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The Green Guide

Fast Track to Genetic Contamination

Published on Sunday, June 3, 2001 in the Maine Sunday Telegram

Seeds of Discontent

Farmers - and the public - may soon learn there's no turning back on
genetically modified foods as the hemisphere hurtles toward another
ill-considered trade pact.

by Nancy Allen

As George W. Bush took the reins of power in Washington, perennial political
hopeful Steve Forbes predicted that "we're going to get as much as we can as
fast as we can." With the coming vote in Congress on so-called "fast track"
trade rules (or Trade Promotion Authority, as the Bush people call it),
Forbes' boast appears to be on target. This is especially true when we
consider the link between promotion of genetically engineered foods and the
passage of trade deals.

Back in 1992 only a few people, mostly connected to Ralph Nader and the
Green Party, saw what these trade deals really meant for our food supply,
for farmers, for workers and for the environment. Most people are simply
unaware that trade deals, along with World Trade Organization (WTO)
decision making, could override local, state and even national laws.

On April 5, the Wall Street Journal published a study on genetically
modified foods (GMOs) almost ignored in the rest of the media. Twenty food
products labeled "non-GMO" or "GMO-free" were tested on behalf of the
Journal by a prominent food laboratory. Of the 20, 16 contained evidence of
genetic material used to modify plants.

At about the same time, a telephone poll conducted by the Pew Charitable
Trust found that 75 percent of U.S. respondents say they wanted to know if
their food contained GMO ingredients. And 58 percent opposed such
ingredients. The public clearly mistrusts genetic manipulation of food. That
concern is not unfounded.

According to the Wall Street Journal study, "the problem, regulators say, is
that some genetically modified crops - which have been designed to resist
disease, pests and chemicals - can cross-pollinate freely with regular
crops, passing along their altered traits to the next generation".

Perhaps this contamination of our food is more than just an accident.

"The hope of the industry is that over time the market is so flooded [with
genetically engineered organisms] that there's nothing you can do about it.
You just sort of surrender", food industry consultant Don Westfall is quoted
as saying in the Toronto Star earlier this year. Westfall, who supports the
development of genetically modified foods, is vice-president of Promar
International, a consulting company based in a Washington, D.C. suburb.

The problem exists because government regulators badly underestimated the
situation. To me, this is more than just a "problem". It is an unmitigated
disaster, especially for farmers trying to sell crops in an increasingly
globalized marketplace. Many countries will not import genetically modified
food from the United States. Farmers become victims of international trade
promotion sanctioned by a U.S. Congress that appears willing to subvert
laws of national governments to those of an unelected, unaccountable
international trade organization.

In a newsletter sent to county organizations in April, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture asked farmers to "check corn seed." The newsletter warned:
"StarLink is the trade name for corn genetically modified to be pest
resistant by producing a protein called Cry9C. USDA is recommending that
farmers not plant any corn unless they are certain that the seed has been
tested and found to be free of this protein. Farmers should ask seed
companies to verify the seed corn has been tested to ensure their corn does
not contain the Cry9C protein."

The warning comes too late. StarLink, the genetically altered corn approved
only for animal feed and planted on less than 1 percent of U.S. corn acres
in 2000, has been found in corn meant for human consumption. It is now
widespread in human food and in this years' seed corn.

Last month, four scientists in Canada submitted a report to the Canadian
Biotechnology Advisory Committee saying the human food supply is in danger
of being contaminated by genetically modified crops. The Boston Globe
reported on May 17 that StarLink corn "has turned up in nearly one out of
four grain samples undergoing the government's most stringent tests, a far
higher number than previously reported and another sign of the chaos the
corn's presence has caused."

The contamination is ongoing, not only because of cross-pollination but also
because of product mixing in grain elevators, barges and combines.

Involved federal agencies haven't the faintest idea what to do other than to
ask farmers to get their seed companies to certify the seed they plant this
year is GMO free! This is no solution; this is passing the buck to the
blameless farmer for any liability caused by StarLink contamination.

In a May 8 letter to me regarding what I should do about my corn seed for
this year, EPA official, Jay Ellenberger, in the Office of Pesticide Programs
wrote, "We recommend that you verify from the seed company before
your purchase that it has tested for the StarLink protein using
USDA-certified test kits and it has subsequently determined that no StarLink
protein is present in its product."

The answer I got from my own corn seed company was that seed testing for
StarLink corn was in a two-month backlog and they could not certify my seed
corn. Farmers will have already planted this year's corn before regulators
catch up with the situation.

Why wasn't Washington paying attention? The answer has a lot to do with a
government regulatory process, and trade policy, so dominated by a "fast
track" to corporate success and profit that citizen action and farmer
concerns about genetic manipulation of food have been all but ignored.

Soon Congress will vote on "fast track" authority for the new trade
agreement called the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would
extend the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the southern
hemisphere. In spite of the fact that almost all statistics show that NAFTA
has been a dismal failure for workers and the environment in the three
countries already involved (Canada, Mexico and the United States),
agribusiness traders are drooling at the prospect of extending their crop
coup to Central and South America.

"Fast track" authority would allow a president to draw up a pact and submit
it to Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote, without amendments. (No advice,
please, senators, just consent.)

Unfortunately, FTAA, like NAFTA, will not be voted on as a treaty, though it
most certainly is one. To pass a treaty, however, requires a two-thirds vote
of the Senate and FTAA backers know they do not have the necessary votes.

With the passage of the new trade agreement, the U.S. biotech corporations
would have a much easier time marketing their genetically altered food
products. FTAA/WTO rules could consider national laws prohibiting GMO
foods as barriers to trade. The countries trying to keep their food supply free
of genetically modified foods would have to either submit to the WTO decision
or pay large sanctions.

Once the food supply is so infiltrated with these products that their
presence is inevitable, the corporations will have free rein to market all
over the world and their profits and purpose will be fully operational.

One can only marvel at the foresight, planning, lobbying, money and power
that go in to this scenario. The true losers, of course, are farmers and
consumers who are victims of this crop coup, along with an environment so
contaminated with cross-pollinated crops it will be nearly impossible to
reverse. With the food genie out of the bottle and the trade train on the
congressional fast track, Steve Forbe's bully prediction will almost
certainly come true.

But if farmers, workers, consumers and environmental activists make the
connection between undemocratic, destructive trade policies and plans for a
worldwide genetically manipulated food supply, it becomes quite clear we are
all being taken for a power-grabbing ride once again - a ride which has been
a very long one indeed for many, many people.

Still, we do have time to stop the "Fast Track" train. The vote is expected
in mid-summer. Maine's Congressional delegation has a decent record opposing
it. Greens and others should hold them to it.

Nancy Allen, of Brooksville, Maine is a Green Party organizer and the
party's media coordinator. She can be contacted at: nallen@acadia.net