What are Genetically Engineered Foods?

Genetic engineering is a new science that is very different from crossbreeding or traditional plant breeding. Scientists are now able to cross the 'species barrier', and even the 'kingdom barrier'.

This has never been done before and presents new and unknown risks to human health and the environment.

The biotechnology industry is making severe changes to our food and environment by transfering the genes of one organism to another. Molicular biologists are inserting bacteria, viruses and ghe genes of other living organisms into the foods we eat. Genetically engineered canola, corn, potatoes and soy have been approved by the Canadian government for human consumption.

Genetic Engineering impacts many of the foods we eat, including baby foods and formulas, french fries, soda and cookies.

These foods are unlabelled.

Increasingly, genetically engineered foods are finding their way onto Canadian supermarket shelves. They are not adequately tested for their effects on human health or the environment, and yet they remain unlabelled. Canadians are not given the choice of which foods they will feed their families. Without these lables, we are powerless to trace problems back to their source.

The Precautionary Principle

Many Scientists around the world have expressed their concerns with genetic engineering, calling it an imprecise technology. Genetic engineering is dangerous because of its possible side effects on human health and the environment. These side effects cannot be reversed or corrected, and threaten the health and security of futre generations.

Human Health Risks
Inadequate testing

Genetic engineering changes the fundamental nature of the food we eat. It introduces foreign materials and organisms into the human food supply. Without long term, cumulative testing, we cannot know if these foods are safe. In fact, many scientists argue that we may never know.

New toxins and allergens in food

Genetic engineering could result in unexpected mutations in organisms, and unforeseen toxins and allergens in food.

Decreased Nutritional Value

Genetically engineered foods mislead consumers with counterfeit freshness. A healthy looking, bright red tomato could be several weeks old and of little nutritional worth.

No Accountability

Large multi-national corporations cannot be held accountable for future, unforeseen problems due to their genetically engineered products.

Side Effects can Kill

37 people died, 1500 were partially paralyzed, and 5000 more were temporarily disabled by a syndrome that was finely attributed to trytophan, a genetically engineered food supplement.

Risks to Our Environment

Increased use of Herbicides

Over 50% of all genetically engineered crops are herbicide resistant, allowing for more frequent and more intensive applications of herbicides. These crops are designed to be resistant to specific brand name herbicides, and therefore secure a market for the chemical manufacturer. Scientists estimate that herbicide use will triple due to genetic engineering.

More Pesticides

Crops are being genetically engineered to produce their own pesticides, placing more toxins into our food and fields than ever before.

Genetic Pollution

Cross pollination or crossbreeding of genetically engineered plants with wild plants is inevitalbe and threatens ecosystems and food chains. Like nuclear contamination, genetic pollution is irreversible.

What Can You Do?

Eat organic whenever possible (all certified organic food is free from genetic modification).

Contact your MP, local politicians, and provincial health and agriculture agencies and ask key questions.

Evergreen Organics Delivery Notice for October 18 - 22

Greetings!
As we all know eating organic is becoming more and more a part of the mainstream. Monday's Globe and Mail wrote about how Canada's new Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson and hubby John Ralston Saul have decreed that only organic food be served at Rideau Hall. Even Prince Charles is an avid organic gardener.

The sudden growth in organic produce is not surprising given that more and more information is coming out about the increased presence of genetically modified foods in the market place. It is estimated that 70 per cent of food currently sold in Canadian supermarkets is genetically modified. Despite this, there are no labels to identify which foods have been altered.

Dr. David Suzuki in a statement this past week-end said that Canadians have become unwitting guinea pigs in a nationwide study on the effects of genetically modified foods. 'We are performing a massive experiment. The results will only be known after millions of people have been exposed to (these foods) for decades.'

Thus far, organic food is 100 per cent free of any genetic modifications but that may all change as more-and-more people switch over to eating organic. The tremendous growth is organic produce has meant more corporate players are joining the organic food industry such as Dole and Heinz foods.

A greater demand for organic could mean greater pressures to loosen organic standards. In the recent proposed changes to US Department of Agriculture's definition of organic standards - genetically modified produce was originally included but a huge public outcry forced the USDA to back-down and omit genetically modified foods from it's re-definition.

