Eecole Copen MS, RD is a Registered Dietitian has been working
as an advocate for sustainable food systems in an institutional setting for the
past 10 years. Just last week, she received the 2014 Hunger and Environmental
Nutrition Excellence Award at the national conference for dietitians in
Atlanta, GA.
Thoughts on Labeling GMOs.
We need to look at the bigger picture. Some are saying that
measure 92 may not be written effectively and that it may increase the cost of
food, hitting poor families particularly hard. People are afraid of the
repercussions.
Let’s take a look at the effectiveness of this bill first.
Whether or not Measure 92 is the perfectly written law, it is a
great first step. If it weren’t going to be effective on some level, Monsanto
and their industrial allies would not be spending over $14 million in attempts
to make it fail. They could be putting that $14 million into labeling, if their
priorities were something other than bottom line financial profiting. No, they
are more concerned that GMOs continue to progress without any barriers.. and
this is critical for them, because they need the next few years to take GMOs to
the point of no return.
Just this last year, Syngenta (Swiss company who makes GMO
seeds) was found to be strategically checkerboard planting their genetically
modified sugar beet seeds in Southern Oregon. Whatever their reason, the
inevitable was that all of the surrounding family farmers who grew non-GMO or
organic seed would find some portion of their seeds crossed-pollinated with
Syngenta’s GMO seed. According to Raymon Seidler, Ph.D., former Senior
Scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, these seeds have been known
to contaminate fields 11 miles away. (http://www.prx.org/pieces/131881-food-sleuth-radio-raymon-seidler-interview). What are the repercussions of
this?
Family farms would no longer be able to sell to the Organic or
foreign export market. This puts farmers out of business. This takes our
opportunity to buy organic away. This is sneaky and strategic. This was a
secret.. until some farmers figured it out. Then they banned GMO seeds from
being planted in their county.
This is intentional. GMO makers need to get their seeds
dispersed far and wide, so they can claim patent rights and ultimately, claim
our food rights. We think it’s scary to have our water privatized? Think if all
of our food is privatized. It won’t take long. GMO canola can cross with
Brassicas... think broccoli, chard, kale, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. And
until we decide that corporations are no longer people, their patent interests
will continue to take over our food system. This is one hell of a greedy &
hungry big brother.
And cross contamination is just one scary road eerily
travelled. Let’s talk about microbes, pesticides and gene transfer.
Right now, the 2 major genetic
modifications approved by the FDA are “Round-up Ready” crops, which confer
resistance to the well known herbicide, Roundup (glyphosate), to corn, alfalfa,
soy, canola and sugar beets, and the Bt gene which enables corn, sweet corn and
potato plants themselves, to manufacture an internal pesticide that kills
unwanted pests. Round-Up ready crops depend on all surrounding weeds to
fall victim to Round-Up. However, studies tracking the use of glyphosate (http://cahnrs.wsu.edu/news-release/2012/10/01/pesticide-use-rises-as-herbicide-resistant-weeds-undermine-performance-of-major-ge-crops-new-wsu-study-shows/) show that the “annual increase in
the herbicides required to deal with tougher-to-control weeds on cropland
planted to GE cultivars has grown from 1.5 million pounds in 1999 to about 90
million pounds in 2011.” And as of Sept 17th, the USDA “plowed ahead with a highly controversial decision to
deregulate new seed varieties of “Agent Orange” corn and soybeans, so-called
for its ability to withstand the weed killer 2,4-D, a major component in
the infamous dioxin-laden defoliant used in Vietnam. The USDA
environmental impact study predicted that approval of the crops would lead to a
200 to 600 percent increase in the use of 2,4-D nationally by 2020, but
deferred to the EPA for analysis of the effects of the increase.” (http://www.responsibletechnology.org/posts/the-color-orange-the-color-of-nightmares/). The idea is that these seeds will
have both genes to now resist 2 herbicides, since they see the ultimate failure
of Round-Up ready alone. When does it stop? How much herbicide can our
soils, our water system and ultimately our bodies handle? There is no lack of
evidence around the links between herbicides and cancer, reduced fertility,
fetal abnormalities, etc.. and..there is an unfolding story on the horizon…
Bear with me through this logic…
We’ve all heard that gut bacteria play a role in our
digestion. And now we are finding that gut bacteria have many other jobs
like harvesting energy, producing vitamins, metabolizing drugs & modulating
the immune system (Cerf-Bensussan and Gaboriau-Routhiau, Nat Rev Immunol,
2010). And studies show that they likely play a role in our body’s response to
all sorts of issues, including hunger signaling, chronic inflammation,
auto-immune diseases, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and much more (read Dr. Gerard
E Mullin, “The Inside Tract”). There are even services now available to
get your gut flora analyzed for $100 (http://humanfoodproject.com/americangut/).
