An edited version of the following letter was published in the edition of 15th August 1997 of the
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Dear Sir,
Genetically Engineered Foods
I was greatly concerned to read that the National Farmers Union (Hampshire Chronicle 25th July) is telling its members in Hampshire that they must accept genetically-engineered crops and livestock as a fact of life if they are to remain competitive.
This is extremely naïve advice which shows an almost total lack of understanding of market economics. The only businesses which remain competitive are those which are able to meet the requirements of their customers, and market research shows that consumers are deeply suspicious of genetically engineered foods, and many are willing to boycott their purchase. Farmers should consider carefully, therefore, whether the use of this technology will make them more competitive, or actually put them out of business by destroying their markets as happened in the case of the BSE. Surely by now the NFU must have grasped the basic economic reality that no industry can fly in the face of consumer preference and expect to survive.
Consumers know that genetically engineered food is still experimental and largely untested. The long term effects on their health and the environment are completely unknown, and published research already shows that these products can be capable of producing unknown toxins. In one case in the United States a food supplement manufactured using genetically modified bacteria killed 37 people and left 1500 permanently disabled. That company is now defending law suits.
More recently an article in the British scientific journal Nature reported claims that Monsanto, one of the world’s largest biotech companies, had tried to prevent the publication of scientific analysis of its own data on the negative side effects of the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (BST) in the United States. The company has also been forced to recall genetically modified oil seed rape (canola) in Canada because it contained unapproved genetic material which the company says had been included by mistake.
Monsanto’s own "Round-Up Ready" soya has been imported into the UK since last Christmas and is now incorporated into processed foods without labelling, so consumers are now eating this material with neither their knowledge or consent. Approximately 60% of processed foods contain Soya. Monsanto’s modified Soya includes genetic material from the cauliflower mosaic virus which is very similar to the Hepatitis B virus and is related to HIV.
The very nature of such technology is that it frequently incorporates genetic material which, in thousands of years of evolution, has never been part of the human diet. To claim that you can predict the long term effects of such radical change represents arrogance of an extreme kind. Scientists previously thought that DDT, Thalidomide and Asbestos were all "safe". The truth is that science still remains hugely ignorant in many areas, and especially in the field of genetic manipulation.
Unless action is taken quickly the majority of our food will include genetically engineered components within only a few years. Genetically engineered food crops are already being grown in the UK and research shows that they are starting to cross breed in the wild with related natural plant varieties who then inherit the modified components.
You can slaughter a BSE infected cow, but you cannot recall a genetically engineered plant from the wild once its starts breeding with its natural relatives. Pollination takes place over large distances carried by the wind and insects. The introduction of this experimental technology is highly irresponsible. Austria, France, Italy, and Luxembourg have all recently introduced bans on the growing of genetically engineered maize imported from the United States, and the European Commission has been formally censured by the European Parliament for allowing commercial interests in this area to override health and environmental considerations.
More recently the government of Brazil has placed a ban on its farmers growing genetically engineered Soya (as well as other modified crops) from the United States because it knows that to do so will destroy world markets for Brazilian Soya. In fact, Brazil is now able to gain a premium on world markets for its Soya precisely because it is not genetically engineered. Market economists, better informed than those at the NFU, call this phenomenon "competitive advantage".
If Hampshire wants to destroy the future of its agriculture then more shallow thinking from the NFU on this subject is certainly going to help.
Yours faithfully,
William Treend
Natural Law Party Candidate for Portsmouth South, General Election 1997.
(FOOTNOTE: following this letter the National Farmers Union has expressed a willingness to establish a dialogue with the Natural Law Party's chief biotechnology adviser on this subject.)
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risks from genetic engineering
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