Genetically modified crops

Over the last decade agro-chemical giants like Monsanto and Syngenta have introduced one GM crop after another.  GM crops now dominate soybean, corn, canola and cotton production.  Farmers initially switched to GM crops for ease of weed and pest control, but with each year, new problems emerge for both farmers and consumers.

Loss of markets.  Consumers around the world are suspicious of GM crops, and food processors in key foreign markets don’t want them.  The cost in loss of overseas corn and soybean markets has already been substantial.  In 2000, DRC led the first U.S. farmer protest against a new GM crop and eventually succeeded in keeping Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat off the market.  Reports by Dr. Robert Wisner and Dr. Charles Benbrook provide the details. 

Consumer choice.  Unlike many countries, the United States has no national GM labeling law, so consumers have few choices if they want to avoid GM food.  Organic food must still meet GM-free standards, but U.S. organic production of corn, soybeans and canola has largely come to an end because of the risk of GM contamination.  Some local communities have taken action to bar organic food production, but Congress has considered federal legislation to override these laws. 

Contamination and weed resistance.  No technologies exist to guarantee separation of GM and non-GM crops in the field or in handling.  Federal setbacks for GM crop test plots are clearly inadequate.  A type of Liberty Link GM rice, which has never been  approved for human consumption and has been grown only in test plots, recently turned up in rice export shipments, with grave market consequences.  Roundup Ready crops have increased the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.  Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to it, and its days as a useful herbicide are numbered.  Roundup Ready genetics are finding their way into corn and soybean plants around the world, so that farmers are losing the right to grow non-GM crops. 

Health risks.   The federal government routinely determines that GM crops are “substantially equivalent” to non-GM counterparts without conducting any tests on health or nutrition.  Very little research has been done to explore whether foods from GM crops are actually safe to eat.  Some research on laboratory animals fed with GM food shows high mortality.  Read about the Russian GM study concerning GM soy and pregnant rats 

Monsanto v. U.S. farmers.  Seed-saving is a long-cherished right, which farmers are losing because of GM patents.  Monsanto has sued many U.S. farmers for patent infringement.  Some of them have never even planted Roundup Ready seed but have had their crops contaminated by cross-pollination from neighboring fields.  Read Monsanto v. U.S. Farmers, a report prepared by the Center for Food Safety.

Roundup Ready alfalfa.  In 2005, the federal government allowed the sale of Roundup Ready alfalfa seed.  Alfalfa is the first perennial crop to undergo genetic modification.  Click here for more information on the risks of Roundup Ready alfalfa.   DRC has joined the Center for Food Safety and other groups in filing suit to place a moratorium on further sales until a full Environmental Impact Study is completed.  The lawsuit is pending in federal court in California. 

Co-opting university research.  Decreasing public funding for university research has resulted in more and more partnerships between land-grant universities and agro-chemical companies to develop GM crops.  Such an agreement between Monsanto and North Dakota State University nearly led to commercialization of Roundup Ready wheat.  DRC obtained documents from NDSU and NDSU Research Foundation through open records requests over the past few years.  It took an Attorney General’s opinion to establish that the Research Foundation was a public entity subject to state open records law.  In September, 2006 DRC released a report summarizing its findings, and made recommendations for increased precautions and public input into seed research.  See the full text of the report.

Join DRC. You can help stop further genetic modification of food and crops by joining Dakota Resource Council.  Click here for details.