We are finding that certain bacteria predominate with certain
diseases. Could it be that the kinds of bacteria fostered by our bodies
determine our health? What we know is that diversity of gut flora increases
resilience for our immune system. And where do these bacteria come from?? Our
food. Both literally attached to the food we eat, the dirt on our fingers,
& the soil our food is grown in. These are called probiotics. Plus, food
acts as food not just for us, but for the bacteria in our guts, called
pre-biotics. The kinds of foods we eat will determine the kinds of bacteria
that will proliferate.
Now consider that the average farm is
441 acres and is usually planted with very few crops at a time, essentially
creating large swaths of land that are mono-cropped. In 2012, 88
percent of corn (maize) and 94 percent of soy grown in the
United States were genetically modified, according to the US Department of
Agriculture (http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us/recent-trends-in-ge-adoption.aspx#.VE0159TF-1s). The big farms are filled with
mostly GMO crops.
As mentioned, these crops are requiring increasingly heavy doses
of herbicides in these fields, decimating bacterial diversity, and thus
decreasing the resilience of the soil’s immune system. As crops become
more susceptible to disease, more chemicals are needed to keep the pests out,
and the plants growing. Does this situation sound familiar? The health of
our bodies is reflected in the health of our soils. And literally, when we kill
all the diversity in microbial organisms in the soil, we diminish the diversity
of bacteria available to our own guts to help us resist disease. The more
GMOs planted, the more herbicides & pesticides needed to deal with super
weeds and resistant bugs, the less diversity in our soil bacteria, the less
diversity in our gut bacteria, the more risk both humans and plants have for
disease.
There’s one more super scary element. The Bt gene that helps the
plant manufacture its own pesticide originally comes from bacteria in the soil.
Genes are exchanged all of the time in the bacterial world. According to Dr.
Robert Kremer, Ph.D., microbiologist formerly with the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service and Adjunct Professor of Soil Microbiology at the University
of Missouri (http://www.prx.org/pieces/133670-food-sleuth-radio-robert-kremer-interview ) gene transfer is totally possible
from plant to other organisms. So, the feasibility exists that our own gut
bacteria could pick up the pesticide making genes, making our guts into
pesticide factories.
Is the research final on all this? Not yet, and that is
intentional too. Currently, research is stymied by industry patents making
obtaining seed for clinical- double blind trials incredibly difficult in the
non-industry funded academic setting (watch “Scientists Under Attack- Genetic Engineering in the
Magnetic Field of Money”). Labeling GMOs is one of the few ways Europe has
figured out to track the effects of GMOs on health. The longer we wait for
absolute conclusions, the more time we give to industry to weave their GMO
seeds into our food system in this country. Many European countries have
already banned GMOs (http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/countrieswithbans.cfm) and labeling happens in 64 countries around the world. We are
one of the only 1st world countries available to enable this
industry’s success. They need us. And they will do anything to keep the
barriers from forming.
Finally, the last point is about whether poor families are going
to spend hundreds of dollars per year in extra food costs. Industry is
malleable. They have an incredible amount of flexibility to please the
consumer. In 2014, General Mills’ net profit was 1.82 billion. If they
see the consumer interest shift away from their products, you better believe
they will find a way to attract their customers back. They don’t want to lose
business.. and they won’t inflate their prices and risk that loss. And, if 64
countries have already labeled GMOs, and the poor didn’t go hungry there
because of it, what makes us think it will be any different here?
We can’t afford to give industry any more time to spread their
seeds via a technology that is diminishing our capacity for health on so many
levels. This has to be stopped as soon as possible. We have an amazing
opportunity to put up one of America’s first major barriers to their progress while
simultaneously creating a tool to help track the health
risks. Carpe Diem.. let’s seize
this day on November 4th and exert the power of our vote to
stop this harmful progress. Yes on Measure 92.
An interesting and relevant video:
http://vimeo.com/110009677- Financial Analyst: Robyn O’Brien @
Seeds of Doubt conference
“A food system dependent on chemicals is not really a food
system, it’s a chemical system.”
