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The Myth of Genetically Engineered Food and How it Threatens Slow Food
Posted on Wed, February 13, 2013 by Slow Food USA
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By Analiese Paik
Good, clean and fair food. I use these words each morning to establish a compass point upon which to set my sights, and to prevent myself from being lulled into a false sense of everything-is-okay-ness. 
It’s easy to fall prey to seductive food marketing, and nobody’s mastered the propaganda better than the biotech seed industry. Dominated by a mere three players worldwide – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – the global market for genetically engineered (GE) seed has grown into a $13 billion dollar industry since its introduction in 1992 on a promise to help feed the world.
But there is no free lunch. Everything has a price, and sometimes not even the smartest among us can predict what it will be. In the case of GE crop production, it’s everything we as Slow Food members hold precious and dear.
Good food? Not for the farmer who pays more for patented genetically engineered seeds that claim to deliver higher yields, but don’t. Not for the livestock fed an unnatural diet of GE corn and soy. Not for the environment increasingly doused with chemical fertilizers and herbicides, something the industry claimed they’d reduce. Not for the consumer who has unwittingly been co-opted into an enormous human feeding trial. (GE foods have never been tested for long-term safety in animals, humans or the environment). GE crops have, however, been great for biotech profits.
Clean food? The US is the largest producer of GE crops in the world. Rather than fulfilling their promise to reduce the amount of herbicides needed to manage weeds, hundreds of millions more pounds of herbicides are being used each year and this overuse has spawned super weeds. Thanks to nature’s amazing resilience and adaptability, we’re facing deregulation of the next generation of biotech crops whose genes are stacked to confer resistance to more powerful herbicides, including 2, 4-D, one of two chemical constituents of Agent Orange, the Vietnam-era defoliant. GE crops that can produce their own insecticides, called PIPs or plant-incorporated protectants by the EPA, haven’t proven to be a silver bullet either. The corn rootworm is becoming resistant to Bt corn, a variety genetically engineered to kill the difficult to control pest, forcing the EPA to require that all growers put resistance management plans in place.
Fair food? Certainly not for US consumers who are unjustly denied the basic right to know whether they’re eating genetically engineered foods, a right ironically enjoyed by China and Russia. Not for farmers who used to save seeds each year for next year’s crop, a practice prohibited under biotech seed licensing agreements. GE crops pose an ongoing threat to conventional and organic farms, which fall victim to devastating herbicide drift along with pollen and seed (gene) trespass from GE neighbors, forcing them to destroy contaminated crops and seeds and rendering them vulnerable to law suits for patent infringement.
The power of the consumer is not to be underestimated. Some believe that labeling laws are the answer, reasoning that consumers, upon learning that the foods they’re eating are produced from crops that can withstand being doused with herbicides and/or can produce their own insecticides, will create a backlash powerful enough to force food manufacturers to abandon GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). Proof of this hypothesis can already be seen in Kashi’s and Ben & Jerry’s pledges to remove GMOs from their US products. Many large, multinational food companies gladly manufacture Non-GMO products for European markets to avoid their labeling laws, something made possible through the segregation and identity preservation of non-GMO crops every step along the supply chain.
Use your powerful voice to defend Slow Food. Write local legislators in support of your state’s GMO labeling bills and ballot initiatives (currently Washington State, Vermont, Connecticut, New Mexico and Missouri), sign national petitions to ban GE salmon, and the Just Label It campaign’s petition to the FDA. There’s growing evidence that major food retailers and manufacturers have grown weary of funding campaigns to prevent state-sponsored GMO bills from passing and may band together to petition the FDA for uniform GMO labeling. What a testament to the power of the consumer that would be, but only if it’s a federal law that reflects what states are pushing for, not what large food manufacturers and retailers want as a compromise.
Sow your organic gardens and fields, raise your animals on pasture, shop at farmers’ markets, join a CSA, but please also become aware of what you’re buying at the grocery store, in movie theaters, cafes and restaurants. Our daily food choices are yes votes that help determine what food manufacturers will produce next quarter, what farmers will grow next year, how retailers will stock their shelves, and what restaurants will put on their menus. Non-GMO choices are yes votes for Slow Food.
Analiese Paik is a local-sustainable food advocate and the founder and editor of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, an award-winning website that informs consumers about local and sustainable food. She is a board member of Slow Food Metro North, worked as a grassroots community organizer to lobby for a GMO labeling bill in CT, and frequently writes and speaks on the topic of GMOs.
Member Comments
From Jan Wesley on Thu, February 14, 2013
Thank you for a great article!
