Genetically modified food technology is mystery to some, a worry for others

Technology is mystery to some, a worry for others 

Barbara Thomas of Collingswood brings along a stack of shopping guides whenever she goes to the grocery store. She passes them out to customers waiting in line at the register and sometimes the cashier, too.

The 16-page booklet is a guide on how to avoid foods made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

About 90 percent of the corn, soybeans and sugar beets and the plant sources of most cottonseed and canola oil in the American food supply has been genetically modified to resist pests or tolerate herbicides or both. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration soon is expected to approve the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption: a new breed of fast-growing salmon.

Thomas thinks other shoppers should know that. Turns out, most don’t.

“Every single person has been appreciative,” says Thomas, co-founder of GMO Free NJ and a 56-year-old mother. The grassroots organization was launched in April to inform consumers about GMOs and to lobby for a state labeling law.

Yet while studies show most people don’t know what genetically modified food is, the very words are enough to scare consumers, according to Dr. William Hallman, director of the Rutgers Food Policy Institute.

“More people will say, ‘I’m against it’ or (‘I’m) for it’ than say ‘I’ve heard anything about it.’ ” Hallman said. “And that’s a problem.”

So what is genetically modified food?

Since the mid-1990s, the biotech industry has created new varieties of common food crops by inserting genes from one organism into another’s DNA, crossing species that would not breed naturally.

The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of genetically modified food, and Monsanto is the world’s largest biotech company. Its Bt corn, for example, is engineered to resist root-eating corn borer larvae and other corn pests.

The corn’s DNA includes a gene extracted from a soil bacterium that kills the larvae. The product is designed to significantly reduce the amount of insecticide farmers need to apply to their fields, since the plant produces its own larvae-killing toxin. Monsanto says it chose the gene because it is nontoxic to humans and animals.

Genetically modified corn is used in many American processed foods, from tortilla chips and corn meal to soft drinks and baked goods sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

The FDA has called genetically modified crops “substantially equivalent” to their natural counterparts and does not require long-term testing on the safety of modified food. American consumers have been eating it for more than 15 years.

According to Monsanto, food derived from approved genetically modified crops is safe and there has not been “a single substantiated instance of illness or harm associated with GM crops.” The company has not run long-term human clinical trials on genetically modified food, instead conducting animal studies on new proteins introduced to the crop.

“There is no need for, or value in testing the safety of GM foods in humans,” Monsanto reports on its website.

That’s alarming to Thomas. A former shiatsu practitioner who home-schools her 17-year-old daughter, Thomas spends a lot of time these days on conference calls, meetings, events and rallies, all in an effort to raise awareness about genetically modified food.

She launched her nonprofit in April, with the help of her friend, Kathleen McKenna. (McKenna is the wife of a Courier-Post employee. She was not interviewed for this story and neither she nor her husband had any involvement in its development.)

GMO Free NJ meets monthly. Between its Facebook page, website, meetings and mailing list, Thomas says, the group’s message regularly reaches 600 people statewide.

“If you’re altering the genetic makeup of something and having people eat it without testing and without labeling, that becomes important to me,” Thomas insists. “We’re there to inspire people to educate themselves and find the resources to educate themselves.”

Sonja “Sunny” Thompson of Collingswood is unnerved by what she’s learned, not just for herself, but for her children and grandchildren.

“Sometimes, I think ignorance is bliss,” admits the 74-year-old personal trainer and spinning instructor who started attending GMO Free NJ’s meetings last year.

“I wish I could go back about five years and not know what’s going on. I’d be so much happier. But once you know what’s out there, I can’t turn my back on it now.”

What bothers Thompson most is the government’s decision that genetically engineered food does not need extensive testing. She wonders if it has anything to do with the increasing rates of food allergies, some cancers and other health problems.

“The danger of the unknown, to me, is very scary,” says Thompson, who has switched to buying organic food.

Marilyn Bidrawn of Lumberton is a master gardener who recently organized a talk about genetically modified food for the Mount Holly Garden Club. A retired Lockheed Martin manager who had never heard of GMO Free NJ, Bidrawn has lots of questions about GM crops.

“I think the word needs to be spread that this is happening to our food, and people need to know about it so they can make choices,” she argues.

Barbara Wilson of Pennsauken is a registered dietitian with a private practice in Audubon. She’s also a two-year breast cancer survivor, who gradually switched to eating mostly organic foods after her diagnosis.

“There’s no scientific consensus that genetically modified foods are safe,” says Wilson, who attends GMO Free NJ meetings. “There’s inadequate testing.

“Some studies show there can be some serious health problems.”

Monsanto disputes such studies, calling them poorly designed or contradicted by peer-reviewed research. But some scientists argue more work is needed. Doug Gurian-Sherman is a senior scientist who focuses on the agriculture industry for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

While it does not call itself “anti-GM,” his organization has raised alarms about genetically modified food.

“There’s been virtually no long-term testing,” Gurian-Sherman explains during a phone interview from his Washington, D.C., office.

“The tests that have been done tend to be very short-term and very minimal.There’s all kinds of tests that are done, for example, on pesticides at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency): long-term mutagenicity tests, carcinogenicity tests for cancer-causing ability, teratogenicity tests to make sure if a pregnant woman eats something that it won’t harm the fetus, which will be much more susceptible than adults are.

“None of those tests are required for genetically modified crops,” Gurian-Sherman adds. “It’s a legitimate question to ask if they need to be or not.”

Melissa Garner of Collingswood will participate in a “moms march” against GMOs this summer. The 43-year-old wants a labeling law passed so she can avoid products that contain genetically modified food.

“I’d like to have faith that things would be OK and that people have our best interests at heart, but I just don’t believe it,” says Garner, the mother of a 5-year-old daughter. “I don’t want to be one of these conspiracy people, but I really believe money and power trump health and wellness in this country.”

Volunteer Jim Wilday of Holgate is leading GMO Free NJ’s grassroots lobbying effort to pass labeling legislation in New Jersey. Two bills were introduced in the state Assembly and Senate last year, and both have been in committee ever since.

A similar effort was recently rejected by California voters. The trouble is a label would make shoppers think something is wrong with the ingredient, Hallman’s research found.

“The issue for the government and for state agencies is essentially that all of the scientific studies suggest the current GM products are safe to eat,” Hallman explains.

“If you are a government agency and you require companies to put ‘contains GM products’ and that implies something which is not true to the consumer, that’s a problem.”

Right now, shoppers who want to avoid GMO food can choose organic products or specially labeled packages that bear the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal.They can use printed shopping guides or smartphone apps such as Fooducate or ShopNoGMO.

“In a way, there already is a labeling law,” Hallman acknowledges, “but it depends on people who don’t want to eat GM to seek out non-GMO ingredients.”

Wilday argues there are more problems with engineered food than questions about its safety, including biotech industry products cross-pollinating with organic crops.

“If it’s downwind, the organic crop will become contaminated,” Wilday says.“It’s like the genie is out of the bottle. You’re not going to get it back again.”

Indeed, Gurian-Sherman points to other environmental concerns, as insects develop resistance to Bt crops and weeds develop resistance to herbicides such as Monsanto’s widely used Roundup.

But is genetically modified food safe to eat?

Gurian-Sherman generally tries to eat organic food anyway: lots of fruits and vegetables and whole foods. And if he does happen to eat something with genetically modified ingredients?

“I don’t lose sleep over it,” he says.