NOVEMBER/DECEMBE R 199 8

In response to growing consumer pressure in the UK, preparatory talks have begun with a view to a five-year moratorium on the commercial growth of genetically engineered foods.

Farmers, seed companies, the government's wildlife advisers, Nature, and biotech food producers, including Monsanto, are all involved.

However, environmentalists see the potential moratorium as a hollow victory. This month, Monsanto was granted one of the most far-reaching injunctions in British history, whereby the direct action group, GenetiX Snowball, was warned that they will be sued for damages done to Monsanto test crop sites by anyone claiming to be affiliated with the organization.

Also, the moratorium does nothing to prevent genetically modified products, in the form of imported foodstuffs, from entering the UK.

As environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, commented on national television news: "Already Monsanto are moving into East European countries that don't have the informed consumers, or regulatory bodies, or campaigners that we have here."

"What is particularly worrying", he added, "is the nightmare scenario where the biotech companies continue to develop these crops whilst working within the WTO to force the consumers of this country and indeed the rest of the EU to accept these foods - whether we like it or not."

A recent Mori poll indicated that 77% of British consumers want genetically modified food to be clearly labelled. Polls worldwide are revealing a similar consensus. Surveys show that 80-95% of consumers in the industrialized world demand the labelling of genetically engineered foods - primarily so that they can avoid buying them.

For a global summary of consumer polls on labelling GEfood see http://www.consumersinternational.org/campaigns/biotech/ surveys.htm

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The Federal Court of Brazil has blocked authorization for commercial planting of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" transgenic soybean.

The soya is genetically engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's "Roundup" herbicide. It would have been the first transgenic product to be planted in Brazil.

"Monsanto had failed to demonstrate that the 'RR' soybeans will not have a negative impact in the Brazilian ecosystems, such as the development of new over-resistant plants," said Marijane Lisboa, a spokesperson for Greenpeace.

genetically engineered crops maintain their ability to pass these traits on, rather than becoming less fertile, as some scientists had believed.

Genetically engineered herbicide-resistant plants can only be considered agriculturally useful i f the weeds their modification facilitates destroying do not become herbicide-tolerant themselves. Likewise, i f pests become resistant to the pesticides exhaled by genetically engineered crops, wherein lies the point of the initial modification? Superweeds and Superbugs will become mankind's unwanted inheritance.

Despite their importance, Bergelson's discoveries changed little in the plans of biotech manufacturers. According to Rob Horsch, vice-president and general manager of the Agracetus Campus of Monsanto; "the possibility of outcrossing has always and will always exist, and none of the regulatory decisions or safety analyses that I'm familiar with depends on arguments about the frequency of cross-pollination itself."

A report published in the journal, Nature, reveals that genetically modified weeds have a greater than normal ability to crosspollinate with other plant species.

Dr Joy Bergelson, a professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, modified a weed, known scientifically as Arabidopsis thaliana, by inserting genetic material that rendered the weed resistant to a common herbicide.

The modified plant, which is normally self-fertilizing, became extremely promiscuous. In fact, Bergelson and colleagues found that it was 20 times more likely to crosspollinate with wild, unmodified thaliana than weeds that had been mutated into herbicide-resistance through more traditional means.

"These results show that genetic engineering can substantially increase the possibility of transgene escape, even in a species considered to be almost completely self-pollinating," the study points out.

Although the scientists do not know why the plant's sexual habits have changed under its new genetic blueprint, they do believe that their findings wil l have serious consequences , since "this gene has been introduced into dozens of agricultural crops."

"This is a big deal," says Jane Rissler, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington; "the flow of genes from biologically engineered species to wild species could change the genetic diversity and processes of whole ecosystems."

In a separate study, Ohio State University scientist, Allison Snow, found that weeds that have acquired herbicide-resistance from

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Zeneca, the world's 5th largest seed company, has created a genetically modified seed to rival Monsanto's "terminator".

When Delta and Pine Lane and the US Department of Agriculture acquired a patent for a genetically engineered seed that would be incapable of re-germination in its 2nd season, Monsanto was quick to buy up the company - for an enormous $1.76 billion.

Not to be outdone, Zeneca, the "life" industry spin-off of ICC (Imperial Chemical Industries) has created the "Verminator", a seed containing genetic material from rat fat. The plants could either sterilize on contact with a Zeneca chemical, continue germinating in its second season without its genetically altered trait, or simply fail to reproduce altogether.

Farming and food associations are up in arms over these Terminator technologies, which threaten the livelihoods of farmers across the world. Instead of saving seeds from previous harvests for the following season, farmers will be forced to buy new seeds. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimate that 1.4 billion farmers rely on saved seed for their food security.

Worse still, farmers could find that neighbours have bought terminator seed crops that fertilise and subsequently sterilize their crops as well. Often, subsistence farmers save seed that produces the best harvest for their specific environment. The Terminators could destroy these carefully cultivated varieties, thereby irreversibly damaging both local subsistence farmers and world food security.

The Ecologist - In Brief, Vol. 28, No 6, November/December 1998

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