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
Published on Sunday, June 3, 2001 in the Maine Sunday Telegram and at www.CommonDreams.org. 

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 un-elected, 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.