By Nathan B. Batalion
Published by Americans for Safe Food. Oneonta, N.Y.

Page 3 of 6 (Page 1, Page 2)

Unnatural Foods

Recently, Monsanto announced it had found "unexpected gene fragments in their Roundup Ready soybeans. It is well known that modified proteins exist in GE foods, new proteins never before eaten by humanity. In 1992, Dr. Louis J. Pribyl of the FDA's Microbiology Group warned (in an internal memo uncovered in a lawsuit filed) that there is "a profound difference between the types of expected effects from traditional breeding and genetic engineering."

He also addressed industry claims of no "pleiotropic" (unintended and/or uncontrolled) effects. This was the basis for the industry position that GM foods are "equivalent" to regular foods, thus requiring no testing or regulation.

"Pleiotropic effects occur in genetically engineered plants ... at frequencies of 30 percent ... increased levels of known naturally occurring toxicants, appearance of new, not previously identified toxicants, increased capability of concentrating toxic substances from the environment (e.g. pesticides or heavy metals), and undesirable alterations in the level of nutrients may escape breeders' attention unless genetically engineered plants are evaluated specifically for these changes."

Other scientists within the FDA echoed this view -- in contrast to the agency's official position. For example, James Marayanski, manager of the FDA's Biotechnology Working Group, warned that there was a lack of consensus among the FDA's scientists as to the so-called "sameness" of GM foods compared to non-GM foods.

The reason why this is such an important issue is that Congress mandated the FDA to require labeling when there is "something tangibly different about the food that is material with respect to the consequences which may result from the use of the food."

Radical Change in Diet

Humanity has evolved for thousands of years by adapting gradually to its natural environment -- including nature's foods. Within just three years a fundamental transformation of the human diet has occurred. This was made possible by massive consolidations among agri-business.

Ten companies now own about 40 percent of all U.S. seed production and sales. The Biotech industry especially targeted two of the most commonly eaten and lucrative ingredients in processed foods -- corn and soy. Monsanto and Novartis, through consolidations, became the second and third largest seed companies in the world.

They also purchased related agricultural businesses to further monopolize soy and corn production. Again within three years, the majority of soybeans and one-third of all corn in the US are now grown with seeds mandated by the biotech firms.

Also 60 percent of all hard cheeses in the US are processed with a GM enzyme. A percentage of baking and brewery products are GM modified as well. Most all of US cotton production (where cotton oil is used in foods) is bioengineered. Wheat and rice are next in line.

In 2002, Monsanto plans to introduce a "Roundup" (the name of its leading herbicide) resistant wheat strain. The current result is that approximately two-thirds of all processed foods in the US already contain GM ingredients - and this is projected to rise to 90 percent within four years according to industry claims.

In short, the human diet, from almost every front, is being radically changed with little or no knowledge of the long-term health or environmental impacts.

Environment

"Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio-engineered products to dependent farmers."

David Ehrenfield: Professor of Biology, Rutgers University

Toxicity to Soil

The industry marketing pitch to the public is that bioengineered seeds and plants will help the environment by reducing toxic herbicide/pesticide use. Isolated examples are given, but the overall reality is exactly opposite.

The majority of GM agricultural products are developed specifically for toxin-resistance, namely for higher doses of herbicides/ pesticides sold by the largest producer companies Monsanto, Dupont Novaris, Dow, Bayer, Ciba-Geigy, Hoescht, AgroEvo, and Rhone-Poulenc.

Also the majority of research for future products involves transgenic strains for increased chemical resistance. Not to be fooled, the primary intent is to sell more, not less, of their products and to circumvent patent laws. According to an article by R.J. Goldburg, scientists predict herbicide use will triple as a result of GM products.

As an example of the feverish attempt to expand herbicide use, Monsanto's patent for Roundup was scheduled to expire. Not to lose their market share, Monsanto came up with the idea of creating "Roundup Ready" seeds. It bought out seed companies to monopolize the terrain, then licensed the seeds to farmers with the requirement that they continue buying Roundup past the expiration of the patent.

These contracts had stiff financial penalties if farmers used any other herbicide. As early as 1996, the investment report of Dain Boswell on changes in the seed industry reported that Monsanto's billion dollar plus acquisition of Holden Seeds (about one-third of US corn seeds) had "very little to do with Holden as a seed company and a lot to do with the battle between the chemical giants for future sales of herbicides and insecticides."

Also as revealed in corporate interviews conducted by Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey (authors of Against the Grain - Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of your Food), the explicit aim was to control 100 percent of U.S. soy seeds by the year 2000 only to continue to sell Roundup -- or to beat their patent's expiration.

In fact in 1996, about 5000 acres were planted with Roundup Ready soy seeds when Roundup sales accounted for 17 percent of Monsanto's $9 billion in annual sales. Not to lose this share but to expand it, Monsanto saw to it that by 1999, 5000 acres grew to approximately 40 million acres out of a total of 60 million -- or the majority of all soy plantings in the U.S.

