GE Trees, Fish, and Functional Foods
While OEFFA has taken a stand against Genetically Engineered Foods,
this article does not necessarily reflect the views of OEFFA.
For background
information on GE Foods and OEFFA's work, contact the OEFFA
office.
Promoting Healthier Junk Foods
While 800 million people in the world suffer severe
health problems from being malnourished, another 800 million people,
mainly in the industrialized North, suffer from obesity--closely related
to the public over consumption of junk foods, meat, and animal products.
Here again the Gene Giants tell us they've got a solution, namely genetically
engineered junk foods and factory-farmed meat (french fries, cooking
oil, beef, pork, margarine)which are lower in fats or calories. But
as food activists from <www.corporatewatch.org>in
Britain point out, the next generation of Frankenfoods are mainly "about
making basically unhealthy food (such as chips and crisps) a little bit
healthier... But even if they were to work as is claimed in the corporate
PR, these foods are in reality completely unnecessary when judged against
the benefits of a truly healthy and balanced diet. Instead, by convincing
consumers that unhealthy, fatty foods are nutritious, these new crops
might instead lead to a deterioration in people's health."
Genetically Engineered Tree Farms: The "Final Solution" to
Global Deforestation
Forestry and pulp paper production is now one of the largest and most
lucrative industries in the world, with an estimated value of the world's
timber harvest annually of $400 billion. Unfortunately for the planet
and its living creatures, corporate greed and unsustainable forestry
practices have caused massive deforestation and devastation to the planet's
biodiversity and carrying capacity. Confronted with rapidly accelerating
environmental damage and species extinction, and now undeniable global
climate disruption,a growing segment of the public have become alarmed
an concerned. As a consequence the large transnational timber and paper
corporations, such as International Paper, Weyerhauser, Boise-Cascade,
UPM-Kymmene (formerly Champion International), and Mitsubishi, along
with the oil, auto, and utilities industries, find themselves under increasing
public scrutiny and pressure.
Sensing a major business opportunity, Monsanto
and the Gene Giants have sat down and begun negotiating with the world's
largest timber and paper companies (as well as the other major greenhouse
gas/climate disruption culprits, the oil, auto, and utilities companies)
and have come up with a "final solution"--plant billions
of fast growing, herbicide-resistant,fiber-altered GE trees on tree
plantations all over the globe. This way transnational corporations
will be able to produce more timber and paper for the voracious global
market (without changing current forestry or paper industry practices),
soak up some of the climate-disrupting CO2 greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
(faster-growing trees on vast tree plantations will soak up more CO2),
and reduce toxic pollution in the paper industry. Down the road the biotech
lobby also promise us pest-resistant fruit trees and even tastier and
more nutritious fruit.
All this may sound rather nifty at first, until you start to think about
some of the downsides of gambling with the future of our trees, of tampering
with the genetic structure and life cycle of the world's forests. For
example:
* GE tree plantations will replace biologically
diverse forests with fast-growing,herbicide-resistant identical trees
planted in even rows with no "competing" plants growing underneath
them. Native forests will be logged and replaced by corporate tree
plantations even faster than they are now, since GE trees will grow
much faster and will be able to be sprayed with world record amounts
of toxic herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup.
* Trees produce enormous amounts of pollen, which
can travel up to hundreds of miles. Trees also distribute their genetic
material through seed dispersal,regeneration from roots, runners and
suckers--not to mention horizontal gene transfer to fungi, bacteria,
and viruses. Normal trees will inevitably cross with GE mutants (herbicide
resistant, fiber-altered, or Bt-spliced trees), creating "super trees" which
will crowd out natural forests. This in turn will kill off beneficial
insects, decrease the food available for wildlife, and force tree pests
into adjacent natural forest areas where they will wreak havoc.
* Fast-growing GE trees (which can grow more than three feet a month
and can be harvested in four years) use up tremendous quantities of water
and will kill off other trees and plants by depleting the water table.
In addition the leaves from Bt-spliced trees will create toxic soil conditions,
undermining the entire soil food web and natural systems of composting
on the forest floor.
* Scientists warn that the enormous quantities of pollen generated by
Bt-spliced and other GE trees will likely cause major allergic reactions
in humans.
* GE trees patented by Dow, Novartis, and other companies altered to
produce less lignin (the substance in the cell walls of trees and plants
that makes them strong and stiff) will cross-pollinate will trees and
other organisms and cause major alterations in the forest ecosystem.
* Timber and paper corporations promoting low-lignin trees say that
pulp paper processing will be able to use less chlorine and toxic chemicals
in dealing with GE trees--obscuring the fact that there are already commercially
viable non-timber low-lignin plants that we should be using to produce
paper products (hemp, kenaf, and residues from food crops) instead of
trees. Turning to low-lignin GE trees will also cover up the fact that
pulp and paper companies are deliberating poisoning the environment by
refusing to upgrade their mills with new technology that could enable
them to avoid using chlorine and other toxic chemicals and then discharging
their dioxin-laden wastes into the air and water.
* GE companies are planning to use Terminator or
Terminator-like technologies to produce GE trees which are sterile,
thereby not only making the trees grow faster but also giving them
a monopoly over their patented gene-altered tree varieties. Given the
imprecision of gene-splicing, the intricate,little understood, and
long-term evolution of trees in relation to changing climatic conditions,
and the inherent instability of the genome of genetically engineered
trees these Terminator traits will inevitable contaminate "normal" trees
all over the world. As one British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph put
it:
"Terminator trees, genetically engineered never
to flower, could ensure a silent spring in the forests of the future.
Such trees will grow faster than before, but will be devoid of the
bees, butterflies, moths,birds, and squirrels which depend on pollen,
seed, and nectar."
If all this sounds less than reassuring, how about
herbicide-resistant genetically engineered grass for lawns and golf
courses, a new product line being readied for mass commercialization
in the United States? See www.purefood.org/patent/grass.cfm
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