, account for a full 82%

of all global acreage, while two others, cotton and canola, account

for 17%. In the year 2000, the seeds of one company, Monsanto, made up

91% of all GE crops, while, for all practical purposes only two other

Gene Giants have products on the market, Syngenta (formerly called

Novartis/AstraZeneca) and Aventis (now owned by Bayer).

 

While total sales of agbiotech seeds and rBGH will amount to less than

$5 billion this year, global organic food sales will be five times

greater or $ 25 billion. While only four countries are growing GE

crops on any scale, farmers in 130 nations are now producing and

exporting certified organic foods and crops. At the current annual 24%

growth rate of the organic sector in the US, organic farming will make

up over 50% of US agriculture by 2020. And of course, if current

consumer and regulatory trends continue, Frankencrops will be driven

off the market long before organic becomes the norm.

 

Lies and Damn Lies on the Biotech Front

 

PR flacks and gene engineers are generating more and more column

inches of print every month on the " marvels " of GMOs (genetically

modified organisms) and the " scaremongering " or " irrationality " of its

critics. The problem with this propaganda offensive is that

Frankenfoods proponents, lacking solid evidence, are resorting more

and more to outright lies and distortions to make their case. Lies and

distortions include statements that all biotech foods have been

properly safety tested (none have been), that biotech crops increase

yields (the world's dominant biotech crop, Roundup Ready soybeans,

decreases yields) or that new crops like Golden Rice will solve the

nutritional deficiencies of the world's poor. When the public learns

that a malnourished child would have to eat 15 pounds of Golden Rice

every day to meet their needs for vitamin A, the Gene Giants will find

their already limited credibility diminished even further. Another

case in point is the recent scientific controversy over the genetic

pollution of traditional corn varieties in Mexico, resulting from the

US dumping six million tons of unwanted GE corn on Mexico annually.

 

In November 2001, the prestigious scientific journal Nature published

an article by University of California scientists Ignacio Chapela and

David Quist indicating that GE corn, despite a supposed government ban

on planting, had polluted non-GE corn varieties in over a dozen

communities in Southern Mexico. The article, widely publicized in the

media, fueled global criticism of the " genetic pollution " or gene flow

of GE crops and led to calls for banning the planting of GE crops in

areas of genetic origin and high diversity (i.e. corn in Mexico and

Meso-America, canola in Canada and Europe, soybeans in Asia). For more

on this see BioDemocracy News #37.

http://organicconsumers.org/newsletter/BiodNews37.cfm

 

But after intense pressure by the biotech industry and pro-biotech

scientists, Nature's editors issued a retraction, or rather a partial

retraction, of Chapela's article on April 4, stating that the article

" should not have been published. " News media all over the world,

encouraged by PR firms working for Monsanto and other companies,

reported Nature's retraction as a " big public relations victory for

the biotechnology industry " (Associated Press 4/18/02) and as, one

pro-GE scientist stated, a " testament to the technical incompetence "

of biotech critics (New York Times 4/5/02).

 

The fundamental problem with most of these post-April 4 media reports,

the biggest story of the year so far on a biotech, was that they were

wrong. Most reporters and editors either didn't read the Nature

" retraction " closely or else didn't understand what they were reading,

since even the critics of Chapela and Quist did not contest their

central research conclusions-that indeed widespread genetic pollution

of traditional corn varieties has occurred in Mexico. Instead critics

were simply contesting whether or not gene-altered DNA constructs,

once they had polluted traditional corn varieties, were then

" fragmenting and promiscuously scattering throughout genomes. "

 

On April 18, Chapela and Quist's findings were vindicated when the

Mexican government announced at a biosafety convention in the

Netherlands that massive GMO contamination of traditional varieties

had indeed occurred, not only in Oaxaca, but also in the neighboring

state of Puebla. According to Jorge Soberon, executive secretary of

Mexico's biodiversity commission, the level of contamination " was far

worse than initially reported. " (London Guardian 4/19/02) Up to 95% of

corn plots were contaminated by gene-altered DNA. In one field 35% of

all plants were contaminated, and overall 8% of all kernels examined

were contaminated, showing that genetic pollution or cross-pollination

had occurred, according to Soberon, " at a speed never before

predicted.This is the world's worst case of contamination by

genetically modified material because it happened in the place of

origin of a major crop. It is confirmed. There is no doubt about it. "

(Daily Telegraph, UK 4/19/02).

