K-W Record | October 9, 1999
For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful - unless thy bounty has, according to this editorial, been genetically engineered by the hands of man.
Here is an appropriate grace for many Canadians sitting down with trepidation as well as hunger for their 1999 Thanksgiving feast.
As the traditional bounty of turkey, potatoes, squash and pumpkin pie is passed across tables and given thanks for across this land, there is unprecedented fear about what is in some of the food that has been harvested and transported to our plates. We know we are what we eat. But do we know what we are eating? The reason for this worry is that an increasing amount of food grown and eaten in Canada is genetically engineered, that is, modified with a gene from an entirely different species. That the genes of a mouse or bacterium will wind up in a plant is now science fact, not fiction.
There are excellent reasons to do this. Genetically-altered crops allow farmers to use less pesticides, to increase yields and cut production costs - to grow more food, more cheaply. These benefits for producers explain why 60 per cent of processed food now sold in Canadian supermarkets could contain a genetically-altered crop.
But as more genetically-engineered crops spring up, the seeds of fear are being sown by environmental groups such as Greenpeace. Because the very building blocks of life - genes - are being shuffled from animals or bacteria to plants, many people believe we are altering life forms in an outrageous way that will devastate the environment where the plants are grown and harm the humans who eat them. No wonder these crops have been dubbed "Frankenfood."
Yet there is no need for the kind of hysteria that led environmentalists to destroy a test field of genetically-engineered canola in England this summer. Canadians should not fear this new science. They should instead be intelligent, wary and demand all the information they can get. Then they should judge for themselves, weighing the benefits of this new technology against its risks.
There is in fact a broad consensus among scientists that it is safe for humans to eat genetically-modified foods. Corn, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, soybeans and canola that have been genetically engineered have all been approved by the Canadian government for human consumption. The government must also approve any genetically-engineered crop before it is grown.
The environmental concerns are more reasonable. It is fair to ask, and it should be asked, whether pesticide-resistant genes could be transferred from a crop to nature and create a super weed. It is also crucial that scientists investigate whether plants which are given a gene that acts as a natural pesticide will become an environmental scourge by killing benign insects. But against such unproven risks, the public has to know that in the long haul, genetically-engineered crops should wean farmers from relying so heavily on pesticides, poisons that make many humans profoundly uneasy and possibly sick.
Because few of us are scientific whiz-kids, we have to trust someone. The problem is, that after the tainted blood scandal in Canada, after mad cow disease in Britain, after tobacco producers were exposed as health menaces, the public is reluctant to blindly trust governments, and even less, gargantuan corporations.
The federal government has to win back that trust. It should provide more information to help people better understand how scientists regulating genetically-engineered food make their decisions.
Voluntary labelling should be encouraged for whole products - genetically-engineered plants sold in an unprocessed form. Mandatory labelling for processed food, in contrast, is impractical. With a third of Ontario's corn crop genetically altered, it is impossible to know if the corn syrup in a can of pop is "Frankenfood" or not.
Food should always be served with vigilance, and not just when new genes are involved. Your Thanksgiving turkey may have once eaten genetically-modified corn. There is no evidence this will hurt you. But there is proof that if your turkey is undercooked you could get sick from salmonella. Know your foods and your risks.