It is important that we defend organic standards as well as small scale agriculture.

Organic farming began as a social movement. Lets hope that is does not become appropriatted and watered down into something that in the end is not far from conventionally grown produce.

                    Cheers and Bon Appetit!
                                                                Marian and Jared

    (These people are what I consider to be the true heros of the world - Instant Democracy)

British Columbia Biotechnology Circle Fact Sheet

Food Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering: Do you Know Where Your Food Comes From?
by Jane Thornwaite

Canadian supermarkets have over 30 genetically engineered foods on their shelves that have been apporved by Health Canada. However, Health Canada does not require labelling of any foods that are genetically engineered. This leaves it up to the consumer to figure out what is genetically engineered, and how to avoid such products if they so choose.

Foods Approved by Health Canada (November 1997)
                                                                    Corn    Canola    Potato    Soy    Cotton    Tomato
Insect of Disease Resistance                            5                        3                        2
Herbicide Resistence                                       6            5                        1           2
Delayed Ripening                                                                                                                2
Male Sterility/New Hybridization                      1            2
Fertility Restorer Line/New Hybridization                        1
Nutrition/High Laurate, Myristate                                    1
Nutrition/High Oleic acid/Low Linoleic acid                      1
Processing/Decreased Pectin/Degradation                                                                            1
                TOTALS APPROVED                    12        10        3            1            4            3

Twenty-two of the thirty-one approvals are for either insect, disease or herbicide resistance. Soy is one of the key genetically engineered crops, and soy products are found in almost 60% of the processed foods on the market.

This issue of concerns with genetic engineering range from health and safety to environmental concerns such as the increased development of pest resistance to the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin. There are other indirect concerns regarding food security both localy and globally like the effects on subsidence farming in third world countries, or the economic repercussions of an imported laboratory-derived tomato on local growers.

Herbicide Resistance

The purpose of herbicide resistant crops (eg. Monsanto's Round-up Ready Soybeans which are glyphosphate resistant) is to prevent the crop from bing damaged from the use of herbicides. The idea is that farmers can spray as much Roundup as they want on the soybeans because the soybeans will not be killed while the weeds will. This strategy ensures the continued use of the herbicide without changeing the unsustainable nature of conventional farming. Since the herbicide is in the plant, not sprayed on it, the herbicide will also from part of the diet.

Nutrition Concerns

The biotechnology industry hypes the potential for nutritional improvement in genetically engineered crops. Unfortunately, the actual nutritional changes that have occured so far have decreased the nutritional value of the crops so they can be used in junk food, or for ease of processing - not for the health of consumers. The high laurate and myristate canola oil is used in the manufacture of chocolate, nondairy creamers and candy coatings - none of which are part of the four food groups! The genetically engineered high oliec acid/low linolenic acid canola reduces the essential fatty acid (good fat) content of the canola plant in favour of the more easily utilized mono-unsaturated fats. These changes to the nutritional profile of canola have nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with propagating our reliance on highly processed, overly packaged, nutrionally-depledted foods.

In addition, when genetic material is moved from one organism to another, there is also the potetnial of allergenicity being transferred to a food source that previously did not trigger allergies.

Other concerns revolve aroung the 'distancing' of the food supply which decrease th control we have on our own food supply, whether it's an issue of pesticide application of the cost of the food. By developing techno-tomatoes designed to delay ripening which allow them to reamin on supermarket shelves for weeks, we are encouraged to buy imported foods that are less nutritious, rather thatn locally produced and more environmentally safe foods. This has an effect on local framers as well as Third World subsistence farmers growing for export rather than feeding their own communitites.

Disease Resistance

Canadians are likely eating genetically engineered Russet potatoes unless tehy are buying the organic ones. This also means the ones in frozen french fires and fast food outlets. There have been no long-term studies testing the effects of consumption of potatoes engineered  to contain Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is a soil bacterium that produces a toxin that kills the major potato perst, the Colorado potato beetle. Organic and sustainable farmers have been using the natural toxin as a regulated pest control for genereations. The natural version is easily washed away with rain, is difficult to apply over large fields and is much more labour  intensive than conventional pesticides: large conventional monocropping systems therefore have not used it. However, with the advent of genetic engineering, the Bt toxin can now be genetically inserted into potato DNA so that every cell diplays the Bt trait. This not only increases the development of resistance to be genetically engineered Bt because the beetle is constantly exposed to the toxin, but virtually eliminated the value of the ntural form of Bt for Organic or sustainable farmers. With resistance to the pest speeded up, the life of the genetically engineered potato is limited - but so is the effectiveness of the natural Bt for Organic farmers. Cynics have suggested this was the goal all along- to put the ORganic farmer out of business. But it is far more serious than that.

