Reprinted and abridged from Organic Consumers Assoc. Newlsetter

The technology of genetic engineering (GE), wielded by transnational “life science” corporations such as Monsanto and Novartis, is the practice of altering or disrupting the genetic blueprints of living organisms – plants, animals, humans, microorganisms – patenting them, and then selling the resulting gene-foods, seeds or other products for profit. Life science corporations proclaim that their new products will make agriculture sustainable, eliminate world hunger, cure disease and vastly improve public health. In reality, through their business practices and political lobbying, the gene engineers have made it clear that they intend to use GE to dominate and monopolize the global market for seeds, foods, fiber and medical products.

GE is a revolutionary new technology still in its early experimental stages. This technology has the power to break down fundamental genetic barriers, not only between species, but also between humans, animals and plants. By randomly inserting together the genes of non-related species – utilizing viruses, antibiotic-resistant genes, and bacteria as vectors, markers and promoters – and permanently altering their genetic codes, gene-altered organisms are created that pass these genetic changes onto their offspring through heredity. Gene engineers all over the world are now snipping, inserting, recombining, rearranging, editing and programming genetic material. Animal genes and even human genes are randomly inserted into the chromosomes of plants, fish and animals, creating heretofore unimaginable transgenic life forms. For the first time in history, transnational biotechnology corporations are becoming the architects and “owners” of life.

With little or no regulatory restraints, labeling requirements or scientific protocol, bio-engineers have begun creating hundreds of new GE “Frankenfoods” and crops, oblivious to human and environmental hazards, or negative socioeconomic impacts on the world’s several billion farmers and rural villagers. Despite an increasing number of scientists warning that current gene-splicing techniques are crude, inexact and unpredictable (and therefore inherently dangerous) pro-biotech governments and regulatory agencies, led by the U.S., maintain that GE foods and crops require neither mandatory labeling nor pre-market safety-testing.

There are currently more than four dozen genetically engineered foods and crops being grown or sold in the U.S. Over 70 million acres of GE crops are presently under cultivation in the U.S., while up to 500,000 dairy cows are being injected regularly with Monsanto’s recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). Most supermarket processed food items now “test positive” for the presence of GE ingredients. According to the biotechnology industry almost 100% of U.S. food and fiber will be genetically engineered within five to 10 years. The “hidden menu” of these unlabeled genetically engineered foods and food ingredients in the U.S. now includes soybeans, soy oil, corn, potatoes, squash, canola oil, cotton seed oil, papaya, tomatoes and dairy products.

Genetic engineering of food and fiber products is inherently unpredictable and dangerous for humans, for animals, for the environment and for the future of sustainable and organic agriculture. As Dr. Michael Antoniou, a British molecular scientist points out, gene-splicing has already resulted in the “unexpected production of toxic substances… in genetically engineered bacteria, yeast, plants and animals with the problem remaining undetected until a major health hazard has arisen.”

The hazards of GE foods and crops fall basically into three categories: human health, environmental and socioeconomic.

Toxins and poisons

In 1989 a genetically engineered brand of L-tryptophan, a common dietary supplement, killed 37 Americans and permanently disabled or afflicted more than 5,000 others with a potentially fatal and painful blood disorder, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS). The manufacturer, Showa Denko, had for the first time in 1988-89 used GE bacteria to produce the over-the-counter supplement.

Increased cancer risks

In 1994, the FDA approved the sale of Monsanto’s controversial GE recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) – injected into dairy cows to force them to produce more milk – even though scientists warned that significantly higher levels (400-500% or more) of a potent chemical hormone in the milk of injected cows could pose serious hazards for human breast, prostate and colon cancer. The government of Canada banned rBGH in early 1999. The European Union (EU) has had a ban in place since 1994.

Food allergies

In 1996 a major GE food disaster was narrowly averted when Nebraska researchers learned that a Brazil nut gene spliced into soybeans could induce potentially fatal allergies in people sensitive to Brazil nuts. Animal tests of these Brazil nut-spliced soybeans had turned up negative. People with food allergies (which currently afflicts 8% of all American children), whose symptoms can range from mild unpleasantness to sudden death, may likely be harmed by exposure to foreign proteins spliced into common food products.

Damage to food quality and nutrition

A 1999 study by Dr. Marc Lappe published in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that concentrations of beneficial phytoestrogen compounds thought to protect against heart disease and cancer were lower in genetically modified soybeans than in traditional strains.

