THE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SOYA BEAN
Not Real Food Monsanto's Soya Bean is the first crop ever to be sold as a food ingredient which has been manipulated genetically.
It's not REAL food. Instead, the genetically engineered soya has been radically manipulated to insert foreign genes which, given the choice, we would almost certainly not want to eat. Genes from bacteria, a virus, and a petunia..... We have never before eaten these "ingredients" in the human diet. Yet the makers assure us it is safe. How do they know? They have done no long term tests to prove it. Instead they have disregarded scientists fears that more allergies could be caused by the added "foreign" proteins. Other health problems are entirely unpredictable. If we eat genetically engineered soya we are all in a giant experiment - waiting to see the results.
Meanwhile, the damage is being done. The genetically engineered soyacrop could devastate our environment, with experts predicting that our countryside could be changed irreversibly. Weedkiller resistance for example- built into the soya by the genetic scientists - could spread into the environment creating super weeds that need more or stronger chemicals to control them.
If we accept this soya, other products, also resistant to the same toxic herbicide, are being readied for release into our environment. Consumers are saying "no" to genetically engineered food - now foodproducers must resist it, and provide us with the REAL food we want.
GENETIC ENGINEERING THREATENS OUR HEALTH Yet no one can guarantee that eating it is safe. The genes incorporated in the new soya bean have never before been part of the human diet. Eating them makes each of us part of an experiment with an unpredictable end. All we can do is wait for the results.
Regulatory authorities in the US and EU who have okayed the soya for planting and use in foods didn't conduct their own tests but relied on information given by Monsanto. In the US, where `regulatory relief' was granted to the genetic engineering industry, a manufacturer simply has to state that its product is safe. No independent scientific evidence, toxicological studies or long term food studies are needed to gain approval.
In Europe the soya was approved despite Governments expressing concern. In the UK, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) said
"It is .... impossible to predict what long-term effects, if any, the genetic modification may have on the plant." (MAFF 1995)
Monsanto's own data failed to give the whole picture. Even though the soya is specifically designed to be used with glyphosate, Monsanto's tests for the safety of the beans to human health were done on beans which had not been treated with the herbicide. The potential build up of toxins and substances that cause allergies urgently needs to be investigated.
Proof already exists that allergens can be transferred to plants through genetic engineering. Scientists trying to add a brazil nut gene to soya beans had to withdraw the end result because it caused allergies in humans. Nuts are a well known allergen, and could be tested for. Others will be unknown until they start to take affect, and as soya is so widely used it will be difficult to identify this as the cause of any problems and to do anything about it.
"Most biotechnology companies use microorganisms rather than food plants as gene donors, even though the allergenic potential of these newly introduced microbial proteins is uncertain, unpredictable and untestable." (Dr. Nestle (1996) Allergies to transgenic foods. New England Journal of Medicine 334: 726-728)
GENETIC ENGINEERING MEANS MORE POLLUTION But the "built-in" herbicide resistance of their crop carries even greater risks to the environment. If the herbicide resistant gene is passed on to local weeds, the new soya could help create super weeds impossible to control without greater use of ever more toxic chemicals. If farmers are tempted to use more glyphosate because their crop is immune to it, this could add to the spread of herbicide resistance, as well as building up more harmful chemicals in the environment.
The chemicals in glyphosate are lethal to most vegetation. While Roundup Ready soya will keep on growing, everything around it that is green will die. Rare plants, trees, and other flora will be killed, along with beneficial animals such as ladybirds, lacewing-flies and earthworms.
Damage to one part of an ecosystem has a knock on effect on others. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has identified 74 endangered plant species which may be made extinct by glyphosate. Genetically Engineered Soya Relies on Weedkiller Glyphosate
GLYPHOSATE IS KNOWN TO:
Once in the environment these changes to nature are irreversible. Such a destructive influence in the environment can hardly be called "green".
NO CHOICE FOR CONSUMERS The three main food producers for Europe, Unilever, Nestle and Danone use US soybean in many of their products. Since so many consumers are opposed to genetically engineered products in their food, some branches of these food producers have said they prefer not to use them but Monsanto are denying both consumers and producers any choice. By refusing to separate the genetically engineered beans from the natural ones Monsanto are making it impossible for food processors to refuse or label their products. On 13 November 1996 the European Parliament demanded clear labelling of GE-products and segregation of GE soya, yet there are no laws to enforce this.
