Frankenfood

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A LITTLE STATE MAKES A BIG STATEMENT

While Washington is asleep at the switch, the state of Vermont is doing something. In March, by a stunning 28-0 vote, the Vermont senate passed the Farmer Protection Act, to hold the biotech giants legally accountable for the contamination of any farmer's crops by a corporation's GMOs.

This is our food supply we're talking about. Shouldn't this story be way up front in the papers, the lead item on the nightly news, a topic of talk-radio heat, the subject of congressional investigations, a story worthy of comment by presidential candidates? But, Nothing. Just a small article on page C6.

Even more alarming than the findings by the scientists was the disdainful attitude of the contaminators. Did we get an "Oops, sorry about that," or an "Oh my gosh, we've gotta do something to fix this, starting with not planting any more of these seeds until we figure out the problems"? No, we did not. What we got was a demand from an industry lobbying group that other countries stop banning GMO Frankenfoods and simply learn to live with [Feel the love in this statement] "acceptable levels of contamination."

Did I mention that it's our food supply we're talking about?

UCS was not the first group of scientists to hit the alarm button on this willy-nilly, corporate splicing of assorted pesticides, bacteria, sex hormones, drugs, and animal genes into the foods we're eating. In January of 2002, the National Academy of Sciences, more establishment than which you cannot get, stepped forward to say: Hold your horses, buckaroos!

In 2000, the NAS convened a panel of biologists and ag scientists to conduct a study of the process by which the Monsantos are rushing these genetically-altered plants into production, into the environment, onto our grocery shelves, and into our bodies. Their study finds that there should be "significantly more transparent and rigorous" review of the testing, monitoring, and assessment of these genetic manipulations before they're unleashed on an unsuspecting and vulnerable world.

As one critic of the current regulatory system noted in welcoming the NAS findings: "It has been a cakewalk for the industry in terms of getting products approved."

It has indeed. NAS's scientific panel pointed out that the Agriculture Department presently allows the corporations to plant unlimited acreages to test their experimental plants, with no independent evaluation of the danger this poses to our environment and food supply. The NAS wants this slipshod process to end, calling for independent reviews of all tests, less secrecy by the corporations, more involvement of the public before these experimental foods are approved, and long-term regulatory monitoring of any approved crops.

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