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GMOS WILL ONLY MAKE THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS WORSE

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho warns that further indulgence in GMOs will severely
damage our chances of surviving the food crisis and global warming;
organic agriculture and localised food systems are the way forward

Invited lecture at conference on TRADITIONAL SEEDS OUR NATIONAL
TREASURE AND HERITAGE, 17 May 2008, Bewelder, Warsaw, Poland
By Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

The Brave New World of GM Science

In 1994, I met some of the most remarkable leaders in the Third World:
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (Institute of Sustainable Development,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Martin Khor (Third World Network, Penang,
Malaysia), and Vandana Shiva (Navdanya, New Delhi, India), who
persuaded me to look into genetically modified organisms (GMOs),
especially GM crops, which they rightly saw as a special threat to
small family farmers. The biotech industry was promising miracle GM
crops that would boost yield to feed the world, improve nutrition, and
clean up and protect the environment. Monsanto's Flavr Savr tomato,
the first GM crop, had just been commercialised, though it turned out
to be a complete flop, and was withdrawn several years later..

The biotech industry's aggressive campaign of disinformation and
manipulation of science did nothing to obscure the signs that the
dream would soon turn into nightmare; and I said so in my book first
published in 1997/1998 [1] Genetic Engineering Dream or Nightmare,
the Brave New World of Bad Science and Big Business, which became an
international bestseller, translated into many languages, and recently
reprinted with an extended introduction to coincide with its
translation into Indonesian. Everything predicted in that book has
happened. It also explained why the science behind GM is obsolete; a
story elaborated further in Living with the Fluid Genome [2]
published in 2003.

Genetic modification based on an obsolete theory and hence
ineffective and dangerous

Genetic engineering of plants and animals began in the mid 1970s in
the belief that the genome (the totality of all the genetic material
of a species) is constant and static, and that the characteristics of
organism are simply hardwired in their genome. But geneticists soon
discovered that the genome is remarkably dynamic and "˜fluid', and
constantly in conversation with the environment. This determines which
genes are turned on, when, where, by how much and for how long.

Moreover, the genetic material itself could also be marked or changed
according to experience, and the influence passed on to the next
generation.

The best thing about the human genome project is to finally explode
the myth of genetic determinism, revealing the layers of molecular
complexity that transmit, interpret and rewrite the genetic texts [3]
(Life Beyond the Central Dogma series, SiS 24). These processes are
precisely orchestrated and finely tuned by the organism as a whole, in
a highly coordinated molecular "˜dance of life' that's necessary for
survival.

In contrast, genetic engineering in the laboratory is crude, imprecise
and invasive. The rogue genes inserted into a genome to make a GMO
could land anywhere; typically in a rearranged or defective form,
scrambling and mutating the host genome, and have the tendency to move
or rearrange further once inserted, basically because they do not know
the dance of life. That's ultimately why genetic modification doesn't
work and is also dangerous.

Independent science against GM

In 1999, I co-founded the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) with
my husband and long-time collaborator Peter Saunders, Professor of
Mathematics at King's College, London, to work for science, society
and sustainability and to reclaim science for the public good. We are
fortunate to have the support of wonderful fellow scientists,
especially Prof. Joe Cummins, who joined ISIS from the start and
continues to play the leading role in monitoring GM science. (Joe
Cummins has been honoured with the ISIS Distinguished Fellow Award
2008.)

In 2003, dozens of scientists from around the world joined us in ISIS
to form the Independent Science Panel, and produced a report, The
Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World [4], documenting all the
problems and hazards of GM crops as well as the successes and benefits
of non-GM sustainable agriculture. The report was republished within a
year, translated into many languages and widely circulated. We
presented the report to the European Parliament in 2004 [5] (Keep GM
Out of Europe, SiS 24), with the help of Jill Evans MEP.