The issue is the same as our current crisis with antibiotics. Because of our overuse of antibiotics at the doctor's office (and for that matter in the rearing of conventional livestock), many bacteria are now resistant to several antibiotics. Overuse propagates resistance. There are no other antibiotics available in the pipeline so that microbiologists predict that we are very soon heading back to the days when we didn't have antibiotics and people died of minor infections. The overuse of pesticides in conventional agriculutre also propagates resistance such that chemists ahve to develop newer and stronger pesticides. However, the bugs always become resistant- eventually. The only way to prevent this technological treadmill, is to farm sustainably in ways that do not require the regular use of pesticides. Organic agriculutre has been doing this for decades.

Biotechnology does no change the way we farm. It is a band-aid solution that is short term. It covers up the probliem so no one can see it- for now. It encourages the distancing of the food supply by forcing us to buy techno-foods designed to sit on supermarket shelves for weeks without rotting. It propagates the use of harmful pesticides and takes research dollars away from sustainable agriculture. It does not improve our food supply, it decreases nutrition. It takes away consumer choice since no one knows what or from where they're buying food anymore, It encourages fake foods designed in a lab. It is not good for farmers. It is not good for consumers. It is, however, good for the handful of biotechnology companies who are investing in the seeds that produce the gentically engineered crop, the pesticides that the crop is designed to be resistant to, and the patents that prohibit farmers from growing the natural form of the food.

cmassey@sfu.ca
604 820 4270

British Columbia Biotechnology Circle Fact Sheet

Genetic Pollution by Patrick Steiner

What is Genetic Pollution?

Genetic Engineering is the process whereby foreign genetic material is inserted into an organism so as to change that organism and its offspring. Genetic pollution is the unantiipated spread of foreing genetic material in plants and animals through contact with organism that have been genetically modified.

The Dangers:

There are numerous dangers posed to both humans and the broader environment through the spread of genetic pollution. These include:
    -new toxings and allergens in foods
    -creation of super-weeds
    -creation of super-pests
    -spread of diseases over species barriers
    -antibiotic resistant pathogens (risk to human health)
    -creation of new, deadlier viruses

It is not only other plants and animals that may be affected. many genetically modified plant and animal products are destined for human consumption. Because of the novelty of genetically modified organsims we have little knowledge of how these 'designer genes' will act within the human organism, espcecially over the long term.

The Process of Genetic Pollution:

The interaction of organsims at teh molecular level is complex, and we hav limited undersatnding of the potential for modified genes to spread. Common sense indicates that, since the genetically engineered organisms are alive, they have the ability to reproduce, migrate, and mutate, And current scientific research indicated that is ecactly what they are doing.

By virtue of their 'superior' genes, some GE plants will inevitably run amok, overpowering wild species in the same way that introduced exotic species, such as kudzu vine and dutch elm disease, have created problems in North America. Foreign genes from GE plants could easily be carried by pollen, insects, wind or rain, and flow into other crops, as well as wild and weedy relatives.

Once released from the lab, it will be virtually impossible to recall genetically engineered organisms, whatever hazards they amy turn out to pose to the environment, and ultimately human heatlh. A report publishe dby one hundred top American scientists warned that the release of GE organisms 'could lead to irreversable, devestating damage to the ecology.' Dr. Geoffrey Clements, a UK prhysicist, states 'genetic engineering is a novel, untried and very inexact science. Already there are numerous indications of the potential for great damage to the environment, and to human health from genetically engineered foods.

What Evidence is there of this spread?

Field test with GE potatoes have demonstrated high frequency and wide range of gene flow. 72% of normal potatoes (not genetically modified) which were planted up to one kilometre away from GE potatoes nevertheless were found to have picked up the transgene. In experiments with separation distances of greater than one kilometre, an alomost constant 35% of potato seeds containged the transgene. (Skogsmyr, 1994).

