By Dr Robert Verkerk
Do you remember the newspaper headlines about ‘Frankenstein Foods’? Back in 1998, widespread public distrust in GM technology caused the European Union to ban the commercial cultivation of most Genetically Modified crops in Europe.
Now, with Europe under threat of punitive sanctions by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the pressure is on once more to convince European consumers that the time is right to accept GM crops.
My concerns over GM crops began nearly 20 years ago while I witnessed the first outdoor trials of GM in the UK while at Imperial College London. Along with other scientists, I have since identified the widespread misrepresentation and manipulation of science by biotechnology corporations and governments which has helped perpetuate ever-greater adoption of GM crops around the world. Critical to this strategy have been continuing attempts to conceal or bury evidence of harmfulness of the technology to humans and the environment.
In the UK, we are currently being subjected to a particularly insidious PR campaign intended to make the technology appear a safe and innocuous next step to the plant breeding that has occurred for centuries, as well as a necessity to feed the world’s burgeoning population. Yet, there is now ample scientific evidence to demonstrate that potential health impacts from consuming GM food—either directly or via GM animal feeds—may include reduced growth, reduced fertility, compromised immune function, inflammation, mutations, allergic reactions and even cancer.
Most people assume that GM crops are released into the environment only after thorough evaluation of safety. This however, is not the case. Regulators have decided, under pressure from biotech companies, that there is no need to thoroughly evaluate the health and environmental consequences of specific GM crops because they are viewed as “substantially equivalent” to their non-GM relatives. Because of this, safety evaluation has been very limited. Research, which highlights some of the dangers associated with GM foods, has been deemed as ‘not scientifically valid’, and, in some cases, researchers have found themselves discredited and sacked from their posts.
GM is widely touted by its protagonists as being the ultimate answer to world hunger.
This is the big and emotive argument being pushed around by governments. It pulls at our heart strings. However, the view has no scientific basis. One of the most comprehensive collaborative studies on solutions to world hunger, commissioned by the United Nations and published as the IAASTD (International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development) report in 2008, confirms that GM crops have no role to play in resolving hunger in developing countries. The anti-GM stance of the study caused pro-GM protagonists and major biotech companies to withdraw from the consultation process in October 2007.
There’s little evidence that GM crop plants offer consistently better yields, or that such yields can be sustained over many generations. There’s also little consistent evidence that GM crops are more nutritious, and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that they are less nutritious and pose considerable health and environmental risks.
Then there’s the huge issue of who controls the seed supply. Around 2 billion people on the planet today are subsistence farmers who rely on raising their own seed. GM takes this capability away from these smallholder farmers and makes them dependent on a small handful of biotech companies for their seeds. This concept flies in the face of all that has been learned about re-establishing self-sufficiency in rural communities in developing countries.
Have we always been told the truth by the biotech companies involved, about their non GM-related products? Monsanto, the largest producer of GM crops in the world, has in the past been found guilty of knowingly falsifying claims about the safety of environmental toxins like dioxins and PCBs. These toxic chemicals, manufactured by Monsanto, have leaked into the environment and the food supply to become stored in our body fat where they can accumulate. Tests on some animals have shown these toxins to cause a wide range of effects, including cancer and damage to the immune and reproductive systems. Monsanto was also found guilty of bribing 140 officials in Indonesia to accept their GM crops.
As consumers, it’s imperative to remember that we are not powerless against governments or the might of the biotech industry. The ‘power of the purse’ is resounding. If there is no market, there is no need for a product, particularly one which puts corporate profits before the nation’s health. It’s time to exercise this power now, before the GM creep into our food supply increases further.
You can find out more by visiting the website of The Alliance For Natural Health www.anhcampaign.org/campaign/say-no-to-gm
