Global Cafe - GM Foods

The Global Cafe

More about Global

Food policy

What's on? Cafe events

Genetically Modified Foods

carrotman Genetic engineering allows scientists to create new plants in the laboratory. It is done by altering the genes, the vital blueprints inside all living cells that give plants and animals their different charactoristics. In one experiment, a natural anti-freeze gene from a fish that allows it to survive freezing water was put in a swetcorn in an attempt to create a new type of frost-resistant sweetcorn! Most GM crops, however, are engineered to be resistant to herbicides and pesticdes so that when they are sprayed on a field, everything but the crop will die.

GM Foods And Food Safety

The health effects of eating GM foods are as yet unknown, with the scientific community divided over possible risks to human health. Despite industry assertions that GM foods will end world hunger and help conserve the environment, the main beneficiaries seem to be agro-chemical Trans National Corporations, such as Monsanto, and their shareholders.

GM Foods And The Environment

GM foods haven't enjoyed the benefit of many years of evolution, and so their effects on the environment are unknown. This explains the fears of many people that GM crops will cause "genetic pollution" by releasing pollen into the environment and transferring their genetic qualities to wild plants. The French government has recently placed a 2-year ban on GM crops capable of pollinating with wild plants after GM oilseed interbred with wild radish and turnip to create herbicide resistant "super-weeds". Also, no-one can say for sure how safe GM foods are over a longer time period because no serious long term scientific tests or research have yet been completed. The principal problem is defining all the areas of risk - how can we predict what might go wrong - and dare we take the risk??

oversized "Sadly, the benefits of GM foods might not be quite as we were once led to believe...!!"

GM Foods And The Developing Countries

The leading company in the biotechnology industry is Monsanto. One of the reasons used to justify its GM products is that they will solve food scarcity in developing countries. However, GM foods will increase dependency of small farmers in developing countries on agrobusiness, at the expense of their own food security. For example, Terminator Gene Technology (original patent held jointly by Monsanto and US Department of Agriculture) makes seed infertile after one season, preventing farmers from practising age-old methods of seed-saving and forcing them back into the shop to buy more seed next year. Guess who profits! There are many farmers all over the world who are fighting for the right to save seed and secure food for themselves.
In their report "Selling Suicide", Christian Aid published a graphic account on what might be the impact of GM seeds on the small farmer in the developing countries.

Labelling GM Foods and Animal Feed

Labelling of GM foods is only partially effective because roughly 60% of all processed food could contain GM soya or maize, and it is not always possible to trace the origin of all ingredients. Also, GM foods, such as soya and maize can enter the food chain as animal feed, where regulations are minimal. GM soya accounted for 55% of US soya in 1999, and as 80% of this is used in animal feed, and the European Union buys 12 million tonnes of soya meal a year from the US, it has been estimatd that up to 30% of an animal's diet could be from GM sources.
This is a particular problem as animal feed is often fed raw, and traits such as antibiotic resistance in GM maize could be transferred to bacteria in the gut of these animals, so adding to the problems of antibody misuse in intensive farming.
At present, there is no EU regulation on the use of GM foodstuffs in animal feed, there is no requirement to label GM animal feed, or the food products fed to animals made from GM crops. This lack of identification is a definite threat to our right to choose whether or not to allow GM foods in the UK, both for our benefit and the benefit of the environment.

GM and Maize in Mexico: Read this Worldwatch article if you would like to know more about the specifc risks of GM food. (pdf download)

GM gene migration creates 'superweed': August 2005