In 2007, we updated the ISP report with a dossier containing more than
160 fully referenced articles from the archives of ISIS' magazine
Science in Society, spelling out the scandals of serious hazards
ignored, scientific fraud, the regulatory sham and violation of
farmers' rights [6] (GM Science Exposed: Hazards Ignored, Fraud,
Regulatory Sham, Violation of Farmers Rights). Duped farmers in India
are driven to suicide in hundreds of thousands. GM science is a crime
against humanity.

In a scientific review paper [7] (GM Food Nightmare Unfolding in the
Regulatory Sham), we documented how national and international
regulators and advisory bodies such as the European Food Safety
Authority have been ignoring the precautionary principle (which is
accepted by the European Commission), abusing science, sidestepping
the law, and helping to promote GM technology in the face of evidence
piling up against the safety of GM food and feed.

We presented our dossier and review paper to the European Parliament
in June 2007, once again to press for a GM-Free Europe and a GM-free
world, thanks to the sponsorship of Polish MEP Mr. Janusz
Wojciechowski and his office. Our panel consisted of key scientists
from six countries including Poland, and friends of independent
scientists, including MEPs Dr. Caroline Lucas and Jill Evans.

The case for a GM-free world has grown much stronger since 2004, not
only because so much more evidence has stacked up against GM crops;
but especially because accelerating global warming, the depletion of
water and fossil fuels, and the current food crisis make it that much
more urgent to shift comprehensively to sustainable food and energy
systems as proposed in ISIS/TWN's energy report Which Energy? [8].

There is neither the time nor resources to waste on GM.

We'd had 30 years of GMOs and more than enough damage done, as
detailed in the ISP Report [4], in our GM Science dossier [6], and
more recent evidence has been piling up.

Thirty years of GMOs are more than enough


** No increase in yields; on the contrary GM soya decreased yields by
up to 20 percent compared with non-GM soya [4], and up to 100 percent
failures of Bt cotton have been recorded in India [6]. New studies
confirmed these findings. Research from the University of Kansas found
a 10 percent yield drag for Roundup Ready soya [9] that required extra
manganese applied to the soil to make up the yield deficit. A team of
scientists from the USDA and the University of Georgia found growing
GM cotton in the US could result in a drop in income by up to 40
percent [10, 11] (Transgenic Cotton Offers No Advantage, SiS 38)

** No reduction in pesticides use; on the contrary, USDA data showed
that GM crops increase pesticide use by 50 million pounds from 1996 to
2003 in the United States [4]. New data paint an even grimmer picture:

** The use of glyphosate on major crops went up more than 15-fold
between 1994 and 2005, along with increases in other herbicides [12]
in order to cope with rising glyphosate resistant superweeds [6].
Roundup tolerant canola volunteers are top among the worries of
Canadian farmers [13, 14] (Study Based on Farmers' Experience Exposes
Risks of GM Crops, SiS 38)

** Roundup herbicide is lethal to frogs and toxic to human placental
and embryonic cells [6]. Roundup is used in more than 80 percent of
all GM crops planted in the world

** GM crops harm wildlife, as revealed by UK's farm scale evaluations
[6], and more recently in a study led by Loyola University, Chicago,
Illinois in the United Stated, which found that wastes from Bt corn
impaired the growth of a common aquatic insect [15, 16] (Bt Crops
Threaten Aquatic Ecosystems, SiS 36)

** Bt resistance pests and Roundup tolerant superweeds render the two
major GM crop traits practically useless [6]. A recent review
concluded that [17] "evolved glyphosate-resistant weeds are a major
risk for the continued success of glyphosate and transgenic
glyphosate-resistant crops."� And the evolution of Bt resistant
bollworms worldwide have now been confirmed and documented in more
than a dozen fields in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006
[18]

** Vast areas of forests, pampas and cerrados lost to GM soya in Latin
America, 15 m hectares in Argentina alone [6]; and this has worsened
considerably with the demand for biofuels (see later)

** Epidemic of suicides in the cotton belt of India involving 100 000
farmers between 1993-2003, and a further 16 000 farmers a year have
died since Bt cotton was introduced [6]

