> Food and Nutrition

Biotechnology On Your Plate
by author Jeffrey M. Smith

We can all rest easier knowing that Health Canada assumes genetically modified (GM) foods are safe–right?

Not so. Their science turns out to be flawed and these controversial gene-spliced crops are now linked to significant health problems.

Genetic engineering allows scientists to take genes from one species and transfer them into the DNA of other species. Biotech companies had plans to genetically modify nearly all commercial food crops, but consumer concern about safety has restricted them to primarily four major types–soy, corn, cotton, and canola.

Despite biotech promises of designer traits, such as drought-resistance and improved nutrition, these crops today have just two traits. About 19 percent have added bacterial genes that produce a pesticide called Bt toxin. Another 68 percent are herbicide tolerant, which allows farmers to spray weed killer over the crops without killing them. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready plants, for example, survive an otherwise deadly dose of the company’s Roundup herbicide. The other 13 percent are engineered with both these traits.

GM crops entered our food supply in 1996 with little fanfare, no required labels, and dangerously few safety studies. Health Canada’s approvals of these foods, according to a 2000 review by Professor Ann Clark, a University of Guelph plant physiologist, have been “largely an assumptions-based process.” The agency’s safety assessment of Roundup Ready cotton illustrates their over-reliance on wishful thinking.

Health Risks? What Health Risks?

GM cotton is not just for fabric. Its seeds are processed into pulp for animal feed and cooking oil for human consumption in snack products such as chips. According to their website, “Health Canada is of the opinion that refined oil from [Roundup Ready cotton] is as safe and nutritious as cottonseed oil from current commercial cotton” and does not “raise concerns related to safety.” Their assessments are narrowly focused on the protein produced from inserted genes. Proteins can trigger allergies, be toxic, or block nutrient absorption. Since Monsanto claims that oil from the cottonseed had no detectable protein, Health Canada assumed that it posed no risks and needed no testing. But sometimes oils do contain enough protein residues to be dangerous: in one study, for example, the residues of allergenic proteins were discovered in peanut oil.

Even if the cottonseed oil were virtually protein-free, it doesn’t mean that the GM version is safe. The process of creating a GM crop can create unpredicted damage in its DNA. The Royal Society of Canada stated in a 2001 report to Health Canada that “the default prediction” for GM crops includes “a range of collateral changes in expression of other genes, changes in the pattern of proteins produced and/or changes in metabolic activities.” These unintended and incidental changes could produce dangerous toxins, allergens, or carcinogens, which, if fat soluble, could end up in the oil–and in our food.

In light of these unknown risks, health and science experts worldwide advocate using the better-safe-than-sorry approach known as the “precautionary principle.” They argue that we should not expose the public to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), even if we have not yet identified harmful substances and their effects. But biotech companies, like big tobacco before them, insist that we should assume their products are safe. Health Canada agreed.

DNA Damage

Genetic engineering damages plant DNA in several ways. The first is the gene insertion process, which is accomplished by either shooting genes from a gene gun into a plate of cells, or using bacteria to infect plant cells with foreign genes. Both create mutations in and around the insertion site and elsewhere in the genome (the total genetic material of an organism).

The altered cell is then cloned into a plant. This process results in hundreds or thousands of additional mutations throughout the DNA. In the end, the GM plant’s DNA can be 2 to 4 percent different from its natural parent. Native genes can be scrambled, deleted, or permanently turned on or off.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the author of Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods (Chelsea Green, 2007).

Source: alive #308, June 2008