Good work in CT, and let’s keep up the good work!
From Charity Kenyon on Thu, February 14, 2013
Great summary Analiese! Slow Food California has adopted GMO education and labeling as a top policy priority in 2013. We’re with you all the way.
From Analiese Paik on Thu, February 14, 2013
Jan and Charity, thanks for commenting. Charity, CA has done such an excellent job on this issue. You’re an inspiration for the rest of the country.
From Judith Clark on Sat, February 16, 2013
There are many items on my agenda to fight the wrongs being done in this country but GMO’s foods is my number 1 priority. It is so sad that Ca. was paid off by those in bed with Monsanto so that the petition failed. We must stop this. I post everything I can on facebook hoping those that read it will send it on. Still, so many know nothing about it. There must be a better way to get this information out. Newspapers being owned by only a few corporations seem to have not interest. Any suggesstions would be great. We in northern Michigan are involved.
From Workers comp bill on Sun, February 17, 2013
Hey there, thank you for taking out the time to share this info here, more than happy being here.
Chris Harris
From Anna on Fri, February 22, 2013
Well said, Analiese! I just read that Maine is pretty close to putting a gmo labeling law in place - it has bi-partisan support and the author of the bill is asking that other states follow suit. Maine is a small state & their concern is that agri-business will simply choose not to sell in Maine rather than comply with their gmo labeling laws. Maine is appealing to the rest of the country to adopt gmo labeling laws so that they and their labeling law will be harder to ignore. Collective Action Alert!
From Lori Lamb Health Coaching on Sun, February 24, 2013
I was hesitant after I liked your FB page and saw that the Kellogg Foundation gave a huge grant to your project. I thought the article would be swayed in their direction and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we share the same visions. I agree whole heartedly with everything you say. I did a health talk yesterday about gluten’s at a local pharmacy and had people tell me that when they went to Europe their symptoms got better. It’s a shame that companies like Kellogg make healthier foods for the Europeans than they do for us here in the US. I’d like more info on how to create a local chapter. I have grand children in the public school system and heading in over the next 5 years and the food they serve scares the bejesus out of me.
From Analiese Paik on Mon, February 25, 2013
Lori, you are doing important work and your observation about the difference between Europe’s food system and ours is one of the facts that most surprises our legislators and consumers. CT State Rep. Diana Urban is introducing legislation to label GMOs in infant formula and during Thursday’s hearing I will be sharing the fact that formula manufacturers have a choice in whether they use GMOs since they formulate them without GMOs to avoid Europe’s labeling laws.
From Lori Lamb Health Coaching on Thu, February 28, 2013
Worse yest is the fact that there is no oversight into our food. There are over 1000 different chemicals in foods we eat today that have never been tested to find out what they do the our bodies. Then add to that the sum total of all the foods and all the chemicals that are reacting with each other and it’s no wonder we are such a sick nation. I call and email food manufacturers weekly asking them why they are using chemicals and they tell me that the are generally regarded as safe (GRAS for short) which means that their own independent lab tested them for safety which means nothing. The FDA relies on them to supervise themselves and does not test the ingredients. Staying away from ALL processed foods is the only way to be sure what you are eating. 4 companies own all the seed supply in this country and they want 100% control over all of them. Organic farmers are getting pushed out more and more and it’s time we stood up and said enough is enough. We do have the right to know what is in our food. Maybe instead of the FDA running raids on raw milk farmers they could do their jobs and test the ingredients in our foods that are being marketed to us as healthy!
From Sherri A Turner MD JD on Mon, March 04, 2013
Flood you tube with your organic gardens and photos uploaded with pictures of your pets who are also affected. The internet is our TV since corporations and big money own TV a nd the movies.
From Rachael on Sat, March 09, 2013
I would like to point out that farmers DO have the option of buying GMO seeds. They should know what they’re getting themselves into before making such a decision. And if they are ignorant, that’s their own fault. Farmers continue to buy GMO seeds because they obviously do what was advertised to them. If the seeds didn’t work, farmers could easily go back to conventional ways and save seeds. Also, why is the industry so big if the seeds don’t work?
And next time back up your argument with some sort of citation because you could easily be making things up. Show me an actual scientific study and I’ll consider your reasoning.
From Analiese Paik on Mon, March 11, 2013
Rachael,
Which argument in particular were you referring to? How about failure of GMO crops to yield? Here’s a link to a formal study. http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/failure-to-yield.html
And regarding choice in seed, this article discusses shortages in non-GMO seed and why. http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/jul08/non-gmo_soybean_seed.php