** Transgene contamination unavoidable, scientists find GM pollination
of non-GM crops and wild relatives 21 kilometres away [19]

** GM food and feed linked to deaths and sicknesses both in the fields
in India and in lab tests around the world (more below)

GM food and feed inherently hazardous to health [7]

Here are some highlights from our GM Science dossier [6] on the
hazards of GM food and feed. Dr. Irina Ermakova of the Russian Academy
of Sciences showed how GM soya made female rats give birth to severely
stunted and abnormal litters, with more than half dying in three
weeks, and those remaining are sterile. Hundreds of villagers and
cotton handlers in India suffer allergy-like symptoms, thousands of
sheep died after grazing on the Bt cotton residues, goat and cows as
well were reported in 2007 and 2008 [20] (Mass Protests against GM
Crops in India, SiS 38). A harmless bean protein transferred to pea
when tested on mice cause severe inflammation in the lungs and
provoked generalised food sensitivities. Dozens of villagers in the
south of the Philippines fell ill when neighbouring GM maize fields
came into flower in 2003, five have died and some remain ill to this
day. A dozen cows died having eaten GM maize in Hesse Germany and more
in the herd had to be slaughtered from mysterious illnesses. Arpad
Pusztai and his colleagues in the UK found GM potatoes with snowdrop
lectin damaged every organ system of young rats; the stomach lining
grew twice as thick as controls. Chickens fed GM maize Chardon LL were
twice as likely to die as controls. And finally, GM maize Mon 863 was
claimed to be as safe as non-GM maize by the company, and accepted as
such by European Food Safety Authority. But independent scientists of
CriiGen in France re-analysed the data and found signs of liver and
kidney toxicity.

SOURCES:

[1] Ho MW. Genetic Engineering Dream of Nightmare? The Brave New World
of Bad Science and Big Business, Third World Network, Gateway Books,
MacMillan, Continuum, Penang, Malaysia, Bath, UK, Dublin, Ireland, New
York, USA, 1998, 1999, 2007 (reprint with extended Introduction).

[2] Ho MW. Living with the Fluid Genome, ISIS & TWN, London and
Penang, 2003.

[3] Ho MW. Life beyond the Central Dogma series, Science in Society
24, 4-13, 2004.

[4] Ho MW and Lim LC. The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World,
Independent Science Panel Report, Institute of Science in Society and
Third World Network, London and Penang, 2003; republished GM-Free,
Exposing the Hazards of Biotechnology to Ensure the Integrity of Our
Food Supply, Vitalhealth Publishing, Ridgefield, Ct., 2004 (both
available from ISIS online bookstore.

[5] Lim LC. Keep GM out of Europe! Science in Society 24, 26-27, 2004.

[6] GM Science Exposed: Hazards Ignored, Fraud, Regulatory Sham and
Violation of Farmers' Rights, ISIS CD book, 2007.

[7] Ho MW, Cummins J and Saunders PT. GM food nightmare unfolding in
the regulatory sham. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 2007,
Disease 2007, 19, 66-77.

[8] Ho MW, Bunyard P, Saunders PT, Bravo E and Gala R. Which Energy?
2006 ISIS Energy Report, Institute of Science in Society, London,
2006.

[9] Gordon B. Better Crops 2007, 91, 12-14.

[10] Jost P, Shurley D, Culpepper S, Roberts P, Nichols R, Reeves J
and Anthony S. Economic Comparison of transgenic and montransgenic
cotton production systems in Georgia. Agronomy Journal 2008, 100,
42-51. (doi:10.2134/agronj2006.0259)

[11] Ho MW and Saunders PT. Transgenic cotton offers no advantage,
Science in Society 38 (in press).

[12] Who benefits from gm crops? The rise in pesticide use, executive
summary, Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam, January 2008.