 

Explosive news, especially when millions of acres of genetically

engineered rapeseed (canola) and corn are polluting non-GE varieties

and plant relatives across the US and Canada right now. The problem is

that while this alarming news made headlines in Europe and Mexico, in

the US and Canada it was all but ignored by the media.

 

The Big Lie: Biotech Foods, Crops, and Nutraceuticals Are Safe

 

The biotech industry's recent corn disinformation campaign is simply

the latest installment of the Big Lie, repeated ad nauseum, that

genetically engineered foods and crops, as well as their new " pharm "

products, are safe for human health and the environment. Although

Biotech's Big Lie, aided and abetted worldwide by governments'

refusing to carry out any serious safety-testing of GE foods and

crops, keeps being regurgitated in the press, the truth continues to

emerge, albeit in bits and pieces or in heavily-censored form. Even a

brief summary of a dozen biotech disasters and near-disasters over the

past decade is enough to take your appetite away.

 

(1) L-trypthophan. A major new growth industry for the Gene Giants is

expected to be nutraceuticals, GE-enhanced foods and nutritional

supplements. As with their Frankenfoods, the biotech companies tell us

these products are completely safe. Unfortunately the first GE

nutraceutical to hit the market, L-tryptophan, killed at least 37

Americans and injured thousands of others in 1998-89. After hundreds

of thousands of people had taken non-GE L-tryptophan for decades with

no ill effects, a Japanese drug company decided they could make more

money by genetically engineering the popular over the counter

supplement. Apparently the more GE bacteria the company, Showa Denko,

used in the manufacturing process, the more toxic the L-tryptophan

became. http://www.netlink.de/gen/druker1.html

 

(2) Another new future product being touted in the press are " safer "

cigarettes produced through genetic engineering. Unfortunately the

track record of the tobacco giants in this area is rather

questionable. GE " Y-1 " cigarettes were developed by DNA Plant

Technology Corporation of Oakland, CA. in the 1980s. Y-1 tobacco was

illegally grown between 1990-98 and surreptitiously placed into five

popular brands including Pall Malls, Viceroy, and Lucky Strikes, by

tobacco giant Brown & Williamson. These gene-altered cigarettes

contained world record amounts of nicotine, which made it extremely

difficult or impossible to quit. Millions of packs of these GE

cigarettes were shipped to Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe.

The death toll of those who smoked these GE Y-1 butts, especially

those who thought they were smoking low-tar brands as a step on the

road to quitting, is unavailable. The tobacco, called fuomo loco, by

the Brazilian farmers who grew it, reportedly had such a strong

narcotic effect that it made farmers dizzy when they handled it. See

http://www.OrganicConsumers.org/Patent/getobacco0402.cfm

 

(3) Another major growth area for biotech will be industrial

" pharming, " using genetic engineering to produce industrial chemicals

such as ethanol, or pharmaceutical drugs such as vaccines in plants or

animals. Again agbiotech's track record here leaves one in doubt about

the safety of these new miracle products. In 1994 Oregon State

University scientists found that a GE bacteria, Klebsiella planticola,

designed to produce fuel-grade ethanol from crop wastes, and being

readied for commercialization by a European biotech company,

completely destroyed the root systems of plants exposed to the

bacterium. If Klebsiella planticola had been commercialized and

released into the environment, vast expanses of farmland could have

been rendered infertile forever, according to Dr. Elaine Ingham,

author of the study. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/klebsiella.cfm

In another eye-opener on the " pharm front, " a Pfizer drug company

official, Chris Webster, admitted at an April 2000 FDA meeting that

" modified live [vaccine] seeds have wandered off and have appeared in

other products. " See page 77 www.fda.gov/cber/minutes/plnt2040600.pdf

 