Segregation is possible. Monsanto are already collecting the seeds from GE crops to be used for future planting, and tests exist which can identify the GE soya from all the rest.
With consumers increasingly demanding GE free food the food producers must respond and call for separation or avoid Monsantos tainted product. Kraft Jacobs Suchard, fourth largest food company in Europe has said that for the foreseeable future it will only use soya free from genetic engineering in its European products. Now its up to Unilever, Nestle and Danone to do the same.
WHO MADE THE SOYA AND WHY? The makers, American chemical giant Monsanto (who made Agent Orange defoliant as used in the Vietnam war) say this will mean more soya from each crop, but they cannot guarantee it. They already produce the weedkiller, glyphosate, (brand name Roundup); now they produce the only bean (Roundup Ready) that can be sprayed with it during growth. Normally soya is too delicate to spray once sprouting from the ground. Since two of its products - the bean and the weedkiller are now so closely linked, Monsanto gets to sell more of both.
HOW DO WE GET THE SOYA? Beans are shipped to Europe to go to processors who crush them to make oil, or extract derivatives such as lecithin which goes into chocolate. Then food processors such as Unilever, Danone and Nestle buy these products to use them in our food.
The US companies also sell seed to farmers all over the world. The soya beans are already being grown in Argentina. Experimental field trials have been done in Canada, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan and Costa Rica. But even farmers do not really benefit. Using the bean in the USA, for example, ties the farmers to a contract with Monsanto. They pay a premium for the seed and agree to certain conditions: to use only Monsanto's Round-Up herbicide; not to use any of their harvest for the next year's sowing; and to allow spot checks by Monsanto for three years to ensure they are sticking to the agreement.
Although farmers may see short term reductions in costs they may ultimately lose out if the consumer says no to genetically engineered soya. While small scale and organic farmers may be driven completely out of business as more emphasis is put on large scale, intensive farming.
SOYA IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG Others are being designed to be glyphosate resistant - oilseed rape, sugar beet, maize, potato, tomatoes, cotton and flax, for instance. This means more and more glyphosate will be used in the environment, causing more unecesssary damage to plant and animal life, and an ever increasing build up of residues in the soil.
No one has calculated the risks this brings - or can guarantee it won't cause massive future problems for agriculture and the environment. It's just one big genetic experiment that we're all being made a part of.
Most of us eat soya. 60% of processed supermarket foods contain it ... some 30,000 food products including bread, chocolate, cakes, margarine, ice cream, biscuits, pasta, and vegetable oil. For vegetarians it is one of the healthiest non-meat sources of protein. Soya beans are also used as a high protein food supplement for livestock, just one more route into our food chain. If use of genetically engineered soya goes unchecked, we will be eating more and more of it every day.
Monsanto like to say their mutant bean is a "green bean" because only one herbicide will be needed to control weeds and the killing chemical in glyphosate breaks down in soil.
The very first American harvest of genetically engineered soya was gathered in 1996 with one million acres devoted to the new crop. Europe is one of the biggest buyers of American soya beans, importing around 14 million tonnes every year. In 1996 only 2% of the US crop was genetically engineered, but if the market accepts it this will escalate to around 50% or more in 1998. (Eurocommerce)
The three new genes genetically engineered into the soya bean - from a bacteria, a cauliflower virus and a petunia - don't do a thing for the taste, cost or nutritional value of the bean. Instead the unusual genetic combination - which would never be created by nature - makes the soya resistant to a weed killer.
America produces over half the world's soya. The beans travel on trucks from the "cornbelt" in Iowa to the main inland harbours along the Mississipi. Here they are stored in silos until they go to New Orleans to be loaded on cargo ships. It's here that the beans are mixed by international grain traders - the main ones being multinational Cargill, Central Soya and Archer Daniel Midlands (ADM).
The Soya bean is only the first genetically engineered crop on the market and industry is hoping it will steam roller the customer into accepting the principle of genetically engineered foods. If consumers swallow this product hundreds of other foodstuffs with radically altered genetic make-ups will reach our stores.