This article is the first in a series that The Erie Wire will publish to address genetically engineered foods.

Amidst the roadside attractions of Erie County blooms a threat to our food security.

It is a plant, engineered to withstand chemical saturation and, soon, turn seeds sterile. In its blossom, a biotech mixture waits to pollinate a neighbor's biotech-free crop. Once pollinated, a new crop cycle develops a GE seed foreign to the land.

The following year the GE seed will germinate, the cycle will continue, and soon all biotech-free plants will begin to take on the features of a "Transgenic Food Community".

"Some 200 million acres of the world’s farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of those crops coming from genetically engineered seeds patented by U.S.-based Monsanto.", wrote Shawn Dell Joyce, reporting for The Times-Herald NY. Monsanto, producer of the herbicide RoundUp, is the company who spearheaded the development of genetically engineered (GE) crops. The GE seed was made to resist the powerful herbicide, while weeds, and everything but the GE crop, die upon the application of RoundUp. Monsanto's patented GE seed brands, meant to withstand the herbicide, are known as "RoundUp Ready", and are available as soy, corn, canola and cotton.

In a Transgenic Food Community, GE crops "cannot be contained" nor coexist with non-GE crops, according to Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian canola Farmer fighting for the rights to save seeds from biotech contamination.

For centuries, Farmers have been cross pollinating different varieties of seeds in order to secure desirable traits in our food supply. Once a farmer produces a good crop he or she feels is strong enough to grow annually, seeds from that harvest are kept to plant the following year. Multigenerational farming families often will pass along the seed, giving it the nickname 'heritage' or 'heirloom' seed. In the modern day of agriculture, seed companies also use cross pollinating techniques to produce patented hybrids. The hybrids have strong first generation yields but poor second generation yields, meaning the seed from the first year's crop cannot be saved for the following years planting. This enables the companies to sell their seed year after year.

However, GE crops are cross-pollinating on their own using a dominant gene, injected from a bacterium, which is foreign to the evolutionary development of a GE-free crop's genome. A GE gene that pollinates a heritage seed, heirloom seed, or any seed will erase the work and research conducted by a farm to increase that seed's performance. The plant that grows from the next generation of this GE pollination will produce the patented GE seed and have a decrease in nutritional value (due to its irregular growth and harmful chemical dependence). This new GE seed becomes the right of the company who owns the patent. Therefore, all of the generated revenue from the new GE crop, that the Farmer unknowingly grows, can be stolen by that patent holder.

To the Farmer: no genetic drift insurance is available to a farm that is contaminated by a neighbor's crop.

GE crops are chemically dependent. Monsanto claims these two chemical herbicides to be safe for your health and the environment, when managed.

In 1945, the original Monsanto Co. began producing and marketing agricultural chemicals, including 2, 4-D. The 2, 4-D formula used on GE crops, by various companies to control herbicide resistant weeds, is 70% Agent Orange, according to Schmeiser. Agent Orange, also invented by Monsanto, was used to kill off the enemy's food supply and clear out land for battle during the Vietnam War. It's still known to be mutating Vietnamese newborns; citing, from the documentary "The Corporation", babies being born without eyes. The application of 2, 4-D occurs after traditional herbicides, such as RoundUp, fail to control weeds. Today, already eight Synthetic Auxin resistant weeds have adapted to 2, 4-D spraying. This begs the question, "What are these chemicals for?".

The infamous RoundUp spray is viewed by the general public to be safe for weed control.

RoundUp spray is not biodegradable. Monsanto lost in court twice to false advertisement suits because of the company's original claim, that RoundUp is a biodegradable product. The falsification of biodegradability caused RoundUp to become the most commonly used weed killer in the world. It's molecular structure is environmentally hazardous. It will soften eggs of birds and fish and affect other species reproduction, causing dysfunctions and mutations of the animals.

A study by professor Robert Belle, at the Oceanographic Observatory in Roscoff, France (a GE free country), found cell division is affected by RoundUp. When met with RoundUp, a cell begins to malfunction or dysfunction. This cellular disruption is part of the first stages to cancer; though cancer will take another 30 to 40 years before it fully develops. This time-span can be shortened when cellular division is hit with a high concentration of the mutagenic chemicals.

