Genetically-modified food introduced by stealth

by Peter Mac

"You are what you eat", the old ads used to say, implying that if you ate 
healthy food you'd be healthy yourself. The trouble is, of course, that we 
only know what's healthy from centuries of experience, and from scientific 
evaluation. And nowadays plenty of food on supermarket shelves contains new 
and unidentified forms of ingredients that have not been evaluated properly 
or at all.

This applies in particular to food produced using genetic engineering (GE). 
Deficiencies in current Australian labelling laws mean that not all GE-
affected food components have to be identified. Moves to introduce more 
stringent forms of labelling were previously blocked by the Howard 
Government. As a result, some poultry, pork and edible oils containing 
genetically modified (GM) components are now being sold without any public 
warnings.

Genetic engineering is used by the monopoly agribusinesses and food 
corporations that dominate the food industry, principally to control the 
food cycle and maximise profits. It is not used to improve the health of 
the consumer.

Genetic engineering as practiced by the transnational food corporations has 
been described as "An uncontrolled experiment with nature".

As the environmental activist group Greenpeace pointed out: "Unlike 
traditional breeding processes, GE takes genes from one life form and 
crosses them with those of another. Genes from bacteria, viruses, plants 
and animals have been inserted into soybeans, canola, corn and cotton to 
grow experimental crops.

"These crops are processed into foods and sold all over the world. They are 
bought by us and served up on our plates. Right now, millions of 
Australians are eating GE foods, without realising it."

The potentially adverse impacts of consuming GM products include the 
increased risk of genetic birth defects and other potentially serious 
health problems.

For example, the introduction of antibiotic-resistance in GE crops may in 
time lead to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that will 
attack human beings. Some new GM soybean crops are immune to the adverse 
effects of insecticide sprays, which increases the risk of consumption of 
pesticide residues. The food magnates have even introduced certain new corn 
crops that produce their own insecticide!

The use of GM technology makes excellent economic sense for the major 
agribusiness and food corporations, and has been strongly backed by them. 
Some of the biggest names in the food business openly use genetically 
modified components, or refuse to say whether they use them or not. 
According to Greenpeace, they include Arnotts, Cadburys, Coca-cola, Coles' 
and Woolworths' house brands, Golden Circle and Nestles.

The small amount of testing that has been carried out on genetically 
modified (GM) foods to date has almost all been initiated by the food 
companies themselves, and the results have rarely been published for peer 
review.

The little that has been published has been reviewed by the organisation 
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. They concluded that the tests 
were inadequate, that GE foods have never been tested on humans, and that 
some foods have not even been tested on animals.

There is a very strong movement among consumers against the introduction of 
GM food products, based on the healthily sceptical belief that business 
will do whatever they can to enhance their profit level, even if involves 
producing unhealthy food.

This has been nowhere better illustrated than in the case of food "aid" 
which the US government recently offered to Nigeria. Apparently one string 
attached to this offer was that the food would be genetically modified. 
This revelation led to a widespread belief that the US Government was 
actually using an entire third world population as guinea pigs to test the 
effects of consumption of GE food products.

This impression was confirmed when the Bush administration displayed 
extreme hostility to the Nigerian Government over its subsequent rejection 
of the offer.

The GE companies claim loudly that their products are needed to feed the 
third world. However, as Greenpeace pointed out: "Hunger and starvation are 
the result of inequitable distribution of food — a political and economic 
problem. Genetic engineering will further corporate control over food 
production and may even make problems of hunger worse, by denying farmers 
in developing countries access to seeds."

And the GE companies themselves are extremely aggressive in implanting 
their production and marketing strategies. A Canadian farmer was recently 
sued by Monsanto for the "use" of GE seeds that had contaminated fields he 
was trying to retain as GE free!

However, things are not progressing the way they would prefer. The food 
industry differs significantly from, say, the tobacco industry, which could 
only implement a proper "healthy products" policy by voluntarily putting 
itself out of business. The option of using healthy products, what 
Greenpeace and others call "true food", is still available to the food 
industry, even if it means paying a little extra for the raw materials.

Pressure from environmental and consumer groups, and the production of 
publications such as the True Food Guide, has led a number of food 
producers to adopt a GM-free policy, and others are nervously hastening to 
follow their lead.

Conservation of the environment has emerged as one of the great 
battlegrounds of the modern age. An increasing number of people are 
becoming involved in that struggle, and are becoming politicised as a 
result of the experience.

And nowhere is that experience more personally felt than in the struggle to 
ensure that the very food we eat is actually good for us, and not simply 
good for lining the pockets of the conglomerates that offer it for sale.