Of ‘Frankenfish’ and GM plants

One American company, Aqua Bountry, is hoping to get the US government’s approval of its genetically modified (GM) salmon as early as 2002. But they will have to wait for a longer time as shown in a June 2004 study. When GM salmon, engineered to be seven times bigger than their usual size were put into tanks with limited food supply, pandemonium broke loose. Whether swimming with other GM salmons or with natural salmons, the "transgenic" salmons experienced reduced population or complete extinction. Some of the frankenfish (the word is taken from Frankenstein and fish) ate their rivals for foods.

While organizing a recall of GM fish from the ocean or GM insects from the atmosphere around us is not yet an issue, widespread contamination by GM plants is already a problem. On September 9, 2004, citizens groups announced that tests of some 20,000 papaya seeds on the island of Hawaii revealed that half were geneticallty modified.

Contamination was also found in Thailand, where the Department of Agriculture had accidentally sold GM papaya seeds. When foreign buyers cancelled orders for Thai papaya, the government pledged to destroy any GM tree it finds and quarantine the area. Americans became familiar with GM contamination in September 2000 when StarLink corn, a potentially allergenic GM variety not approved for human consumption was found in taco shells and other corn products. Starlink was found in 22 percent of the corn samples tested by the US Department of Agriculture that prompted the recall of 300 food brands after an extensive program to remove it, three years later, StarLink is still in one percent of corn samples.

GM canola has contaminated non-GM varieties including traditional seeds. Saskatchewan organic growers abandoned the crop altogether and are suing Monsanto and Bayer CropScience for damages.

The more people learn about GM foods, the less they trust them. The world market for GM foods is shrinking. For fear of contamination, buyers reject all crops from a region where GM varieties of that species are grown. Thus, even if 60 percent of US corn is not GM, US corn growers have lost 99.4 per cent of their European markets. Canada, too, lost its European markets for GM and non-GM canola and their honey which is feared may contain canola pollen.

The world market share of US soy dropped from 57 to 46 per cent and is expected to further decline as Europeans reject products from animals fed with GM soy. A loss of 30-50 percent of foreign wheat makets was projected with an expected drop in prices by about a third. The wheat industry lobbied hard for a GM-wheat-free zone. The economic impact from GM crops has been a disaster for the US agriculture, where increased farm subsidies due to lost markets are estimated at a thumping $2-$3 billion a year.

Nearly 2,000 jurisdictions in 22 countries in Europe have declared themselves GM-free zones. Parts of New Zealand, Australia, Venezuela, Brazil, Angola, Sudan, and Zambia have done the same.

(Antonio M. Claparols is president of the Ecological Society of the Philippines and IUCN regional councilor)