[13] Mauro IJ and McLachlan SM. Farmer knowledge and risk analysis:
postrelease evalulation of herbicide-tolerant canola in Western
Canada. Risk Analysis 2008, 28, DOI:10.1111/j.1539-6924.200801027.x

[14] Ho MW. Study based on farmers' experience exposes risks of GM
crops. Science in Society 38 (in press).

[15] Rosi-Marxhall EJ, Tank JL, Royer TV, Whiles MR, Evans-White M,
Chamgers C, Griffiths NA, Pokelsek J and Stephen ML. Toxins in
transgenic crop byproducts may affect headwater stream ecosystems.
PNAS 2007, 104, 16204-8.

[16] Ho MW. Bt crops threaten aquatic ecosystems. Science in Society
36, 49, 2007.

[17] Powles, SB. Evolved glyphosate-resistant weeds around the world:
lessons to be learnt. Pest Management Science 2008, 64, 360-5.

[18] "First documented case of pest resistance to biotech cotton"
Science Daily, 8 February 2008.

[19] Van de Water PK, Watrud LS, Lee EH, Burdick C and King GA. Long-
distance GM pollen movement of creeping bentgrass using modelled wind
trajectory analysis. Ecological Applications 2007, 17, 1244-56.

[20] Kurunganti K. Mass protests against GM crops in India. Science in
Society 38 (in press).

[21] Cummins J and Ho MW. Approval of GM crops illegal, US federal
courts rule. Science in Society 34, 24, 2007.

[22] "An American court bans genetically modified alfalfa -- How will
Ottawa react: CNW TELBEC, 4 May 2007.

[23] "D.C. Circuit Court says "no" to Scotts and Monsanto on biotech
grasses", Center for Food Safety Press Release, 19 March 2008.

[24] History of AB 541, Californians for GE-Free Agriculture,

[25] "Montville: first U.S. town outside of California to ban
genetically engineered crops", Food for Maine's Future, 29 March
2008.

[26] "GM crop ban extended indefinitely in SA", The Land, 18 April
2008.

[27] "Romania joins EU members in GM crop ban", Matt Williams, The
Parliament.com, 28 March 2008.

[28] Ho MW, Saunders PT and Jost M. Croatia to be organic and GM-Free.
Science in Society 38 (in press)

[29] "Greenpeace applauds Greek ban on GMO corn," ANA-MPA, 7 May
2008.

[30] "Germany tightens restrictions on genetically modified corn,"
Der Spiegel, 9 May 2007.

[31] "Government to back bid to ban GM crops in Europe", Sunday
Herald, 25 November 2007.

[32] "French state body upholds decision of GM crop ban",
Reuters.com, 21 March 2008.

[33] "French Senate approves GMO law", Reuters, 18 April 2008.

[34] "Wales set to ban GM crops", Steve Dube, icWales.co.uk, 18 March
2008.

[35] GMO-free regions, biodiversity and rural development, GENET, May
2008.

[36] Ho MW. GM-free Europe beginning? Science in Society 36, 51, 2007.

[37] "EU food agency under fire as commission debates GMOs", Friends
of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace Press Release, 7 May 2008.

[38] International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science &
Technology (IAASTD) Synthesis Report 25 November 2007.

[39] Ho MW, Burcher S, Lim LC, et al. Food Futures Now, Organic,
Sustainable, Fossil Fuel Free, ISIS and TWN, London, 2008.

[40] Ho MW. GM-free organic agriculture to feed the world.
International panel of 400 Agricultural scientists call for
fundamental change in farming practice. Science in Society 38 (in
press).

[41] "Puncturing the GM myths", Interview of Dr. Mae-Wan Ho by
Anastasia Stephens of the Evening Standard, Science in Society 22,
23-25, 2004.

[42] "Farmers ask why GM crops worse in drought", Network of
Concerned Farmers, 30 June 2005.

[43] Manifesto on Climate Change and the Future of Food Security, The
International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture,
Florence, Italy, 2008.

[44] Ho MW. Beware the new "doubly green revolution". Science in
Society 37, 26-29, 2008.