In experiments designed to understand the flow of genes from crop cultivars to weeds, gene transfer from fadishes to wild weedy relatives was detected over distances of one kilomtre and more (Klinger and Ellstrand, 1994) This means that farmers who choose to avoid GE crops and refuse to plant them amy find themselves unwittingly harbouring such genes in their fields through processes entirely out of their hands. Given the number of hectares planted to GE crops in North America, consumers can have no guarantees their food are not 'polluted' with unwanted genetically engineered traits.

There are other dangers. Canola (oilseed rape), whcih has been engineered for herbicide resistance, is known to crossbreed easily with wild relatives. This raises the spectre of possible 'superweeds' (joergensen and Andersen, 1994), with increased resiliency to human attempts at eradiction of control. In the same way, genetically engineering crops for pest resistance carries the risk of creating 'super pests' (Shiva, 1997, p.36). For example, many crops have been genetically modified to include a natural pesticide known as Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), a soil bacterium known to deter many common pests, and previously used mostly by organic farmers. Biotechnology's incorporation of this toxin into plant tissue ahs led to increased and prolonged exposure, so that many pests are adapting and developing resistanct to Bt. The natural pesticide becomes useless and new 'super-pests' will have greater resiliency to human control or eradication.

Genes can also transfer from plants to micro-organisms, (Hoffman, 1994) and micro-organsims have several mechansims through which they can transfer genes to other, unrelated micro-organsims. Meanwhile, crops are now being developed for virus resistance by incorporating foreign virus genes into crops through recombination (the scrambling of vius genes to create new gene combinations), with the risk of creating new, deadlier viruses possibly capable of destorying whole crops or posing health risks to humans.

GE organisms also pose new threats to allergy sufferers. One well publicized case showed that when Brazil nut genes were spliced into soybeans, they caused allergic reactions in Brazil nut-sensitive people when eating soy products (Nordlee, 1996). Fortunatley, this reaction was anticipated and tested for, resulting in the offensive new bean being 'pulled' from production. But it will be impossible to anticipate, much less test for, allergy sensitivity to all the combinations and permutations of GE organsims being rapidly introduced. Allergic reactions may be unanticipated and severe.

Orgnanic Does Make a Difference

Researchers at Rutgers University have shown that non-organic produce from the supermarket is lacking in trace minerals, with as little as 25% the mineral content of organic vegetables from health food stores.

Organic foods taste better, and eating them frequently reduces the risk of ingesting and accumulating all the chemicals used in commercial food production. Growers use chemical fertilizers, soil fumigants, and pesticides. Distributers and stores use dyes and wax, dip and spray vegetables to retard spoilage. For example, celery is sometimes dipped in formaldehyde.

Organic vegetables, by contrast, are grown and handled by a network of people committed to developing a sustainable, ecological agriculutre that promotes our health and restores fertility to the soil. The qualitative difference is well worth the difference in price.

Genetic Engineering Claims & Facts:

The marketiing of genetic engineering inspires visions of perfect health, long life, and miracle foods. The reality is that these claims are often completely unsubstantiated and sometimes simply wrong.

Claim: Genetic engineering is environmentally friendly.
Fact: The increased quantity of herbicides and pesticides is one strike against this claim. Genetically engineered crops pollinate cultivated and wild relatives up to a mile away. This threatens the future of organic crops. It can pass herbicide resistance genes from GM crops to weedy relatives, necessitating the development of more herbicides. Also, the huge areas of genetically identical crops will influence the evolution of local pests and wildlife, and through the food chain, the whole ecology.

Claim: Genetically engineered foods are just like natural foods.
Fact: There is no natural mechanism for getting insect DNA into potatoes or flounder DNA into tomatoes. Genetically engineered foods are engineered to be different from natural foods. Why else all the patents? This claim is empty sales talk.

Claim: Genetic engineering will reduce the use of herbicides.
Fact: Genetic engineering promotes herbicide resistant crops. This allows the farmer to use more herbicide. The development of Roundup Ready crops is a vehicle for building sales of Roundup herbicide.

