April/May 2004
Peace
Candidate Dennis Kucinich Vows to Stay in Race
Interview by Amy Goodman
Winds
of Change in Spain
William Rivers Pitt
"House
of Bush, House of Saud"
Interview with Craig Unger by Amy Goodman
"Seeds
of Deception"
Jeffrey Smith
Genetically
Engineered DNA Found in Traditional Seeds
New
Findings Show Health Hazards of Genetically Modified Crops
An
Evolutionary Conversatoin with Barbara Marx Hubbard
Alan Sasha Lithman
Making
A New Declaration of Independence
Michael J. Tamura
Empathic
Listening
Holley Humphrey
Intimacy
With Self and Others, Earth and Spirit
Loba
2004
State of the Universe Address
Swani Beyondananda
Cosmic
Calendar
Salina Rain
Study has implications for trade,organic agriculture, human health, food and the environment.
The Union of Concerned Scientists released a groundbreaking pilot study last February that found gene- tically engineered DNA is contaminating traditional seeds of three major US crops. Seed contamination, if left unchecked, could disrupt agri-cultural trade, unfairly burden the organic industry, and allow hazardous materials into the food supply.
“This study shatters the presumption that at least one portion of the seed supply—that for traditional varieties of crops—is truly free of genetically engineered elements,” said Dr. Margaret Mellon, Director of the Food and Environment Program at UCS and an author of the new study, Gone to Seed: Transgenic Con-taminants in the Traditional Seed Supply. “The traditional seed supply is an agricultural treasure that must be preserved. The government should immediately follow up this study to determine the extent of contamination and the steps needed to protect this treasure.”
The pilot study by UCS is the first to examine systematically whether genetically engineered (GE) crop varieties now widely adopted in the United States have contaminated the seed supply for crop varieties presumed not to contain GE elements. The seeds tested in the pilot study were for traditional varieties of corn, soybeans, and canola that have no history of genetic engineering. The tests were conducted for UCS by two commercial laboratories employing sensitive techniques capable of detecting specific sequences of DNA.
The degree of concern to attach to seed contamination depends on many factors, including the nature of the genes that are contaminating the seed supply and the levels at which they occur. That information awaits the further, more comprehensive tests recommended by UCS in its report. How-ever, the study released in February suggests that contamination is pervasive, especially in canola where one laboratory found six of the six traditional varieties tested contaminated with GE elements.
Most of the specific DNA sequences tested for in the study are found in popular GE varieties currently on the US market. But there is no reason to believe that engineered DNA sequences detected in the study are the only ones moving into the traditional seed supply.
“Until we know otherwise, it is prudent to assume that engineered sequences originating in any crop, whether it was approved and planted commercially or just field tested, could potentially contaminate the seed supply,” said Dr. Jane Rissler, a plant pathologist at UCS and the report’s co-author. “Among the potential con-taminants are genes from crops engineered to produce drugs, plastics, and vaccines.”
Serious risks to human health could result if genes from pharmaceutical and industrial crops contaminate the seeds for food crops at a significant level. “Because growers and processors would not be aware of the contam-inants, they would inad-vertently sell them for food use—a back door to the food supply that must be closed,” said Mellon.
The materials needed to detect such genes in molecular tests are not publicly available; therefore, it was not possible for UCS to test seeds for sequences from so-called “pharm crops.” However, the report urges prompt action to protect seed production from these sources of contamination.
In addition, seed contamination makes it more difficult for US exporters to assure Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and other export customers that grain and oilseed shipments do not contain unap-proved GE crop varieties and to supply commodity products free of engineered sequences. Seed contamination also places an unfair burden on organic food production, an increasingly important sector of US agriculture. Organic farmers depend on traditional seed varieties to meet organic standards and consumer demand. The contamination of traditional seeds hampers their ability to find the GE-free seed they need.
The UCS study is too limited to provide a reliable estimate of the levels of contamination across the seed supply. However, the data obtained in the study suggest a range of roughly 0.05 to 1% in the seeds tested. Calculations done as part of Gone to Seed illustrate that even a level as low as 0.1% could translate into hundreds of tons of contaminated corn and soybean seeds inadvertently planted on US farms, or the equivalent of over 55,000 50-pound bags of seed.
“We must confront the reality of seed contamination now,” said Rissler. “Not only must we worry about genes in approved varieties but we must be concerned about hundreds of other genes that have been field tested but whose identities are unknown to the public in many instances. Heedlessly allowing the contamination of the seed supply to continue may cause problems which cannot be easily remedied.”
“While not completely reversible, with sufficient political will it is possible to look forward to sources of seeds that are substantially free of genetically engineered sequences,” Mellon added. “But the government must act now.”
UCS recommends eight steps to address seed contamination, including a govern-ment-sponsored, full-scale investigation into the extent and causes of seed contamination. The United States Depart-ment of Agriculture should also establish a reservoir of non-engineered seeds for major food and feed crops.
To read the entire report please visit www.ucsusa.org.
In 1999, Terra Prima, an organic tortilla chips manufacturer from Wisconsin, was forced to destroy 87,000 packets of corn chips after European importers discovered traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the chips. It was the first time a food manufacturer had to pull a product because of genetic contamination. Terra Prima lost $147,000. “It just devastated us,” company president Chuck Walker says. “We had to throw all the chips away.”
In 2002, Ontario farmer Alex Nurnberg had tests conducted on his 100-ton harvest of organic corn. Twenty tons were found to be contaminated by GMOs, which Nurnberg believes were blown by the wind from the corn on a neighboring farm. “I was not ready for it. I feel such a wrath about it,” says Nurnberg.
“We have found traces in corn that has been grown organically for 10 to 15 years,” says Arran Stephens, president of Nature’s Path Foods, an organic producer of breads and cereals in Delta, British Columbia. “There’s no wall high enough to keep that stuff contained.”
Some people believe that the biotech industry is intentionally trying to damage organic food. “The hope of the industry is that over time the market is so flooded [with GMOs] that there’s nothing you can do about it. You just sort of surrender,” food industry consultant Don Westfall, a food consultant who has worked with the biotech industry, told the Toronto Star in 2001.
Genetically engineered crops are contaminating organic crops and the US Department of Agriculture is doing nothing to stop it.
So what are we going to do about it? Do we sit back and let this contamination continue, damaging what so many good people in the organic movement have created through years of hard work? Or do we take action, and ensure a prosperous future for organic farmers and a continuing supply of nutritious, organic foods for the American people?
Visit www.saveorganicfood.org and find out how you can help by taking these steps:
• Send Action Alerts, e-mails and letters. It is essential to let members of the US House and Senate Agriculture committees, your House Representative and two Senators, and the USDA know your concern over the contamination of organic foods from genetically engineered crops. We make it easy to send instant e-mails online and print out letters to mail.
• Join the Save Organic Food coalition. Become a part of the effort to fight the contamination of organic foods by joining our effort to get Congressional hearings on this important issue. Membership in the Save Organic Food coalition is free.
• Tell Your Friends. If you tell your friends about the effort to Save Organic Food, and they tell their friends, who in turn tell their friends, etc., etc., we will be successful in putting enough pressure on the US Congress to address the issue of organic contamination from GMOs. The power of duplication is key, so tell your friends!