(4) Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, forced onto the US

market in 1994 despite widespread consumer and farmer resistance,

contains high levels of a cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1. Data

previously concealed by Monsanto and the FDA, leaked by government

scientists in Canada in 1998, indicated that rBGH caused cysts on the

thyroid glands and infiltration into the prostate of lab rats-both

warning signs for potential cancer. Genetically engineered BGH is

banned in every industrialized country in the world, except for the

US. Currently injected into 15% of all US dairy cows, rBGH milk is

then surreptitiously co-mingled by leading dairies into most fluid

milk in the US. (rBGH is banned in organic production.)

http://organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.html

 

(5) In 1995 scientists found that GE enzymes used to speed up

fermentation in yeast were producing a 40-fold to 200-fold increase in

a toxic and mutagenic substance called methylglyoxal. (Inose, T. and

K. Murata. 1995. Enhanced accumulation of toxic compound in yeast

cells having high glycolytic activity: A case study on the safety of

genetically engineered yeast. International Journal of Food Science

and Technology, 30: 141-146.)

 

(6) In 1996, a Pioneer-Hybrid soybean, spliced with Brazil nut DNA,

was pulled from commercialization after Nebraska scientists discovered

it could set off life-threatening allergies in humans. Earlier feeding

tests on animals, considered a stringent testing procedure, had not

indicated its allergenicity.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/neweng.html

 

(7) In the late 1990s studies conducted by Dr. Arpad Pusztai in

Scotland showed that potatoes, gene-spliced with a substance called

lectin from a snowdrop plant, caused major damage to laboratory

rats-suppressing their immune systems, damaging vital organs, and

producing what appeared to be a severe viral infection in their

stomach linings and digestive system. After going public with his test

results, Pusztai was fired from his lab and denigrated by the biotech

establishment. Despite recommendations by the British Royal Society

that Pusztai's research should be continued, the British government

and the biotech industry have refused to provide the funds to carry

out these tests http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/pusztaihalt.cfm

 

(8) In September 2000, an illegal and likely allergenic variety of GE

corn, called StarLink, was found to have contaminated almost 10% of

the entire US corn harvest, prompting a massive recall of 300 brand

name products and a temporary shutdown of major overseas markets for

US corn. Since then hundreds of America consumers have complained to

the FDA of allergic reactions after consuming foods likely containing

genetically engineered corn.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/hansenstarlink.cfm

 

(9) German researchers in 2000 found that antibiotic resistance marker

(ARM) genes from GE rapeseed (canola) were transferring their

resistance to the bacteria found in the guts of bees that had consumed

the pollen of these gene-altered plants. Earlier studies in the EU

found that antibiotic resistance genes found in gene altered foods and

crops could likely transfer into bacteria in the human gut as well as

soil bacteria. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/genemarker.cfm In

1999, the British Medical Association called for a global moratorium

on GE crops, citing the danger of ARM genes causing disease germs to

develop antibiotic resistance.

 

(10) After years of reports that animals on Mid-West farms were

shunning GE corn, a Dutch student in 2001 carried out feeding studies

of GE corn and soya to rats and found significant weight loss and

behavioral differences.

http://organicconsumers.org/newsletter/BiodNews37.cfm

 

(11) The medical journal Cancer revealed in 1999 that foods with

residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup

herbicide-sprayed in heavy doses on herbicide resistant crops, are a

possible hazard for an increasingly common form of cancer, non-Hodgkin

's Lymphoma. Aventis' Glufosinate, another herbicide sprayed widely on

GE crops, has also been linked to birth defects, learning

disabilities, and abnormal behavior in children.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Monsanto/glyphocancer.cfm

http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/actives/glufosin.htm

 

(12) The toxic weed killer bromoxynil, sprayed in heavy doses on

Aventis' herbicide-resistant cotton plants (and ending up in cotton

seed and vegetable oils) has been classified by the EPA as a possible

human carcinogen and has been linked with liver tumors, spinal and

skull defects, reduced fetal weight, and developmental disorders in

human fetuses. http://www.ucsusa.org/food/epa.may97.html

 

