Seeds of revolt
Eurotoques are a European association of chefs who are primarily concerned with supporting the producers of the best foods in Europe, and thus maintaining the fine quality and flavour of ingredients. They wish to maintain traditional dishes and traditional ways of preparing and cooking foods.
As an organisation, they have taken a vigorous anti-GMO stance: “The prospect of genetically modified crops being released into our environment is possibly the most worrying development yet in the agri-food world and one which may have far reaching effects on all aspects of food, health and the environment.”
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is a plant, animal or micro-organism whose genetic code has been altered to give it characteristics it does not naturally have. GMOs normally include a combination of DNA from viruses and bacteria together with DNA from other plants and/or animals. These infect the modified organism with new combinations of genes, proteins and allergens whose long-term health and ecological impacts are impossible to predict. Some scientific evidence shows GMO seeds and crops to be genetically unstable, leading to crop failures, and the creation of superweeds.
GMO seeds and crops are normally patented by transnational agri-biotech corporations which charge farmers an annual licensing fee to grow their GM seeds. There are many documented cases of cross contamination of conventional and organic farms as a result of wind-borne pollen drift, seed dispersal by insects, animals and humans, and gene transfer across species boundaries by microbial organisms.
This, according to Michael O’Callaghan, coordinator of GM Free Ireland Network, creates superweeds, reduces biodiversity and threatens human, animal and plant health.
The introduction of GMO animal feed, seeds, crops anywhere in Ireland - whether through deliberate legal release or contamination - would give transnational agri-biotech companies like Monsanto patented ownership of Irish farmers’ seeds and crops. It would burden farmers and food producers with more red tape, restrict our access to EU export markets, and ruin our reputation as the food island.
Food containing GMOs have been on the supermarket shelves, some labelled and some not, for over 10 years. Farmers confirm that almost all animal feed contains genetically modified soya; organic feed is GMO-free. According to the FSAI, meat from animals fed on GMO is not required to be labelled.
In just a decade, agricultural transgenics has been transformed from a fledgling science into a dominant player in the world’s food supply, from almost zero acreage in the early 1990s to more than 160 million acres worldwide in 2004. Already, 80% of the US soyabean crop is genetically modified and almost 40% of US corn, 25% of the world’s cotton, canola, corn and soyabean is now transgenic. At least 60% of processed food sold in supermarkets contains GM ingredients.
In 2000, scientists at Purdue University in the US inserted a salmon growth promoter gene into a freshwater fish called medaka. The fish grew faster and had a mating advantage, but also a much higher mortality rate.
Scientists calculated that if a mere 60 of these fish escaped into a wild population of 60,000, they would result in local extinction in 40 generations.
There are many similar stories. One particularly frightening episode was reported recently by environmental author John Robbins. When students at Oregon State university were testing a transgenic variant of soil bacteria, they found they had accidentally invented a fungus killer that, had it escaped into the wild, “could have ended all plant life on this continent”.
The implications are terrifying. Biotech companies argue that GM crops produce higher yields and need less artificial pesticides and so help to feed the world.
However, aid agencies refute this claim and to point out that the principal cause of world hunger is distribution difficulties and local politics. The reality is that we cannot know what the long-term effects of eating food containing GMOs will be on animals and humans because there is no control group.
In the words of Dr Ml Antoniou, a clinical geneticist and senior lecturer in pathology at Guys Hospital in London: “Once released into the environment, unlike a BSE epidemic or chemical spill, genetic mistakes cannot be contained, recalled or cleaned up, but will be passed on to all future generations.”
So once the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting him back in.
For more information, see www.gmfreeireland.org and www.eurotoquesirl.org
