A group of consumer and environmental groups in the U.S. is
asking the USDA to prohibit a new kind of GM crop that could
contaminate our food supply. These are crops that are
engineered to contain prescription drugs or industrial
chemicals. The news crops are already planted in over 300
fields in secret locations throughout the U.S. They include
plants that produce a chemical that can cause abortions,
growth hormones, a chemical that induces blood clots and an
enzyme that causes allergies in most people.
The watchdog group, Genetically Engineered Food Alert, says,
"Just one mistake by a biotech company and we'll be eating
other people's prescription drugs in our corn flakes." Larry
Bohlen, of Friends of the Earth, says, ?The USDA should
prohibit the planting of food crops engineered with drugs
and chemicals to protect the food supply from contamination."
USDA keeps all drug and chemical crop sites secret from the
public and neighboring farmers and allows companies to plant
the crops without identification or security measures. Joe
Jilka works for ProdiGene, which is developing TGEV corn
that contains a pig vaccine. He says, "...the best way to
secure it is to grow it just like any other corn. In other
words, the anonymity of it just completely hides it.?
Regular alfalfa was planted "within 200 yards of the test
site" of a field of alfalfa engineered with industrial
enzymes. The USDA approved the planting despite objections
from the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture. The GM crop was
grown to the stage where it had open flowers, which
increases the risk that GM pollen will end up pollinating
the regular crop.
The National Academy of Sciences says, "...it is possible
that crops transformed to produce pharmaceutical or other
industrial compounds might mate with plantations
grown for human consumption, with the unanticipated result
of novel chemicals in the human food supply."
Corn, which is often pollinated by the wind, is often
modified to produce biopharmaceuticals and chemicals. There
are already documented cases of standard StarLink corn
contaminating nearby organic fields. ProdiGene predicts that
10% of the
corn crop will be devoted to biopharm production by 2010.
ProdiGene would like to do away with the requirement that
there be buffer areas between the GM crops and regular crops
entirely. CEO Anthony Laos says, "We will be dealing with
these distances until we can gain regulatory approval to
lessen or abandon these requirements altogether."
Some companies want to extract the drugs or chemicals from
GM plants, then sell the remainder of the crop for other
uses. If the extraction is incomplete, drugs or chemicals
could remain behind to contaminate food or animal feed. If
contaminated feed is given to animals that humans eat, it
could be passed down to us.
What can we do to protect ourselves from unwanted GM foods
in our diet? Read ?Eating in the Dark? by Kathleen
Hart,click here.
To learn about Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA),
click here.
For more information, click here.