Claim: Genetic Engineering will reduce the use of pesticides.
Fact: Genetic  engineers create crops that produce their own pesticides. The outcome is a persistent concentration of pesticides over vast acreages. Some of these crops are actually classified as pesticides by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

Claim: Genetic Engineering is safe.
Fact: Safety comes from accumulated experience. In the case of genetic engineering, there has not been the time or the public debate essential for accumulating sufficient experience to justify any broad claim to safety.
    -the technique for inserting a DNA fragment is sloppy, unpredictable and imprecise
    -the effect of the insertion on the biochemistry of the host organism is unknown
    -the effect of the genetically engineered organism on the environment is unknown
    -there is no basis for meaningful risk assessment
    -there is no recovery plan in case of disaster
    -it is not even clear who, if anyone, will be legally liable for negative consequences
    -the claims for genetic engineering are overblown and misleading, and the polls show that people are suspicious

Why Biotechnology and High-Tech Agriculture Cannot Feed the World by Andrew Kimbrell
    The Ecologist - The Monsanto Files

World hunger is caused primarily by a shortage of food with which to feed a growing population.

There is no myth about hunger. It is estimated that 786 million people go hungry each day. And hunger is increasing. From 1970 to 1990, with the exception of China, the number of hungry people in the world increased by more that 11 pre cent.

The myth is not about hunger but rather its primary cause.  Monsanto would have us believe that as the world population increases, food production just cannot keep up. The result is that hundreds of millions are hungry. Yet numerous studies and statistics refute this claim. In fact, even as world hunger has increased since 1970, so has the food production per capita. In South America the number of those hungry went up by 19 per cent. Yet per capita food supplies rose by almost 8 per cent. In south Asia hunger and food per capita both increased by 9 per cent.

These statistics and numerous others indicate that population growth has not been, at least so far, the primary cause of the increase in hunger since 1970. Total food theoretically available for each person has actually increased significantly. What then is the primary cause of world hunger? The basis cause is food dependence. The industrial system has, over centuries, in virtually every area of the globe, 'enclosed' peasants off the land so that the land can be used for export crops. The profits gained from these exports is the essential 'primitive accumulation of capital' required for industrial development in any society. The result of the enclosure has been, and continues to be, that untold millions of peasant lose their land, community, traditions and most directly their food independence. Removed from their land, they then flock to the newly industrialized cities where they quickly become a class of urban poor competing for low-paying jobs in the urban industrial setting. Those that stay on the land generally attempt to survive by low-paying farm work on the large newly industrialized farms. Currently, more than half a billion rural people in the third world are landless, or do not have sufficient land to grow their own food.

Activists Uproot Multinationals - Adbusters Summer 1998

Sneaking into fields in the dead of night to uproot sugar beets? It might seem like an unliekly form of culture jamming, but not when the veggies are genetically engineered by the world's biggest multinationals. The Gaelic Earth Liberation Front, a UK grassroots activist groupo, is battling against the commercial production of genetically modified crops in Europe.

GELF ripped up a test crop of Monsanto's gentically-engineered beets planted outside Dublin last fall.

Click here if you wish to vote on this issue via e-mail and have your vote sent directly to:

More Info:
     http://www.gn.apc.org/ecologist/                  http://www.cfia-acia.agr.ca http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~pubconf/
     http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/
   http://www.icta.org       http://www.purefood.org
    http://www.canswine.ca/consumer.html

    Sierra Club: fon: 604 915 9600    e-mail: sierra@vcn.bc.ca

Books:
Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge by Vandana Shiva. Between the Lines Press. Toronto. 1997
The Violence of the Green Revolution by Vandana Shiva
Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare? by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Gateway Books, 1998
Farmageddon by Brewster Kneen, New Society Press, http://www.newsociety.com
Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber
Health and the Global Environment by Ross Hume Hall
Genetic Engineering - Dream of Nightmare? by Mae-Wan Ho
The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin
Unnatural Harvest by Ingeborg Boyens
From Naked Ape to Super Species by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel
Rebels Against the Future by Kirkpatrick Sale
An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard

Audio:
Nandita Sharma - Basmati Action Group - 'Biopiracy'
Tim Lang - 'The Food Barons'