Socialist Action /August 2002
Genetic Engineering - Danger Along the
Food Chain?
Yucca nuke fight not over
Thanks to the nuclear industry's lobbying, the Senate gave
President Bush the green light last month to proceed with plans for a nuclear
waste dump at Yucca Mountain, near Las Vegas, Nevada.
Under the plan, some 77,000 tons of nuclear waste would
be trucked to Yucca Mountain through communities all over the country.
Yucca Mountain, which is sacred to Native Americans, sits
on an aquifer potentially important to the growing Las Vegas population.
And the area is subject to earthquakes. Nevertheless, industry advertisements
insist the waste will be safely contained for the next 10,000 years-more
or less.
Most Democrats, along with Republicans, sided with the
nuclear industry on the vote. But the plan still faces a long fight in the
courts and by environmental forces.
By ROLAND SHEPPARD
In the July 1999 issue of Socialist Action, I wrote an article titled
"Butterflies are Free," which is reprinted in the pamphlet, "Whither
Humanity" (available from Socialist Action Books, $2.50). Recent evidence
has served to bolster the conclusions of that article about the dangers
of genetically engineered plants.
In the 1999 article, I reported that, according to the journal Nature,
the pollen from genetically engineered corn containing a toxin gene called
Bt had killed 44 percent of the monarch butterfly caterpillars who fed on
milkweed leaves dusted with it. Caterpillars fed with conventional pollen
all survived.
Since nearly 25 percent of the U.S. corn crop now contains this gene
and the Corn Belt states of the Midwest are where half of the monarch butterflies
are produced each year, there is a distinct possibility that the number
of monarchs will drastically decline.
Due to the unexpected results of the monarch butterfly study, scientists
are beginning to question the potential environmental effects of scores
of other genetically engineered crops being introduced into the agricultural
fields.
In the earlier article I raised the question: Why weren't such studies
done before introducing genetically engineered corn, soy, cotton,
and other crops over millions of acres of farm land?
When it became public knowledge that Bt was killing butterflies, it may
have seen harmless to human beings. Unfortunately, as untested genetically
engineered products move up the food chain, they become more and more concentrated
in the bodies of the animals that eat the animals that eat the corn.
The "body counts" from the untested Bt has now moved from butterflies
to pigs. An article from Organic Consumers (www.organicconsumers.org/
toxic/riddleonhogs.cfm) titled "Bt Corn Causes Breeding Problem
in Pigs Bt Corn Linked to Hog Breeding Problems," submitted by Jim
Riddle for its April 29, 2002, edition, states: "The Iowa Farm Bureau
Spokesman contained an alarming story on sow breeding problems related
to the feeding of genetically engineered Bt corn."
"According to the article," Riddle writes, "Shelby County,
Iowa, farmer Jerry Rosman was alarmed when farrowing rates in his sow herd
plummeted nearly 80 percent. Rosman, who has nearly 30 years of farrowing
experience, checked and double-checked all of the usual suspect causes.
He tested for diseases, verified his artificial insemination methods were
being properly implemented, and poured over his nutritional program. But
he found nothing out of the ordinary.
"Eventually, Rosman became aware of four other producers within
a 15-mile radius of his farm whose herds had nearly identical pseudopregnancies.
The herds had different management styles, different breeding methods and
different swine genetics.
"A common denominator, Rosman says, is that all of the operations
fed their herds the same Bt corn hybrids. Laboratory tests revealed their
corn contained high levels of Fusarium mold. Rosman says researchers typed
the Fusarium down to four strains, and two of them (Fusarium subglutinans
and Fusarium moniliforme) were consistent in all of the producers' samples.
"One of the producers subsequently switched back to regular non-Bt
corn, and pseudopregnancy is no longer a problem within that herd.
"Rosman believes the problem manifested itself on his farm because
he planted 100 percent of the same brand of genetically engineered Bt seed
corn and fed 100 percent of that corn to his livestock. According to the
article, Rosman isn't sure whether or not he'll be planting any corn on
his land this year. An agronomist has told him that a regular rotation of
corn and soybeans might not get rid of whatever gene has contaminated his
corn ground."
The "$1 million question" is what happens to humans who eat
Bt corn or pork, beef, and other animals fed Bt corn? Since we are also
mammals, can one really believe that it is not a danger to humans? Since
humans take longer to mature, reproductive hazards could appear themselves
in our children when they become adults.
The deaths of butterflies should have been a forewarning, like the death
of canaries are a warning to miners in a mine shaft. Any sane society would
immediately take precautionary action.
And yet, the government has taken no action to protect human lives-just
precautions to protect chemical companies' profits-allowing Monsanto, Dupont,
and other corporations to knowingly poison the population and threaten humanity's
future.
Socialist Action /August 2002 |