Green Options

Have seasonal allergies? Just warm up some genetically modified rice for relief!

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute for Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukubahope that you think this solution sounds simply delicious. They’ve developed a rice that could help alleviate the itchiness and watery eyes associated with hayfever. And after safety tests on macaques (monkeys), researchers are excited to take the next step: humans trials.

I’d like to try this GM rice in people in the near future.

Researchers point out that the 26-week long trial on the monkeys was for safety, not efficacy. So how would this mutant rice work?

There’s an organic garden on Barack Obama’s lawn. The First Family eats local, organic, and seasonal food.

So why did the President’s scientific advisory team for last fall’s election include Sharon Long, a former member of Monsanto’s board of directors?

And why did Obama recently appoint Barbara Schaal, a plant geneticist with connections to Monsanto, to his Science and Technology Advisory Council?

Last month, Canada, the United States, and Australia announced unprecedented plans to join forces and commercialize genetically-engineered wheat, saying that biotechnology was crucial to the future of the wheat industry. The National Farmers Union of Canada, however, immediately refuted the tri-country claim, pointing out “the overwhelming majority of farmers in Canada are still opposed to the introduction of genetically-modified wheat.”

On June 1, fifteen organizations across Canada, the United States and Australia publicly confirmed that opposition with the release of “A Definitive Global Rejection of Genetically Engineered Wheat“, a powerful document speaking out against biotech wheat.

But the battle against GM wheat is not a simple one, nor is it restrained to select countries.

The chemical giant Bayer — the same Bayer which brought you aspirin, heroin and mustard gas, and currently manufactures a wide variety of pesticides, herbicides, polyurethanes and other questionable chemicals — has wrapped their toxic fingers around our rice.

This is nothing new. The company’s glufosinate-resistant LL62 genetically modified rice isn’t commercially grown, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t already entered the global food supply.

We’ve talked a lot about genetically modified crops here at Eat. Drink. Better — the ongoing battle in the EU over Monsanto’s MON-810 maize, Obama’s refusal to halt genetic engineering in the US sugar-beet industry, and the politics behind it all.

But one frankenfood we haven’t discussed is wheat. Why? Well, mainly because it doesn’t exist.  There simply aren’t any commercially-available strains of genetically modified wheat available.

The United States, Canada, and Australia want to change that.  In an unprecedented joint statement released yesterday, top wheat organizations from the three countries announced that they intend to “work toward the goal of synchronized commercialization of biotech traits in our wheat crops…we believe it is in all of our best interests to introduce biotech wheat varieties in a coordinated fashion.”

In the European Union, there is only one permissible genetically-modified crop — and that is Monsanto’s MON 810 engineered corn.  But current law allows individual countries to bar the production of genetically-modified crops, and the MON 810 ban has been gaining momentum throughout the continent. This is despite the European Union’s continuous fight to force GM production, such as in the recent failed attempt to overturn Austria and Hungary’s ban.

Late last month, Luxembourg joined Hungary, France, Austria and Greece in banning Monsanto’s corn.  According to Luxembourg’s Health Minister Mars Di Bartolomeo, studies addressing the grain’s safety have failed to “conclude that MON810 is completely innocuous”.

Yesterday, Germany brought the number of dissenting countries to six by also banning MON 810.  German Agriculture Minister, Ilse Aigner, went a step beyond Luxembourg’s position, and stated outright that she feels “there are just reasons to assume that the genetically modified maize MON 810 represents a danger for the environment.”

Recent data showing sugar’s rising popularity over high fructose corn syrup is good news, right?  Not if that sugar is genetically-modified.  In fact, if you’ve purchased beet sugar recently, there’s a very good chance that you’ve unintentionally consumed a genetically-modified product. Industry statistics show that more than half of the sugar beets grown in the US in 2008 were genetically-modified varieties.

If that isn’t enough to make you cringe, consider the following: most of those engineered beets were Roundup-resistant, courtesy of agri-tech giant Monsanto.  Last autumn under the Bush administration, the USDA approved the Monsanto seed without preparing a standard Environmental Impact Statement.   But certainly President Obama, with an organic garden on the White House Lawn, would have done things differently.

Wouldn’t he?

On the table in the European Union yesterday was the question of MON 810 Maize, a genetically-modified type of of corn.  Developed by the United States-based Monsato Company, MON 810 releases an insecticide intended to kill European corn borer larvae before the pests can harm the plant.  Although the engineered corn is currently approved for cultivation in the European Union, individual member-states within the EU have the authority to enact bans against growing GM crops.

Hungary, Austria, Greece and France have already made a stand against MON 810 by completely banning its cultivation within their borders.  But yesterday, the European Commission attempted to reverse Hungary and Austria’s ban.

After writing my post earlier this month about genetically engineered ingredients and animal cloning, I was given the opportunity to speak with Lisa Bunin, Campaign Coordinator with the Center for Food Safety.

We spoke about some exciting new developments in the fight against genetically modified beet sugar.

On February 12, 2009 several food safety, environmental, and corporate watchdog groups launched the Non-Genetically Modified (GM) Beet Sugar Registry.

The same government agency that has failed to protect us from salmonella in peanut butter, BPA leaching into our children’s foods and beverages, melamine in formula, among other health dangers, will soon be allowing the by-products of genetically engineered animals to reach our grocery stores.  In January 2009, the FDA released the “Guidance for Industry #187″, which provides regulation guidelines that pertain to genetically engineered animals containing heritable recombinant DNA constructs.  Therefore, these are not even enforceable regulations on the animal agriculture industry.

A secret document is showing that the UK government is trying to sabotage a safeguard protecting farmers who unknowingly grow genetically modified crops. If removed, European farmers could sow billions of GM seeds annually without even realizing it.