Americans
are eating a lot of genetically engineered food, and for no
good reason.
Since the
mid-1990s, when corn and soybean varieties began being injected
with genes from bacteria and other unrelated species, we've
been paying participants in a food experiment with potentially
unprecedented effects on human health, the environment and food
security.
By 2005,
the Agriculture Department says, the vast majority of U.S. soybean
acres and 52 percent of corn acres were planted with genetically
engineered seed.
The bounty
of these acres is in our candy, crackers and chicken pot pies,
in our pizza and pasta sauce, in our Coca Cola and Campbell's
soups. Corn and soybeans are ubiquitous: tens of thousands of
processed foods contain soy, and the typical consumer takes
in 200 calories of high-fructose corn syrup per day. Alter the
genomes of corn and soybeans, and you've altered the diet of
most Americans.
Corn and
soybeans are staples of animal feeds, so we're also modifying
the diets of our beef cattle and milk cows, our pigs and chickens.
Yet lending
our grocery dollars and stomachs to this venture gains us little.
The price
of modified seed includes a technology fee that effectively
siphons off the bulk of any additional revenue farmers might
gain from reduced pest damage or decreased management costs.
Many hoped
that genetically engineered crops would help the environment
by cutting pesticide use. We should have known that growing
crops engineered to tolerate herbicides could lead to more chemical
use. A 2004 analysis funded by the Union of Concerned Scientists
found that the introduction of engineered corn, soybeans and
cotton caused a 122 million pound increase in pesticide use
since 1996.
And because
resistant crops have encouraged near constant use of one or
two classes of herbicides, superweeds that withstand the chemicals
have now emerged and will require ever more potent poisons to
control.
Another
hope was that gene tinkering would help end world hunger. But
the dream of concocting drought-tolerant, insect-resistant,
nutrient-dense supreme species ignores the reality of global
markets already awash in food. Hunger and malnutrition result
from poverty, not a lack of food in the world.
It's unlikely
that we're getting health benefits from eating these crops.
Scientists are studying their possible effects. Among the findings:
abnormal white and red blood cell counts and inflammation of
the kidney in rats fed genetically engineered corn, accelerated
growth of stomach and intestinal tissues of rats fed engineered
potatoes, and immune responses in mice fed altered peas. The
findings are controversial, but they should, at the very least,
give us pause.
Meanwhile,
pollen from genetically engineered crops is on the move. In
a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 50 percent
of nonengineered corn and soybean varieties tested by one laboratory
contained DNA from engineered versions. Chasing down and eliminating
this free-flowing DNA from our seed supply, should the need
arise, will require Herculean effort.
The only
clear reason we're eating so much genetically modified food
is that Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta, which together control
over 25 percent of global seed sales, want us to.
In the United
States, Monsanto dominates many a menu. It owns half of the
American corn seed market, and its modified traits are present
in roughly 90 percent of soybean acres.
Monsanto
is tossing salads, too. In January 2005, it bought Seminis,
supplier of 3,500 varieties of fruit and vegetable seed to 150
countries. Monsanto now controls more than 30 percent of the
world's cucumber, hot pepper and bean seed sales, and more than
20 percent of onion, tomato and sweet pepper seed sales, according
to the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration.
Now consider
that Monsanto and its cohorts are free to undertake the genetic
modification of any plant variety they own. The plant varieties
they don't modify, they can remove from the market. With one-fourth
of the total value of the worldwide commercial seed market already
coming from engineered seeds, our choices for unmodified crops
and foods are rapidly dwindling.
As we relinquish
control over our food to the gene engineers, we must ask: Does
Monsanto really know best?