Unfortunately the list of biotech horrors could go on and on. One

future revelation, assuming it ever comes out in the mass media, that

will tarnish the " safe " image of genetic engineering, is the fact that

the deadly anthrax spores sent through the US mails last year were

genetically engineered, and that the likely culprit was not an Arab

terrorist, but rather a US biowarfare scientist working for the

military. http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/anthrax022502.cfm

 

In terms of environmental hazards, GE crops are polluting organic and

non-GE crops; damaging soil fertility; killing beneficial insects and

soil microorganisms; creating Superpests and Superweeds; and

threatening to undermine the utility of non-GE biopesticides such as

Bt sprays. Use the search engine on our website

www.organicconsumers.org to find out more about the environmental

damage of Frankencrops.

 

With a track record like this no wonder 350 million Europeans, 125

million Japanese, and 50 million Koreans are refusing to eat

Frankenfoods. No wonder more and more consumers, even in the North

American heartland of biotech, are demanding mandatory labeling in

order to avoid possible harm to themselves or their families. No

wonder organic farmers in Canada are suing Monsanto and Aventis. No

wonder the Bush administration fears that US/EU trade disputes over

labeling, safety testing, and patenting of GMOs could destroy the free

trade regime of the World Trade Organization.

 

Global Food Fight: Who's Winning?

 

.. Reuters reports (5/3/02) US corn sales to Korea fell 55% (from 2.1

million tons to 1.1 million) over the past year, while falling 6% to

Japan (from 16.3 million tons to 15.3 million) due to the controversy

over GE crops. This comes in the wake of the US losing its entire

$200-400 million annual market for corn in Europe and Canada losing

its $400 million annual canola market in Europe.

 

.. China agreed in March to once again accept imports of genetically

engineered US soybeans while it evaluates the safety of the beans

under new Chinese rules for GE crops. Soybean exports from the US

(which total a billion dollars a year) were suspended in February,

throwing Monsanto, grain traders, and the White House into a panic.

China bought 5.2 million tons of US soybeans in 2001, out of total US

exports of 27 million tons. China still remains skeptical, however,

about planting GE crops in the country, with the exception of Bt

cotton. China has recently been selling more and more non-GE corn and

other crops to Asian and EU buyers. A recent poll in Hong Kong found

90% of Chinese consumers want GE foods labeled.

 

.. Brazil has increased its global market share of soybeans over the

last two years, from 24% to 30%, while the US market share has

declined from 57% to 46%. A farming association recently said that it

would be " very foolish " for Brazil to authorize GE crops, for " we

would risk throwing away a market we have worked very hard to win " .

(The Guardian, UK 4/17/02)

 

.. European market developments. France has increased its non-GMO soya

imports from Brazil five-fold, while French feed industry giants are

demanding that suppliers label products as GE or non-GE. German feed

dealers are turning to Brazil also. The majority of EU animal feed

will likely be GE-free within the next two years. The latest EU

Commission poll found 80% of Europeans opposed to GE food.

 

.. Eastern European nations, such as the Czech Republic and Croatia,

are also starting to buy non-GE soya from Brazil. Croatia is

considering an outright ban on GMOs, while mandatory labeling is

required in the Czech Republic. The 13 countries in Eastern and

Central Europe applying for admission to the European Union are all

realizing that planting and importing GE crops from the US and Canada

is a risky proposition-given that they will all eventually be covered

by EU regulation of GE crops, including strict labeling and safety

testing requirements.

 

.. Other regulatory developments. Thailand, the world's largest rice

exporter, is expected to introduce labeling legislation this year.

