Food chains
Joanna Blythman
Sweet surrender
Britain's sugar barons are refusing to accept any genetically- engineered
sugar beet through their factory gates. The reason: they don't want a
repeat of what happened in Holland last year, when a tiny amount of sugar
from genetic- engineering trials was accidentally introduced into bags of
Dutch sugar. Once discovered, there was a public outcry, and the whole
batch, all 12,000 tonnes of it, had to be disposed of - at great expense.
"This paints a rather bleak future for genetically-modified sugar beet,"
says British Sugar's spokesman, Geoff Lancaster. "Public suspicion may
sink this technology completely."
Not so long ago, the UK food industry was brimming with "Tomorrow's World"
style enthusiasm about genetically- engineered foodstuffs, but a wave of
cynicism has since swept through the ranks following the Monsanto biotech
company's successful efforts to force genetically-engineered soya on to
the market by refusing to segregate it at source from the conventional
soya supply. So now we must accept that 60 per cent of all the processed
food we eat contains genetically- engineered soya - and unlabelled too, if
you please.
But might it be that Monsanto has pushed its luck too far? After all,
British Sugar is now responding to pressure from food manufacturers and
retailers to supply "clean" sugar that hasn't been contaminated" by
genetic engineering. Like glistening, white sugar, it seems that consumer
thinking on gene foods is crystallising, and that the previously
unthinkable is becoming a definite possibility - an outright ban.
In June, the Swiss will hold a national referendum on the issue, seeking a
mandate to ban, among other things, genetically-engineered crops. Recent
polls suggest that 58 per cent will vote in favour of a ban. And a 1998
Europe-wide survey published in the journal Nature has shown that the more
the public knows about biotechnology, the more fears are aroused.
In the UK, the Soil Association (SA), which promotes organic food and
farming, would like Britain to declare itself a genetic engineering-free
zone. The Iceland retail chain has already banned genetically-engineered
ingredients from its own-brand products, and SA has challenged the major
supermarkets to eliminate foods containing genetically- engineered
ingredients from their shelves by December 31, 1999. A response is
awaited, but, apart from Safeway, whose unquestioning commitment to gene
foods becomes more outlandish by the day, the others seem to be
increasingly wary of "gene smog".
Gene smog is the new name, used in Europe and America, for the genetic
pollution that is slowly permeating our food chain. The tactics of
Monsanto et al are to introduce genetic engineering by the back door.
They hope that, by the time gene smog has reached critical levels - soya
derivatives throughout the food chain, animals eating genetically-
engineered feed, humans eating their meat, and so on - the commercial
train of genetic engineering will have left the station and it will be too
late to bring it back.
"The market mechanism could send that train back into the station if
supermarkets listen to public opinion," says SA spokesman Patrick Holden.
That's because many consumers just don't buy the "assurances" of
supermarkets and government, hiding behind the edifice of "science" and
the discredited guarantee of labelling. It is not comforting to think
that those who should be protecting us are being pressured by
megacorporations and crossing their fingers, hoping that nothing goes
wrong.
SA is urging consumers to complain to supermarkets about the unpredictable
nature of gene technology and the threat it poses to the environment and
human health. Also, that if they want their customers to have faith in
their brand image, they need to tell their suppliers of their intention to
eliminate all foods with genetically-engineered ingredients from their
shelves by the millennium.
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