The GMO industry is like an out-of-control forest fire. Just when you think one section is tamped down, another spark is fanned into flames.

Just like a forest fire, there are many fronts in this fight, making it difficult to keep track of current developments.

Then there are the weapons at the fighters’ disposal. On one side of the battle, we have the equivalent of 5 gallon water buckets in the form of activist group petitions, email newsletters, and calls to Congressional representatives. On the other side, there are air tankers in the form of money and the influence it can buy (even to the point of influencing foreign governments). Increasingly, there’s something much more insidious than that on the side of GMOs – I’m going to go ahead and call it espionage.

Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that recently released WikiLeaks cables documented how diplomats in the Bush Administration had attempted to influence The Vatican to voice its support for biotech crops. Other leaks showed how embassy officials in France had urged the U.S government to retaliate, through unfavorable trade policies, against countries in the EU that refused to approve GMO crops.

Equally shocking, an article in The Nation last fall about Blackwater (the private security firm that has come under fire for its role in Iraq regarding massacres of innocent civilians, and has since rebranded) detailed how Monsanto hired Total Intelligence Solutions (a firm owned by Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince) to infiltrate and spy on anti-GMO groups. The article states that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008-09 to act as an intelligence arm of Monsanto to survey the Internet activity of activist groups and protect the Monsanto brand. Internal emails obtained by The Nation talked about how individuals from Total Intelligence could join activist groups (especially animal rights activists) and report back on group activities.

Now that we know what we’re up against weapon-wise, here’s a rundown of current hot spots in GMOs:

GE Alfalfa: The most urgent issue right now is the imminent approval of GE alfalfa by the USDA. Read about how GE alfalfa will jeopardize organic food and farmers here. Take Action here. You have until February 16^th.

GE Salmon: The FDA decision on GE salmon is stalled so the fight has moved to California. With the feds unwilling to listen to consumer groups, these issues are increasingly up to the states. In the event that GE salmon is approved, California has a bill that would require any GE salmon sold in California to be labeled. Take action here.

GE Sugar Beets: In early December, Judge Jeffrey White, a Federal Judge in Northern California ordered genetically modified sugar beets to be pulled from the ground and destroyed after determining that the beets were approved by the Agriculture Department and planted illegally without proper environmental review. Now the USDA and the sugar industry are predicting a shortage of sugar, but it’s a shortage they manufactured. When Judge White originally ruled that the USDA had violated environmental laws by not conducting a full review before approving the crop in 2005 he warned that future beet harvests would likely need to rely on conventional seed. According to the New York Times, the judge expressed irritation that the USDA and Monsanto waited almost a year after his ruling to enact interim measures to ensure farmers would have enough conventional seed. No action to take on this one right now, but definitely an issue to watch.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: Olibac

If you ask food experts like Michael Pollan, Marian Nestle, Gary Nabhan, Vandana Shiva, and numerous other writers and scholars what the biggest problems in our global, industrialized food system are, you’ll end up with a lot to chew on.

It’s difficult to separate the problems into discrete categories because everything is connected. Big problems lead to seemingly smaller problems, that, when allowed to fester, become open wounds – much like the foul waste lagoons on industrial pig farms that dot our landscape, or the actual wounds on human flesh caused by antibiotic resistant staph infections, which are a direct result of the overuse of antibiotics in livestock operations.

Most of the problems in the system stem from one giant problem: Concentration of power, land, wealth, and political influence in the hands of a few large players who have gamed the system for their benefit. Here are the biggest issues, as we see them, followed by suggestions for what you can do about them.