Australia and New Zealand have adopted mandatory labeling for GE food,

which came into force in December 2001. Bolivia passed a law in 2001

prohibiting the import and use of any GMOs for one year. In Paraguay,

the use of GE soybeans in the agricultural sector was banned in

2000/2001. In the Philippines there are a number of bills before the

Senate and Congress concerning the labeling of GE crops. Labeling

legislation is also in preparation in Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico and

Brazil. GE food labeling is already mandatory in Indonesia, Latvia,

Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Norway. Public interest groups in Mexico

have called for a halt to all US corn exports to Mexico, while the

Canadian Parliament is discussing a mandatory labeling law.

 

.. According to the Greenpeace report " Risky Prospects, " cited earlier,

more than 35 countries have laws either in place or planned which

require the labeling of food containing GE ingredients, or which

restrict the import of some GMOs. These countries combined include

more than half the world's population. Although the government opposes

labeling, the latest US polls in 2001, by Rutgers University and ABC

News, both found upwards of 90% of consumers support GE labels.

 

North America: Movement Grows Against Biotech

 

In North America protests against GE foods and crops are increasing.

California is debating a bill to ban GE fish, while activists in

Oregon are putting a measure on the November ballot to require

mandatory labeling of GE food. Twenty-eight Vermont towns recently

have voted for mandatory labeling and a ban on growing GE crops.

 

On Feb. 26-March 2 the Organic Consumers Association leafleted and

protested against Starbucks in over 400 locations, demanding that the

coffeehouse giant remove all rBGH and GE products from its cafes, as

well as brew and promote Fair Trade coffee.

 

On March 12-14 the GE Free Market Coalition, which includes Greenpeace

and the OCA, leafleted and protested at supermarkets across the US,

with special emphasis on leading chains such as Safeway (East & West

coasts), Shaw's (New England), A & P/Food Emporium (16 states including

New York), Publix (Southeast), and Food Lion (East Coast & South).

Another national day of supermarket protests will take place in 100

cities on June 8, coinciding with an activists' conference in Toronto,

called Biojustice. The GE Free Market Coalition scored its first major

victory last November 14, when Trader Joe's, an upscale supermarket

chain agreed to remove all GMOs from its brand name products.

 

On April 17 the OCA and Global Exchange organized protests, " corn

dumps " and press conferences in Canada, the US, and Mexico against US

and Canadian corn dumping in Mexico, against untested, unlabeled

likely hazardous GE corn being forced on consumers of food products,

and for corn farmers throughout the Americas to be guaranteed a fair

price for their corn. Farm, indigenous, and public interest NGOs

(non-governmental organizations) throughout the continent, including

Central America and Brazil also staged protests and land seizures on

April 17-part of the Continental Campaign Against Transgenic Corn.

Also on April 17 Canadian and US farmers called for a ban on the

commercialization of genetically engineered wheat, now being field

tested in Canada and the US.

 

On April 17-22 activists from the OCA and the Genetically Engineered

Food Alert <www.gefoodalert.org> leafleted supermarkets in 200 US

cities, part of a national campaign against Kraft and other US food

giants. On April 22, Earth Day, GEFA activists staged a protest

outside Kraft's annual shareholders meeting in East Hanover, NJ.

Similar protests are planned throughout the coming year.

 

If you want to help leaflet supermarkets or Starbucks in your local

community or join in the Kraft campaign contact

simon

 

The OCA is sponsoring an eco-organic tour to Chiapas, Mexico July

7-14, called Organic Communities Exchange. The delegation, limited to

15 people, will meet with organic farmers, women's organic garden

projects, Fair Trade coffee coops, biodiversity activists, and

autonomous indigenous communities. Besides getting a close look at the

politics of food and biodiversity in the highlands of Chiapas, tour

group members will visits Mayan ruins and community based eco-tourism

projects. The OCA guarantees this will be an enjoyable, inspirational,

and unforgettable travel experience. Costs for the seven-day trip will

be $800 (airfare not included). To reserve your spot, since space is

limited, send a $400 deposit check to the Organic Consumers

Association, 6101 Cliff Estate Road, Little Marais, MN. 55614. Or else

call 218-226-4164 or email mexicotrip

 

Stay tuned to BioDemocracy News and www.organicconsumers.org for the

latest news and developments.

 

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