The Catskill Chronicle

 By Mort Malkin

Monsanto says genetically engineered (modified) plants, and now animals too, are little different from the domesticated species farmers and animal breeders have developed. Breeding has been traditional for 10,000 years. So, Monsanto would have us believe that gene guns and other divine technology must be as natural as apple pie. But when Monsanto applies for patents on their gene combinations, they swear their products and methods are unique in nature and nothing like it has ever been created before in the history of the universe.

Once the patent for each genetically engineered variety of corn, soy, canola, cotton … has been granted, they do some in-house research and conclude that foods so-modified are not detrimental to humans and, therefore, must be “substantially equivalent to unmodified ‘natural’ foods.” The USDA and FDA don’t have to do any research on possible harmful effects of GM foods because they can trust Big M’s research and its conclusions. The corporate officers are, after all, honorable men. So, the USDA even uses the same “substantially equivalent” bio-speak of the corporation. The people at the corporate giant would never jeopardize their fine reputation by fudging the results or claiming that certain alarming findings were irrelevant. They are the folks, you may remember, who brought us the benefits of Agent Orange.

Other research people, however, who are not working for the industry or the government me-too agencies, came to opposite conclusions from Monsanto’s own research. It seems that when some adverse findings showed up in the research, Monsanto just shrugged and said it was unimportant to the experiment. Further, at the prestigious Rowett Research Institute in Edinburg Scotland, Dr. Arpad Pusztai tested GM potatoes in mice and found “epithelial cell hypertrophy with multinucleation and mitochondrial degeneration in the stomach lining” (early cancerous changes). In young rats, Dr. Pusztai and his team found that GM potatoes in the feed caused arrested development of the liver, brain, testicles, and immune tissues. Independent research on the Flavr-Savr tomato found that seven out of ten rats rats fed the tomatoes showed mild to moderate erosive necrotic lesions in their stomach lining.

Monsanto has different types of GM corn that they have developed. One is being promoted as fit for human consumption and is among the ingredients in about half of the packaged foods on supermarket shelves in the US. Another type of GM corn, Star-Link corn, is not approved for people and is only used in animal feed and biofuels. So, Monsanto gives corn farmers a discount on the seeds that produce Star-Link corn, which can be sold to feed & grain suppliers. The Star-Link feed is then sold to animal farms and ranches for their cattle, hogs, lambs, chickens, and ducks. You can bet that hamburgers from fast food flipperies and Peking ducks from Long Island duck farms started off as Star-Link corn.

For the folks who are silly enough to think that nutrition contributes to their health and who avoid foods containing such ingredients as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, hi-fructose corn syrup, or Red Dye # 3, they will never find out whether their corn flakes and corn muffin mix contain genetically engineered corn. If GM foods are “substantially equivalent to unmodified ‘natural’ foods,” they don’t have to be labeled so. Certainly, no warning labels displaying a test tube and fumes are required. Most of the other countries of the world either require labeling their ingredients as genetically modified, or they ban GM products outright. Monsanto doesn’t influence the political process in other nations as it does in the US. In the European Union no GM foods can be imported. In England, in honor of Mary Shelly’s story of “Frankenstein,” the Brits call genetically engineered food “Frankenfood” and won’t have any part of it.

Monsanto is well aware of the opinion polls showing that 96% of the US public favors labeling of GM ingredients. One of their executives was caught in a private conversation saying “If you put a label on genetically engineered food, you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.”

In the US on the consumer side of the corporate fence, a group of Libertarians, Greens, Consumers-for-Choice, environmentalists, chemicals-are-toxic folks, and paranoiacs who don’t trust Monsanto have been organizing a “Millions against Monsanto” campaign. They are gathering signatures online and on paper to present on October 16, World Food Day, to the USDA, FDA, White House, and Congress, demanding a prominent warning label on any product containing GM ingredients. You can join them by signing an online, Truth in Labeling petition for the Organic Consumers Association. Just visit OrganicConsumers.org. You can also download and print such a petition for neighbors and relatives to sign.

We can show the government that corporate campaign dollars are less important than votes. It’s called democracy.