A Times Editorial

Fight grows over high-tech crops

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 9, 1999

In Britain, they're trampling acres of experimental corn; in Ireland, they're mowing down worm-repelling sugar beets; and in France, they're dumping fresh manure in front of McDonalds and burning Ronald McDonald in effigy. Europe is in the middle of a big food fight, and it's about to hit a supermarket near you.

European activists have been taking to the fields (and to the parking lots of fast-food joints), committing acts of mild vandalism in the name of what they see as a matter of life and death: preventing biotechnology giants such as Monsanto, Novartis and AgrEvo from injecting genetically modified (GM) or hormone-enhanced food into the food chain. In the United States, we ingest genetically modified material in soy, corn, cheese and lots of other common grocery basket items. We chow down on growth hormone-laced beef without the least intestinal twitch. We don't even know we're eating this stuff: The Food and Drug Administration regards GM components as mere additives and so does not require government approval or labeling.

But European Union countries have been spooked by mad cow disease scares, contaminated cans of Coca-Cola and dioxin-tainted chickens. They aren't prepared to simply swallow the line spun by profit-hungry multinationals that fooling with DNA is as innocent as adding pickle relish to tuna salad.

Genetic manipulation of plants is not new: Farmers have crossed species to make better crops for hundreds of years. Chance and bee- or wind-carried pollen have also altered our agriculture. But now we can cut and splice genes, editing a species like a movie -- and changing that species forever. We can build in resistance to frost or blight; we can trigger toxins that kill certain pests. Monsanto boasts that its "Roundup Ready" crops will require fewer pesticides and thus reduce pollution: You just bomb your field once with Roundup and watch your crop thrive while everything else shrivels and dies.

British protesters, who range from eco-warriors such as Friends of the Earth to the staid conservationist organization English Nature, admit there's no scientific evidence that eating what the London newspapers call "Frankenstein food" harms the human body. Proponents of the new technology can't show that it helps, either, despite claims that some foods might be pumped up with extra vitamins.

The real problem isn't what these vittles do to your innards, but what the plant they come from does to the environment around it. A study published by Cornell University researchers showed that pollen from a new strain of corn with custom-built genes kills monarch butterflies. Other scientists worry that GM crops might result in hardier insects, which might then wipe out non-GM flora.

In any case, this isn't just a collective hissy fit by the European Union because its inhabitants would rather eat foie gras than a quarter pounder with cheese. The French are willing to risk a trade war with the United States over imported beef with growth hormones. More than 75 percent of the British people say they will not knowingly eat GM food. Their sentiments pack an economic punch: The three biggest supermarket chains in the EU have pledged to take products with GM additives off the shelves, and Deutsche Bank has advised its largest investors to divest themselves of shares in companies involved in biotechnology. As a result, the Swiss company Novartis, the world's second-largest pharmaceuticals manufacturer, is thinking of getting out of the gene-warping business, while one of its divisions, Gerber, has announced it will stop using genetically altered corn in its baby food. And Monsanto's share price has dropped by 25 percent over the last four months.

U.S. companies lead in GM crop development, but increasingly the biggest export markets, including Europe, don't want our designer genes in their dining rooms.

In America, consumers haven't been upset about GM food, maybe because Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto and the rest haven't exactly been forthcoming about what they're feeding us. But that's changing, too. Genetically modifed grain has been attacked in Vermont, and a Minnesota group called the Bolt Weevils destroyed a Novartis research field. The American Corn Growers Association is suggesting its members steer clear of GM corn.

U.S. agribusiness can go running to the World Trade Organization to complain about the pesky Europeans refusing to buy our high-tech eats: The WTO will probably side with them. But if the American people, like the Europeans, decide they don't want Frankenstein foods either, then the biotech industry will be in real trouble.

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