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Genetically-engineered Roundup-ready soybeans



For your info - good summary info on this important issue - P. Dines

--- Forward ---
Subj:  Still the best article on Soybean from Monsanto - 2 pages
Date:  96-11-06 23:48:04 EST
From: Judy_Kew@txinfinet.com (Judy Kew)

This in-depth Greenpeace article came out last Spring and explains what all
the hoo-hah is about.

CONSUMERS NOT READY FOR ROUNDUP READY SOYBEAN

by Kenny Bruno and Isabelle Meister  (in Greenpeace International Toxics
Investigator, Third Quarter, Number 8.3, 1996, page 21)

       This spring, without fanfare, a few U.S. farmers planted the first crop
of genetically engineered soybeans. This is a quiet - but major - mistake for
U.S. consumers and for the environment. It also threatens to undermine
European consumers' trust in the safety of U.S. agricultural products.
       The new soybean was engineered by Monsanto, and is known as Roundup Ready
Soybean (RRS). Roundup is Monsanto's trade name for the herbicide
glyphosate. There is one benefit - of RRS: it can survive exposure to
glyphosate, allowing farmers to apply it even after the soybean has started to
grow. This benefit mostly accrues to Monsanto, however, since the sales of RRS
go hand in hand with sales of Roundup, already one of the company's best selling
products.
       - RRS may cause allergies in humans. For example, the Danish Asthma and
Allergies Association has warned about the unknown allergic potential of
genetically contaminated food. Allergens can be transferred into plants
through genetic engineering. RRS contains genetic material from bacteria,
viruses, and petunia. Roundup tolerance is brought by a gene from an
agrobacterium which has never formed part of the human diet. So the safety
of RRS as human food can only be guessed, not assured.
       - RRS may lead to "genetic pollution." As an alien plant with no
evolutionary development, it may trigger a whole series of negative effects. For
example, RRS can invade ecosystems or transfer its alien gene to related wild or
crop plants, becoming a new, potentially troublesome weed which competes with
and displaces other plants.
       - RRS may increase the amount of herbicides used. While the purpose of
RRS is to use Roundup more efficiently, it also institutionalizes the pesticide
"treadmill" whereby farmers are forced to use more pesticides as their weeds
become resistant. Glyphosate itself, which Monsanto says is "less toxic than
table salt," is the third leading cause of pesticide related illness among
agricultural workers in California.
       - RRS may also be a global threat. Not only are soybeans grown in many
places, through international trade soybeans reach virtually everywhere in
the world. Already, Monsanto has conducted field tests with RS in Argentina,
Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Italy, France, and
Japan. The test in the last country is especially worrisome. Soybean
originated in Asia and wild, weedy forms of soybean exists throughout the
region. In Japan, RRS will almost certainly lead to genetic pollution.
       For these good reasons, consumers are wary of genetically engineered
products. In the U.S., such wariness has led to slack sales of Bovine Growth
Hormone, another genetically engineered Monsanto product of dubious benefit.
But European consumers are even more suspicious than Americans, and their
concerns about food safety has never been higher than now, in the aftermath
of the "mad cow disease" scandal. Monsanto has failed to prove the environmental
and human health safety of its genetically engineered soybeans. In the absence
of such proof, RRS should be prohibited. European consumers, environmental
organizations, and farmers' groups are determined to fight RRS.
       According to the American Soybean Association, Europeans buy about 25% of
the US $14 billion of soybean products sold by U.S. farmers. Another major
market for U.S. soybean is Japan, which has not yet approved the import and use
of RRS for human food.
       Monsanto downplays the controversy over genetic engineering in Europe. A
caller to the company's RRS information line (in the U.S., 800-332-3111)
learns only that European Union (EU) approval is "taken care o." There is no
mention that three of the EU's member states objected, that import of RRS
into Switzerland will be illegal, that the European Parliament opposes RRS, or
that formal EU approval came just prior to the "mad cow disease" scandal. The
aftermath of this scandal has caused European countries to take a more
cautious approach to food issues in general and genetically engineered food
in particular. For example, European countries have so far halted the grant of
an approval for the commercial use of another genetically engineered crop,
Ciba's genetically engineered corn, which is also grown by U.S. farmers. The EU
approval for Monsanto's RRS may likely come under challenge again.
       In addition, some food companies may avoid the bean. Nutana, the largest
Scandinavian producer of canned vegetarian food, has announced that it will
>not take RRS, and has taken measures to get other soybeans.
       Monsanto adamantly opposed labelling of genetically engineered soybeans.
The company believes rather in "good information." What choice can the consumer
make with that information? Absolutely none, because without a label, there
is no way to tell if the many hundreds of products which contain soybeans or
soybean oil, from baby foods to margarine, came from geneticall altered
beans or not. In other words, Monsanto has already decided for us that we will
choose to eat Roundup Ready.
       Monsanto's opposition to labelling has nothing to do with "good
information" but is based on a legitimate fear that their products, if labeled,
won't sell. This is why they opposed consumers' right to know whether the milk
they buy contains Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone. In Europe, such labelling
could be disastrous for RRS. In Germany, a poll conducted by the Market,
Environment, and Society Institute found that 80% of the public is opposed to
genetically engineered foods, and 95% of the public favors labelling of
genetically engineered products.
       But Monsanto, the American Soybean Association, and the U.S. government
are not paying any mind to the consumer. The plan now is to plant one million or
so acres of RRS in 1996, mostly in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Louisiana, and to mix the beans with traditional soybeans at grain elevators
in the region. In 1997, RRS varieties will be ready for Iowa and Illinois,
the biggest soybean growing states. These millions of acres of genetically
engineered soybeans will be crushed and processed and become part of
hundreds of different products spread throughout your supermarket shelves -
unlabelled.
       Roundup Ready Soybeans are not cheaper, not healthier, and not tastier.
They bring no benefit to the consumer. They do bring high risk - to the
consumer, to the farmer, and to the biodiversity which sustains us all. Soybean
farmers should avoid them this year and every year.
--
        Green Building Conference Nov. 7-10, 1996
         http://www.greenbuilder.com/conference/
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