Manipulation, anyone?

In the case of genetically engineered food, it is not only genes that are being manipulated.

To American environmentalists, accustomed to watching Monsanto get its way time and time again with the Congress and the Supreme Court, it must have seemed awesome that the company has given up hope of selling its GM seeds in Europe. The European Union bans the growing of nearly all GM crops. The reasons are many, but fear of this new technology in a field related to people’s health and eating habits stands out in first place.

Arguments about whether or not this fear is warranted rage back and forth across the Atlantic.

On the don’t worry, be happy side is the statement from Monsanto that they test the transgenic protein that is produced in the genetically manipulated crop, so they don’t need to test the food itself in humans. The US Food and Drug Administration, responsible for the safety of food and drugs, points to the fact that virtually all the companies making GMOs do voluntary testing. There are statements by any number of individuals and organizations that GM crops have now been around for long enough so that serious problems would have shown up by now.

On the negative side, however, are a number of compelling arguments. The protein tested by Monsanto is made by a bacterium and may differ from the actual plant-produced one, which may also act differently in situ. There has been no long-term research and little research on animals, such as is required by the FDA for drugs and food additives. Well-established practices for scientific testing are not followed. These include testing by independent parties, made extremely difficult by genetic engineering companies’ refusal to sell seeds to independent laboratories, hiding behind intellectual property laws. The serious protocols established for most testing are replaced by loose guidelines.

What about the claim that no serious negative effects of eating GM food have appeared in the US population? The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has stated that the introduction of GMOs into US food has coincided with the recent rise in chronic diseases and food allergies, and sees a connection. There is, after all, the fact that during the thousands of years that agriculture has been practiced, the small amounts of toxins and mutagens present in all plants have been reduced or weeded out in the plants that make up our ordinary, non-genetically engineered food supply. Are we to repeat the process now with GM plants?

Scientific testing is complex and very expensive. There are different protocols, some more apt to give reliable results. As it is quite possible to make an experiment come out the way the experimenters want it to; it is important to know who did an experiment, just how was it done and who paid for it. Red flags go up when the testing was done by a corporation with an interest in a favorable result, when the company refuses to hand over certain information for public review or refuses to allow its products to undergo independent testing, all of which are happening in the present GM food situation.

So here we have a country with a population of 314 million taking part in a huge scientific experiment without their express consent. Because it is unlawful in nearly all states to label GMO food, they don’t know whether they are eating it or not, but the probability is extremely high, given that it is estimated that 80% of American corn is GMO corn and corn appears everywhere in American food products. There are severe doubts about the stringency of the testing for safety. The corporations making genetically engineered food have the US Congress, the Supreme Court and the FDA on their side.

Small wonder that the European Union wants its food GMO free.