Antibiotic resistance

When gene engineers splice a foreign gene into a plant or microbe, they often link it to another gene, called an antibiotic resistance marker gene (ARM), which helps determine if the first gene was successfully spliced into the host organism. Some researchers warn that these ARM genes might unexpectedly recombine with disease-causing bacteria or microbes in the environment or in the guts of animals or people who eat GE food. This could contribute to the growing public health danger of antibiotic resistance to infections, for example new strains of salmonella, e-coli, campylobacter and enterococci that cannot be cured with traditional antibiotics.

Increased pesticide residues in the soil and on crops

Contrary to biotech industry propaganda, recent studies have found that U.S. farmers growing GE crops are using just as many toxic pesticides and herbicides as conventional farmers, and in some cases are using more. Crops genetically engineered to be herbicide-resistant account for 70% of all GE crops planted in 1998. The so-called “benefits” of these herbicide-resistant crops are that farmers can spray as much of a particular herbicide on their crops as they want, killing weeds without damaging their crop. Scientists estimate that herbicide-resistant crops planted around the globe will triple the amount of toxic broad-spectrum herbicides used in agriculture. The leaders in biotechnology are the same giant chemical companies that sell pesticides: Monsanto, DuPont, AgrEvo, Novartis and Rhone-Poulenc.

Genetic pollution

“Genetic pollution” and collateral damage from GE field crops already have begun to wreak environmental havoc. Wind, rain, birds, bees and insect pollinators have begun carrying genetically altered pollen into adjoining fields, polluting the DNA of crops of organic and non-GE farmers. An organic farm in Texas has been contaminated with genetic drift from GE crops on a nearby farm. EU regulators are considering setting an “allowable limit” for genetic contamination of non-GE foods, because they don’t believe genetic pollution can be controlled. Because they are alive, gene-altered crops are inherently more unpredictable than chemical pollutants. They can reproduce, migrate and mutate.

Damage to beneficial insects and soil fertility

Earlier this year, Cornell University researchers made a startling discovery. They found that pollen from genetically engineered Bt corn was poisonous to Monarch butterflies. The study adds to a growing body of evidence that GE crops are adversely affecting a number of beneficial insects, including ladybugs and lacewings, as well as beneficial soil microorganisms, bees and possibly birds.

Creation of GE “superweeds” and “superpests”

Genetically engineering crops to be herbicide-resistant or to produce their own pesticide presents dangerous problems. Pests and weeds will inevitably emerge that are pesticide- or herbicide-resistant, which means that stronger, more toxic chemicals will be needed to get rid of the pests. We are already seeing the emergence of the first “superweeds.” Lab and field tests also indicate that common plant pests such as cotton bollworms, living under constant pressure from GE crops, will soon evolve into “superpests” completely immune to Bt sprays and other environmentally sustainable biopesticides. This will present a serious danger for organic and sustainable farmers whose biological pest management practices will be unable to cope with increasing numbers of superpests and superweeds.

Creation of new viruses and bacteria

Gene-splicing will inevitably result in unanticipated outcomes and dangerous surprises that damage plants and the environment. Researchers at Michigan State University several years ago found that genetically altering plants to resist viruses can cause the viruses to mutate into new, more virulent forms. Scientists in Oregon found that a genetically engineered soil microorganism, Klebsiella planticola, completely killed essential soil nutrients.

Genetic “bio-invasion”

By virtue of their “superior” genes, some genetically engineered plants and animals will inevitably run amok, overpowering wild species. What will happen to wild fish and marine species, for example, when scientists release into the environment carp, salmon and trout that are twice as large, and eat twice as much food, as their wild counterparts?

Ethical hazards

Genetically engineering and patenting animals serves to reduce living beings to the status of manufactured products, and will result in much suffering. In January 1994, the USDA announced that scientists had completed genetic “road maps” for cattle and pigs, a precursor to evermore experimentation on live animals. In addition to the cruelty inherent in such experimentation (the “mistakes” are born painfully deformed, crippled, blind, and so on), these “manufactured” creatures have no greater value to their “creators” than mechanical inventions. A purely reductionist science, biotechnology reduces all life to bits of information (genetic code) that can be arranged and rearranged at whim. Stripped of their integrity and sacred qualities, animals that are merely objects to their “inventors” will be treated as such.