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The Secret Life of GMOs

Ten years ago we asked for labelling of GM foods. We’re still waiting

by Don Genova

Taking genes from one species and adding them to another sounds like the premise of a 1950s sci-fi B movie. But genetic modification is no fantasy yarn; it’s real. And, in my opinion, just plain scary and unnatural. In fact, ever since the advent of the Flavr Savr tomato (the first genetically modified food to be approved for commercial sale, in 1994), critics of GM have been calling such products “Frankenfoods”.

Opponents of genetic modification say it erodes biodiversity, threatens to unbalance the biosphere, and makes us potentially resistant to antibiotics (thus giving rise to pandemics of infectious diseases). To date, there has been no systematic, scientific investigation of the effects of GMOs on human health. And, despite consumer demand for labelling of GM ingredients in food products, we still don’t know what’s in our food.

In 1999 I reported on a gathering at the University of Calgary called the Canadian Citizens’ Conference on Food Biotechnology. The university recruited 15 “ordinary” people and gave them information on genetically modified organisms—a relatively new, yet already controversial, topic. After a few months they came together in Calgary and faced a panel of 16 experts, both pro- and anti-GM.

For two days I listened carefully as questions and answers, accusations, and refutations flew back and forth. At the end of it all I wasn’t convinced of the good to be had from genetic modification and have felt that same sense of unease ever since.

The citizens’ panel, however, was much less judgmental. These are the strongest statements it could muster in the conclusion of the report it issued:

At this point the technology leaves us with as many questions as there are answers… Is this a beneficial technology for all of society? Is this a safe technology? Can the use of this technology respect the individuality of humankind? We conclude that the answer is yes, if we make it so. Our recommendations are intended to ensure that biotechnology belongs to us all.

Some of the recommendations, however, were excellent:
• We recommend that labelling issues must be resolved by the Canadian Biotechnology Strategy Advisory Committee.
• We recommend that the federal government monitor and assess the impact of concentrated control of the food industry.
• We recommend that public interest should be stimulated via a comprehensive public communications plan developed by industry, by producers, and by government.

Ten years later, we still don’t have labels that indicate whether food products contain GM ingredients. In May, a private member’s bill giving consumers the right to know if food sold in Canada contains GM ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 101 to 156.

The only thing the federal government adopted (in 2004) was the world’s first standard for voluntary labelling of products containing genetically modified ingredients. But when was the last time you picked up a package of processed food and found a “contains GM soya” label?

As for the idea of industry, the producers, and government stimulating the public interest in GM foods, I can’t say I’ve received any glossy brochures or information packets from any of them.

Meanwhile, unless you follow a strict organic diet, you’ve probably been consuming GM foods. Most processed food products contain lecithin, a soy derivative; a recent Globe and Mail article revealed that 91 per cent of soy grown in the United States last year was GM. In Canada last year, farmers grew seven million GM hectares of soybeans, corn, and canola—products used in almost every processed food.

What’s more, concentrated control of the food industry is well under way, with nary a peep from our federal government. Monsanto is now the world’s largest seed seller, and continues to buy up smaller seed companies, leading to a monopoly it could share someday with Syngenta of Switzerland. These two companies already control one-third of the market for seeds.

The biotech companies are smart. They appeal to governments by saying their advances in science will save the world from hunger. I’ll never forget what one such company representative said to me at that conference 10 years ago: “We don’t want it on our consciences that we could save people from starving to death in poor countries but didn’t because we didn’t approve of these new foods.”

And yet we have plenty of ways of saving people from hunger that don’t have anything to do with scary science that cuts and pastes genes from one species into another. Robust seeds, such as Canada’s Red Fife wheat, already perform well under harsh conditions. Our government could redistribute food surpluses toward famines rather than develop new biotechnology to increase crop yields.

In the meantime, keep telling industry and government you care about what’s in your food. After all, none of us wants to meet the Bride of Frankenfood in the form of global famine or deadly pandemic.

Don Genova is a B.C.-based food journalist. He munches contentedly on the non-GM snap peas and radishes he grew this summer. His website is dongenova.com .