Furthermore, Roundup could now be sprayed over an entire field, not just sparingly over certain weeds. However, the problem with evolving only genetically cloned and thus carbon-copy seeds and plants is that historically, extreme monoculture (high levels of sameness in crop planting) has led to a loss of adaptive survival means -- or where deadly plant infections have spread like wildfire.

As a separate issue, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Monsanto's Roundout already threatens 74 endangered species in the United States. It attacks photosynthesis in plants non-specifically -- their quintessential, life-giving way to process sunlight.

Farmers sowing Roundup Ready seeds can also use more of this herbicide than with conventional weed management. Since the genetically modified plants have alternative ways to create photosynthesis, they are hyper-tolerant, and can thus be sprayed repeatedly without killing the crop.

Though decaying in the soil, Roundup residues are left on the plant en route to the consumer. Malcolm Kane, (former head of food safety for Sainsbury's chain of supermarkets) revealed that the government, to accommodate Monsanto, raised pesticide residue limits on soy products about 300-fold from 6 parts per million to 20 parts.

Lastly, Roundup is a human as well as environmental poison. According to a study at the University of California, glyphosphate (the active ingredient of Roundup) was the third leading cause of farm worker illnesses. At least 14 persons have died from ingesting Roundup.

These cases involved mostly individuals intentionally taking this poison to commit suicide in Japan and Taiwan. From this we know that the killing dose is so small it can be put on a fingertip (0.4 cubic centimeters). Monsanto, however, proposes a universal distribution of this lethal substance in our food chain. All of this is not shocking, given Monsanto's history as the company that first distributed PCBs and vouched for their safety.

Soil Sterility and Pollution

In Oregon, scientists found GM bacterium (klebsiella planticola) meant to break down wood chips, corn stalks and lumber wastes to produce ethanol, with the post-process waste to be used as compost, rendered the soil sterile. It killed essential soil nutrients, robbing the soil of nitrogen, and killed nitrogen-capturing fungi.

A similar result was found in 1997 with the GM bacteria Rhizobium melitoli. Professor Guenther Stotzky of New York University conducted research showing the toxins that were lethal to Monarch butterfly are also released by the roots to produce soil pollution. The pollution was found to last up to eight months with depressed microbial activity. An Oregon study showed that GM soil microbes in the lab killed wheat plants when added to the soil.

Extinction of Seed Varieties

A few years ago Time magazine referred to the massive trend by large corporations to buy up small seed companies, destroying any competing stock, and replacing it with their patented or controlled brands as "the Death of Birth." Monsanto additionally has had farmers sign contracts not to save their seeds -- forfeiting what has long been a farmer's birthright to remain guardians of the blueprints of successive life.

Superweeds

It has been shown that genetically modified Bt endotoxin remains in the soil at least 18 months (according to Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey) and can be transported to wild plants creating superweeds, resistant to butterfly, moth, and beetle pests, that can potentially disturb the balance of nature.

A study in Denmark (Mikkelsen, 1996) and in the UK (National Institute of Agricultural Botany) showed superweeds growing nearby in just one generation. A US study showed the superweed resistant to glufosinate to be just as fertile as non-polluted weeds.

Another study showed 20 times more genetic leakage with GM plants -- or a dramatic increase in the flow of genes to outside species. Also in a UK study by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, it was confirmed that superweeds could grow nearby in just one generation.

Scientists suspect that Monsanto's wheat will hybridize with goat grass, creating an invulnerable superweed. The National Academy of Science's study stated that "concern surrounds the possibility of genes for resisting pests being passed from cultivated plants to their weedy relatives, potentially making the weed problem worse. This could pose a high cost to farmers and threaten the ecosystem." (quoting Perry Adkisson, chancellor emeritus of Texas A&M University, who chaired the National Academy of Science study panel).

An experiment in France showed a GM canola plant could transfer genes to wild radishes, what persisted in four generations. Similarly, and according to New Scientists, an Alberta Canada farmer began planting three fields of different GM canola seeds in 1997 and by 1999 produced not one, but three different mutant weeds respectively resistant to three common herbicides (Monsanto's Roundup, Cyanamid's Pursuit, and Aventis' Liberty).

In effect genetic materials migrated to the weeds they were meant to control. Now the Alberta farmer is forced to use a potent 2,4-D what GM crops promised to avoid use of. Finally Stuart Laidlaw reported in the Toronto Star that the Ontario government study indicated herbicide use was on the rise primarily to the introduction of GM crops.

Plant Invasions

We can anticipate classic bio-invasions as a result of new GM strains, just as with the invasions of the kutzu vine or purple loosestrife in the plant world.

Destruction of Forest Life

GM trees or "supertrees" are being developed that can be sprayed from the air to kill literally all of surrounding life, except the GM trees. There is an attempt underway to transform international forestry by introducing multiple species of such trees.

The trees themselves are often sterile and flowerless. This is in contrast to rainforests teaming with life, where a single tree can host thousands of unique species of insects, fungi, mammals and birds in an interconnected ecosphere. This kind of development has been called "death-engineering" rather than "life-" or "bio-engineering."

More ominously, pollen from such trees, because of their height, has traveled as much as 400 miles or 600 kilometers -- roughly one-fifth of the distance across the U.S.

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