Petition to Congress seeks labels on transgenic foods
Updated 6:44 PM ET June 17, 1999
By Julie Vorman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Nearly a half-million Americans
urged Congress on Thursday to
require labels on foods containing genetically-modified
soybeans, corn and other ingredients, reflecting growing
consumer unease around the world about transgenic crops.
A petition drive, coordinated by a little-known political party,
is one of the first signs that U.S. consumer support for
bioengineered crops may be wavering.
While activists in the European Union have lashed out for
months against what they call "Frankenstein foods," American
shoppers have been relatively complacent about the swelling
numbers of farm fields planted with genetically-modified (GM)
corn, soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes and other crops.
U.S. farmers, agribusiness and the U.S. Agriculture
Department have embraced biotechnology to reduce the
amount of pesticides and chemicals used on fields, and to
increase the size and quality of crops. This year, more than 60
million acres of the nation's fields will be planted with GM
seeds.
A petition, signed by nearly 500,000 consumers, was delivered
Thursday to House Minority Whip David Boniors, a Michigan
Democrat, by leaders of the Natural Law Party. The small
party, linked to a group of transcendental meditation advocates
in Iowa, said the sheer number of signatures shows that the
issue is important to mainstream America."
"We are not calling for a boycott of genetically-engineered
foods. We simply want labels on them so consumers can make
a choice about what they buy," said Adam Dobritsky, a
spokesman for the party. "We also want the government to
conduct an investigation into the long-term safety of this food."
The petition comes at a time when more uncertainties are
coming to light about transgenic crops.
Last month, Cornell University researchers found that while the
crop "Bt corn" was safe for humans, its pollen could kill
monarch butterfly larvae. Scientists in the study cautioned their
lab tests did not duplicate real-world conditions.
Bt is shorthand for Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria found in the
soil that is toxic to the European corn borer. U.S. farmers
routinely sprayed corn and cotton crops with Bt to kill the pest
until three years ago, when scientists added the Bt gene to
seeds as a built-in pesticide.
"We're one incident away from having GM foods become a
very big issue here in the United States," said the head of one
large consumer advocacy group, speaking on condition of
anonymity. "Unlike foodborne disease, where the government
has rules in place to handle any outbreak, there is no real
regulatory review process in place right now to keep up with
all the biotechnology changes that are happening."
Currently, the U.S. Agriculture Department regulates field trials
of new crops, the Food and Drug Administration handles food
product labels, and the Environmental Protection Agency
oversees anything related to pesticides.
U.S. food companies, worried about the EU concerns spilling
into the American market, will soon launch a $1 million public
education campaign on GM foods.
"We want to deliver all the information that consumers may
want, through 800-numbers, pamphlets, Web sites and other
materials," said Lisa Katic of the Grocery Manufacturers
Association. "We want them to know there is no significant
difference between GM crops and conventional crops."
In contrast to growing concerns about transgenic food in the
U.S. and widespread worry in Europe, Brazil last month ended
its ban on the commercial planting of genetically modified
crops. On May 17, Brazil approved the sale of Roundup
Ready soybean seeds produced by the local arm of U.S. life
sciences giant Monsanto Co.
Per Pinstrup-Anderson, director of the non-profit International
Food Policy Research Institute, said GM food labels may be a
good idea in principle but are impossible to carry out. Oil
squeezed from GM soybeans and corn is commonly used in
cooking oil, salad dressings, margarines, chips, snacks and
countless other processed foods.
"The government should promote a national debate with facts,
not emotions," Pinstrup-Anderson said. "There is a good
reason to believe that something similar to the public reaction in
Europe will happen in this country over the next couple of
years."
The U.S. government also should launch more research into
potential risks created by inserting genes from known allergens
such as peanuts into other crops, and the use of antibiotic
resistant marker genes to test new plants, he said.
"I would not hesitate to feed GM food to my children and
grandchildren," Pinstrup-Anderson said. "But as long as there
are so many concerns about this, more research must be
done."
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