Recently
the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, holding a handful
of contaminated rice at a press conference said, don’t
worry, be happy.
That’s
obviously not a quote, but my interpretation. He actually announced
that U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become
contaminated with a genetically engineered variety not approved
for human consumption. He also asserted that the rice poses
no threat to human health or the environment.
His assurance
of no health risk is based not on scientific testing, but rather
on the theoretical assumption of substantial equivalence. The
unfounded theory of substantial equivalence says that a gene
found harmless in its natural genetic environment, which is
then transferred via GE to a new organism, is presumed to be
safe in the new GE organism; therefore, no health or safety
testing is required. The problem is it’s a flawed theory
that completely ignores the dynamic and evolving nature of genes
and their almost uncountable relationships with tens of thousand
of other genes.
When asked
where the contaminated rice came from or to what extent the
contamination occurred, Mr. Johanns couldn’t provide answers.
Don’t worry, be happy.
Perhaps
there are other factors that feed Mr. Johanns’ confidence,
like the fact that the producer of the GE crop that contaminated
much of US rice supply was the trusted brand Bayer, the folks
who have provided us with aspirin and other products for decades.
Bayer, whose slogan is “working wonders everyday”,
has a “rich” and interesting history.
Founded
in Germany in 1863, Bayer merged with two other companies to
form IG Farben, which was involved in producing gases used in
Hitler’s death camps.
In 1999,
Brian Ross of ABC News reported that recently discovered documents
link Bayer to the Nazi experiments conducted at Auschwitz. Also
in 1999, Bayer was charged in a class-action lawsuit with conspiring
with Nazi doctor, Joseph Mengele, to conduct human experiments
on concentration camp children for profit.
But don’t
worry that was a long time ago. What’s important is what
“wonders” Bayer has been working on more recently?
In 1998
they did human pesticide testing in Scotland telling at least
some of the subjects that what they were drinking was a drug
not a pesticide. The purpose of those tests were to provide
data to US EPA to allow a lesser safety standard for the pesticide
Azinphos-methyl, a chemical related to nerve gas developed during
World War II. Azinphos-methyl is classified by the World Health
Organization as “highly hazardous”.
Bayer lobbied
the Bush administration to allow human tests of pesticides as
part of the EPA review, which had been disallowed by previous
administrations. The Bush administration proposed new rules
authorizing experiments on humans with pesticides and other
chemicals, which even allowed some testing on children. It comes
as no surprise that the Bush people, who readily ignored the
Geneva Conventions in regards to torture, have a different way
of looking at these kinds of things.
The perverse
irony of the Bush administration’s decision is that banning
human testing of chemicals and pesticides originated with the
Nuremberg Code, which was a result of the Nuremberg "doctor
trials" of Nazis during World War II—some of the
same trials that Bayer took part in. The Nuremberg Code established
ethical standards for human testing which included voluntary
informed consent of the subject, weighing the risk against the
expected benefit, avoiding unnecessary pain, suffering and injury,
etc.
According
to the Pesticide Action Network of North America website, Bayer
produces some of the world’s most toxic pesticides. Bayer
and the companies they have purchased or merged with have contributed
to the poisoning of Peruvian children, a chemical explosion
in Madagascar, the genetically engineered StarLink corn disaster,
and they are responsible for 24 superfund sites. This is only
a partial list. In other words Bayer has a rap sheet that would
make Hannibal Lecter blush.
I’m
not saying that the rice contamination is on a par with Bayer’s
past transgressions, but the fact is we don’t really know
what the long-term consequences are. There is a history unique
to Bayer; and there is a way of thinking and pattern of doing
business that disregards human safety, that is not unique to
Bayer, but which is sadly characteristic of the biotech industry
in general. It’s one large experiment, without public
consent or benefit. And why on Earth is the obsequious Secretary
of Agriculture running around with a broom cleaning up after
the industry? Is that really what we pay him to do?
The recent
rice contamination may cost American rice growers as much as
$1 billion, the value of their export market. Japan and Europe
have prudently banned U.S. long grain rice due to the contamination.
The rice producing states of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas and California are suing Bayer in a class action
suit, following Australian canola growers, whose crops were
contaminated by another Bayer product.
So when
Mike Johanns and Bayer say don’t worry, be happy, and
that doesn’t assuage your concerns, you may want to contact
your government officials at all levels and tell them you are
not interested in being a guinea pig for the experiments of
Bayer and the rest of the GE gang.
California
just preserved local rule by heading off a statewide bill that
would have prohibited county bans on GE crops, because people
spoke up and put pressure on their government officials. That
effort protects the right of local communities to put the experimental
technology of genetic engineering through a filter of common
sense and precaution.
