GM corn
Despite promises from the GM industry that contamination problems with GM crops would never happen, the truth is somewhat different.
In recent years a worrying amount of these contamination scandals have been discovered - GM crops have contaminated non-GM crops, polluted non-GM seeds, have been grown illegally and in some cases ended up in the food chain. The worryingly lax response from the UK Government to these GM contamination incidents does not bode well for the future. The Government has never adequately punished the GM industry when they have broken the law and contaminated other crops. Letting them off so lightly sends out the wrong message and unless Government changes its attitude, organic and conventional farming could be threatened in the future.
Recent contamination incidents include:
StarLink
In 2000 a variety of GM maize called StarLink, designed by GM company Aventis as an animal feed and not permitted to be fed to humans, was found to have contaminated taco shells and corn chips in the USA. Testing found that 1% of the maize used in these products was StarLink and subsequently contaminated foods were discovered as far away as Japan. The US Government had not given StarLink approval as a human food because of concerns that it may trigger allergies in some people and over 300 food brands were recalled from supermarket shelves. Kraft, one of the makers of the tacos recalled all of its taco products in the entire USA and the controversy forced Kellogg's to shut down production lines for almost two weeks to make sure there was no StarLink in their system. Aventis was forced to buy the entire 2000 StarLink harvest in the USA to ensure that no more contamination occurred. The cost of doing this was at least $100m. Once possible lawsuits are finished, it is estimated that the total cost to Aventis could be closer to $1 billion.
How did this incident happen? GM companies continually say that there is no way that GM crops or foods will get mixed up with non-GM supplies, yet StarLink showed that they could. Some American farmers said they were not told that StarLink must be kept separate from other crops because it was not approved for human food. Others said that while they were told that StarLink had not been approved for human consumption, they were also informed that approval was expected shortly - which was not true. Hence, StarLink was mixed in with other maize and shipped to food companies.
ProdiGene
In November 2002 $3 million worth of soya beans in the USA were destroyed after it was discovered they had been contaminated with GM maize seeds. The incident occurred because the soya was planted on the same site used to grow GM "pharmaceutical" maize by a GM firm called ProdiGene in 2001. Seeds dropped by the maize grew in 2002 and contaminated the new soya bean crop, which was harvested and stored prior to being sent to food companies. The US government realised that contamination occurred and ordered the soya beans to be destroyed.
Scientists can genetically engineer plants to grow proteins for use in medicines for humans and animals, but these plants are not intended for human food use. ProdiGene's GM pharmaceutical maize was designed to create a vaccine for pigs - the company received a $250,000 fine and were forced to buy back all the contaminated soya beans at a cost of $3 million.
Advanta seed contamination
In May 2000 conventional non-GM oilseed rape imported from Canada and sold in the UK, France, Germany and Sweden by seed company Advanta was found to be contaminated with GM oilseed rape. Hundreds of British farmers sowed nearly 15,000 hectares with this GM-contaminated seed that was not approved by the Europe Union for release into the environment. Rather than immediately ordering the destruction of the contaminated crops, the Government only told farmers to dispose of them after harvest - allowing the possible contamination of non-GM and organic oilseed rape and wild relatives to take place in the process. Farmers in France were ordered by the Government to destroy their crops immediately. Advanta claimed they were innocent of any wrong doing, but farmers were urged by Government to take legal action. Eventually Advanta compensated the farmers involved but amazingly the Government decided not to impose any fines on the company.
It seems likely that GM crops cross-pollinating their non-GM neighbours originally caused the contamination in Canada. As the nearest GM crops were at least 800 metres away this raises questions over the effectiveness of separation distances between GM and conventional crops - particularly in the UK, where the current separation distances are only 50 metres for oilseed rape. This shows the risk that GM crops pose to conventional and organic farmers.
Aventis Farm Scale Evaluation contamination
Further evidence that biotechnology companies are unable to manage the release of GM crops in the UK came to light in August 2002. It was revealed that all of the GM oilseed rape trials run by GM company Aventis (now Bayer) as part of the Farm Scale Evaluations had been contaminated with an unapproved GM oilseed rape variety. The unapproved variety, resistant to the herbicide Liberty, also contained a gene that confers resistance to the antibiotics neomycin and kanamycin and had been grown for over 3 years without being noticed. This was despite the Government's own GM inspectorate visiting Aventis in the spring of 2002 and checking for possible contamination. In fact, the contamination was only discovered by a small Scottish agricultural college.
No one knows how the two GM varieties became mixed up, but Government advisors described it as "a serious breach of regulations." However the Government then decided to allow the contaminated crops to be harvested as normal, claiming that the unapproved variety posed no risks to human health or the environment. Both the House of Lords and the British Medical Association have called for a ban on the use of antibiotic resistance genes in GM crops as the risk to human health from antibiotic resistance developing in micro-organisms is so great. Aventis employees could face up to 5 years in jail and unlimited fines, but it is doubtful if the Government will take any action against the company. This whole incident shows that GM companies have shown they cannot even run a series of small trials properly - who knows what mistakes they will make if they ever get the chance to grow GM crops commercially.
