Genetically Modified (GM or GMO) food crops are no secret. Controversy over splicing animal genes into vegetable crops began in the 80’s prior to the commercialization of this technology in the early 90s, and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) 1992 decision that GM foods would not need to be labeled, and that mandatory pre-market safety testing was not required. As a result, large percentages — more than 50% of soybeans and 35% of corn — are from GM seeds. Consumers have been shopping in the dark without labeling, and the environment and human health have not been adequately protected or monitored for long-term effects. Most folks concerned about their food choices are aware of all this. In the United Kingdom consumers have been successful in banning GM crops. Here in the US, buying organically produced foods seems like the only assurance of avoiding GMOs – or is it?
It’s surprising so few people are aware of the GM contamination of food crops occurring through cross-pollination. It’s no doubt the industry has made every effort, at great expense, to keep quiet the suits against them, and the recall of crops, for occurrences of airborne cross-pollination of corn, soy and rice. What’s troubling is how indifferent Americans are about food security. This indifference and apathy has allowed biotech companies like Montsanto and DuPont (the same giant chemical corporations selling toxic pesticides and herbicides, and the GM plants engineered to resist them) to move their biotechnologies and their profits forward. But make no mistake, their secrecy has been their strongest tactic in implementing the latest and most troubling of GMO technology… pharmaceutical crops, better know as “pharm crops” or “biopharming.”
Pharm crops are a whole new way for chemical companies to produce drugs. The idea is to use crops as factories by letting genetically engineered plants grow pharmaceuticals in their tissues to be extracted later as antibodies, blood thinners, contraceptives as well as industrial enzymes used in building materials. What may seem like inevitable progress in some scientific circles spells imminent disaster in others. What makes this issue so important is that most of the plant species being used for pharm crops are also major food crop plants – corn, soybeans, and rice. Already, there have been problems with environmental contamination at and surrounding many of the secret locations of hundreds of field trials in more than a dozen states (and yes, Florida is one.) Not only are there cross-pollination problems (meaning unsuspecting farmers have had to destroy their crops due to genetic pollution with engineered traits) but the leaf and root tissue of GM pharm crops can “leak” potent drugs into soil that may persist for extended periods rendering the soil unsuitable for food crops. Wildlife and insects unknowingly feeding on pharm plants can suffer from possible effects of drugs like potent hormones and blood thinners.
Pharm crops are not intended as food crops. So why are corn, soy and rice – as well as tobacco – being used as trial crops, which runs the highest risk of irreversibly contaminating our food supply? Why are secret trial crops being grown in the open air and not in enclosed, controlled environments?
To learn more, see the excellent report on Pharm and Industrial Crops published by the Union of Concerned Scientists on their website at www.ucsusa.org . To voice your concerns over the threat that biopharming is posing to our food supply visit the Organic Consumers Association online at www.organicconsumers.org . In the meantime, become informed, consume as much organic food as possible – and keep your fingers crossed.