The Moncton Times and Transcript | November 4, 1999 | David Suzuki
(Editor's Note: this is the second in a multi-part series on genetically engineered food.) Suzuki writes that right now, about three million hectares of Canadian farmland are growing crops of plants that have been genetically modified by biotechnology. Do such plants pose dangers to us and our ecosystems?
The only honest answer is no one knows for certain.
The biotech industry claims that their crops are actually safer for the environment because they can be engineered to do things such as resist disease and pests. In theory, this means that fewer pesticides need to be used, less tilling would be required, and crop yields would expand.
But problems have already surfaced.
For example, engineering a plant to be toxic to pests can also make it toxic to other non-pest organisms. A study earlier this year, for instance, found, says Suzuki, that nearly half of monarch butterfly larvae feeding on milkweed that had been dusted with pollen from Bt maize (a genetically modified corn) died, while the control groups suffered no mortalities.
This raises questions about the impact of genetically modified crops on biodiversity.
We know that the diversity of species keeps natural systems in balance. But there are already far fewer organisms on commercial monoculture farms than are found on organic farms. If we grow fields of crops that are toxic to all organisms except humans, what will that do to beneficial insects, or to the important microorganisms that live in our soils?
This could have serious repercussions because depletion of insect numbers, for example, would lead to fewer birds and small mammals, and could have other implications up and down the food chain. Another study this summer reviewing 8,200 university-based trials of transgenic soya found that farmers growing the herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready Soybeans typically used two-to-five times more herbicide than those using conventional weed management systems. Not surprisingly, the same company that produces the modified soybean also produces the herbicide that is sprayed on it.
Organic farmers, meanwhile, are concerned that genetically modified crops will hybridize with their crops, so they will be unable to maintain their organic status.
Another worry is the chance that some of the traits, such as herbicide resistance, that are being engineered into food crops could jump to other species, resulting in superweeds. How will genetically modified foods affect human health?
There seem to be few immediate health risks, although there is the potential for allergic reactions, especially if desired traits are transferred to crops from highly-allergenic foods such as nuts. In the long term, the effects are unknown because scientists can't say for certain how a gene taken from one species will behave in a completely different organism.
The testing, says Suzuki, just hasn't been done.
The Canadian government is now making the situation worse by introducing legislation that will transfer the responsibility for food-safety from the Health Department to the Agriculture Department.
This should ring alarm bells because the Agriculture Department already promotes and does research for the biotechnology companies that make genetically modified food.
Health Department employees, worried about what this conflict of interest means for food safety, recently submitted a 200-name petition to government protesting the new legislation.
At a time when public concern over genetically modified crops are mounting, it is foolish and dangerous to be watering down regulatory powers and reducing public confidence in food safety.
The extensive use and consumption of genetically modified crops has occurred with no public consultation, and what data does exist on the health effects of the modified food has come from the biotech industry itself!
It is unethical to conduct medical experiments without informed consent from the participants. Yet we now have more than 40 genetically modified products in the Canadian food system, without giving consumers a choice.
We are part of a massive experiment and only after thousands of people have eaten genetically modified food for years will we be able to tell if they are harmful. At the very least this food should be labelled so we can choose whether to be part of the experiment or not.