In other words:

RoundUp Ready spray is potentially a cancer health risk.
The use of GE crops requires RoundUp Ready spray to grow, with an increase of 3 to 5 times as many chemical applications.
GE patents prevent farmers from being able to own and generate their own seed production.
The use of GE patented seeds will dominate a gene pool of neighboring crops ("domination", in this sense, is more associated with the domination of growth in cancer cells, than with any positive side-effects).
The result, is the "Transgenic Food Community": a production of food and food related products which cannot be controlled or operated independently of the company who manufacture their existence, forcing farmers and consumers to be completely dependent on a product that knowingly increases health risks and removes profits from a Farmers salary. A place where the farmer does not own the rights to seeds.

It's worth mentioning that now in the United States there are nine Glycine Resistant weeds. These plants have adapted a resistance to RoundUp's active ingredient, glyphosate. Plants evolve and adapt to survive, and science tells us more of these resistant weeds are efflorescing. These patterns translate to stronger chemicals, further genetic modifications and higher costs for the Farmers.

Why worry? This video -- The World According to Monsanto -- reveals the position Monsanto is developing.

Why worry? This video -- GMO Trilogy - Hidden Dangers In Kids Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods (1 of 3) -- reveals the public health threats to GE production.

As a small community we have the opportunity to respond to transgenic developments. Using our size we can effectively communicate a way to resist transgenic crop production, and keep our soil free from the bottom line of corporate contamination. Organic farming; is one alternative thats practiced by area Farms, which demand is rapidly rising for in the retail market. Heirloom agriculture; can be an effective tool to preserve generational seed developments. This, again, is a successful practice among area Farms. Though, the real solution will come from demand; from a conscientious change in the power of purchase.

A Message to the Public: Erie County, Ohio -- is backboned by agriculture. In a Transgenic Food Community agricultural integrity takes a backseat to shareholder profits, and seed savers lose out to be cross-pollinated by the ever-invasive GE patents. Does this mean Erie County will lose its agricultural history due to the profit of one company? Or, can consumers begin to see the demise of purchasing genetically altered foods and begin talking to local farms for a different setting? To voice your concerns we ask you to contact our local farmers, and begin returning the voice about healthy foods to those with their hands in the soil.

Copyright © 2008 The Erie Wire, Inc.

Reference

Archive Video: The World According to Monsanto

Published on Sunday, July 13, 2008 by The Times Herald-Record (New York)

Is Your Picnic Filled With 'Franken-Foods'?

by Shawn Dell Joyce

Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of those crops coming from genetically engineered seeds patented by U.S.-based Monsanto.

Scientists have taken genetic material from one organism (like a soil bacterium), along with an antibiotic resistant marker gene, and spliced both into a food crop (like corn) to create a genetically modified crop that resists specific diseases and pests.

There has been no long-term, independent testing on the effects of these "Franken-foods" on the ecosystem or human health.

In the early 1990's when biotechs were being evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, several key FDA scientists warned that GE crops could cause negative health effects. These scientists were ignored and blanket approvals of GE crops were passed.

It would be difficult to avoid eating genetically modified organisms in our country because they are so pervasive in the food system and unlabeled in the grocery stores.

Part of the reason for this is biotech giants fought to keep GMO foods unlabeled.

Most recently, the growth hormones from GE organisms known as rBGH, which is given to cows to make them produce more milk, were banned in Europe and Canada after authorities learned about the health risks of drinking milk from cows treated with rBGH hormones.

American milk producers started labeling their milk "rBGH and rBST free." Monsanto, which sells bovine growth hormones under the brand name Posilac, has successfully sued dairy producers to force them to stop labeling their milk.

In addition to most milk products, GMOs can be found in commercially farmed meats and processed foods on store shelves. In our country, 89 percent of all soy, 61 percent of all corn, and 75 percent of all canola are genetically altered.

Other foods, like commercially grown papaya, zucchini, tomatoes, several fish species, and food additives like enzymes, flavorings and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame and rennet used to make hard cheeses, also contain GMOs, according to Greenpeace.

To complicate matters, GMOs move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two independent laboratory tests on non-GM seeds "representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply" for corn, soy and oilseed.

The test found that at "the most conservative expression," half the corn and soy were contaminated with GM genes, eight years after the modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the U.S.

The reports states that "heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level."

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What can you do to avoid GMO's?

Know how your food is grown by buying directly from local farmers.
Support organic agriculture, and food producers who label their ingredients, particularly dairy farmers.
Eat pastured meat raised on organic feed. The only way to ensure this is to buy from someone you know.
Support farmers who are sued by biotech giants. Monsanto has set aside an annual budget of $10 million and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting more than 150 farmers for a total of more than $15 million.
Demand labeling on all GMO-containing products.