This coming growing season, genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa is for the first time going to be added to the GE soy and GE corn that is fed to most livestock in the US. This is the result of an unexpected decision made a few weeks ago by the USDA. The genes in the seeds were altered by the insertion of foreign genes so that the alfalfa won’t die from sprays of glyphosate herbicide (Roundup).
Roundup has been sprayed intensively for about a decade on GE soy and GE corn with the result that the weeds evolve on the farms to be resistant to Roundup. The Roundup Ready gene trait apparently loses its benefit to the farmer within about four years, and some say herbicide resistance problems begin showing up by the second year. Yet there is no protection for neighboring non-GE plants from permanent contamination by drift and insect movement of the GE pollen to non-GE plants. This is of special concern in Mexico, the homeland of many wild varieties of corn, now that Monsanto is being allowed to market GE corn seed there.
With the release of the GE alfalfa, there may be a decline in availability of organic animal feed required for organic meat, dairy, and egg production. There is a low tolerance for GE contamination for certified organic products. Wholesale buyers test to see if organic products are contaminated. Each purchasing company and country can set its own tolerances for contamination of conventional and organic food. Organic animal products could become more scarce and expensive in the US and farmers may lose exporting opportunities to countries that have outlawed GE foods. A farmer may have followed organic practices and have a certified organic label and never bought GE seed, but if the test shows contamination that happened unknowingly from drift from a non-organic farm, a buyer that requires a certain tolerance has to reject it. If it is highly perishable, it might become unmarketable even in non-organic distribution channels or have to be sold at a lower price.
Some suggest that the allowance for GE contamination in organic standards could be raised. Dr. Charles Benbrook of The Organic Center states that the amount of contamination from drift onto organic alfalfa farms is not going to be enough to worry consumers.
It is hard to keep up with the science around this issue or understand it well enough to follow the debate. There are people on both sides who are very passionate about their point of view and many who state their argument in extremes. The word from Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup, and partner company Forage Genetics, producer of the GE alfalfa seed, is that spraying Roundup for weed control on these GE crops makes the food cheaper due to lower costs for weeding. They say this technology is necessary to feed a hungry world. Experts in sustainable agriculture disagree, opposing such intensive use of herbicides that harm the soil ecology. They recommend the precautionary principle when discussing GE, fearing that GE crops could be a dangerous threat to more stable biologically intensive farming systems that have been shown capable of providing for community food security everywhere. Organic systems can produce food more reliably, and this food also has more nutrition and higher levels of various health-supporting antioxidants and other factors, according to The Organic Center.
If GE food is valuable to society, why would producers not take pride in putting that on the food label? The Center for Food Safety says that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never developed federal rules to protect consumers from the food safety risks of genetically engineered foods. Unlike crops from traditional breeding, genetically engineered crops contain antibiotic-resistant marker genes, viral promoters and foreign proteins never before consumed by humans or livestock animals. The FDA relies on GE seed manufacturing companies to assess their safety. How much of non-organic sources of garden seeds is contaminated? Under current regulations Americans don’t have enough choice to be able to protect themselves from an unknown threat in the food supply even when they grow their own vegetables.
- Jan Dietrick