1. Food Safety

Big players in the meat, dairy, eggs, and bagged greens industries are unsafe at any speed. Nobody paying attention to the news over the past few years could have missed the biggest food recall stories, nor the very real harm and deaths that have resulted from many of them. E-coli in beef has sickened many, killed some, and ruined lives. Recently, salmonella tainted pasteurized milk was pulled from shelves. Nobody could have missed the recent recall of about a half a billion eggs, and there have been numerous recalls of bagged greens – the most recent in June. These stories are becoming nearly every day occurrences, leaving us to wonder if our food system is DESIGNED to kill us. The problem is a direct result of lax food safety enforcement laws and lack of inspectors. This is at least partially because industry lobbies make sure that inconvenient regulations are not passed. Concentration in the industry also leads to over-crowded, sadistic farm operations requiring the use of massive doses of non-therapeutic antibiotics and grown hormones, and resulting in air and water pollution that contribute to a host of environmental and public health nightmares, and misery for the animals trapped in the system.

What can you do about it?

Know your farmers, ask about their practices and support what they are doing. You’ll eat better, you’ll worry less and you’ll support a better food system. When bagged spinach was first recalled a few years ago, I knew that the spinach in my CSA box was fine. Likewise, during the recent egg recall, I worried not a whit about the pastured eggs I buy at the farmers’ market.

2. Declining Wild Fish Stocks

As Taras Grescoe pointed out in Bottomfeeder and Paul Greenberg most recently outlined in Four Fish, we eat too many of a very few species of wild fish – mostly the ones that are higher on the food chain. Continuing in this vein will cause the eventual decimation of our oceans.

What can you do about it?

Branch out and try something new. Eat bait, or smaller fish, like anchovies, sardines, and small Spanish mackerel. These fish are more sustainable, more plentiful, more resilient, and healthier for you than the larger predators.

3. Poor Aquaculture Practices

Aquaculture may be an important food source in the future (see above) but much of it is practiced in ways that are unhealthy for eaters, native species and the environment. If GMO salmon is approved, (still pending at press time) it will only add to the list of everything that is wrong with farming carnivorous fish in the open ocean. Don’t replace that salmon on your plate with shrimp. Ever wonder why the shrimp is so cheapat restaurants like Red Lobster?

What can you do about it?

Educate yourself on sustainable aquaculture. In general, only eat farmed fish that are natural vegetarians and only buy from suppliers that are transparent about the origins of their fish.

4. Genetically Modified Crops

Besides being untested for their effects on human health, genetically modified seeds don’t necessarily produce greater yields, and can lead to over-application of pesticides that in turn can cause super weeds which have the potential to threaten overall biodiversity, and to contaminate non-gmo crops with their genetic material. The most recent case involving GMOS ended badly when the USDA issued permits allowing GMO sugar beets to be planted in defiance of a federal judge. The judge had issued a decision to stop the planting of GMO sugar beets on the grounds that they may cross-pollinate table beets and Swiss chard. Despite the fact that most other countries have laws outlawing or requiring the labeling of GMO foods, our government continues to bow down to industry.

What can you do about it?

Educate yourself about which crops are commonly genetically modified and only buy organic versions. Better yet, support the companies involved in the non-GMO project. These are the companies willing to go out on a limb and actually test their organic ingredients to make sure they are not contaminated. Also, raise your voice and let the USDA and our legislators know that you don’t want GMOS!

5. Exploitation of Workers

From actual documented slavery in Florida’s tomato fields, to daily pesticide exposure in farming communities, to the fact that America’s lowest paying jobs are in fast food restaurants – our food system crushes workers, ruins their health, and keeps them in poverty so that they need the cheap, processed, industrialized food to survive.

What can you do about it?

This is a tough one, because buying from local, organic farms isn’t necessarily the answer. Even the nicest local, organic farms don’t pay their workers much and require long hours of backbreaking work. The farmers often work just as hard and can’t even afford health insurance for themselves or their families, so even if they want to do better by their workers, they can’t. This is where raising your voice for a more fair government policy that benefits small farmers equally can help. The new USDA is doing a better job clamping down on the big guys and supporting small-scale farmers than ever before, but we’ve got a ways to go.

6. Lack of Equal Access

You’ve no doubt heard the term food desert. Our food system is unjust because it does not provide healthy, affordable food to everyone. People in urban areas often have no access to any fresh food at all because there are no grocery stores. Likewise, rural residents in the heart of agricultural areas sometimes cannot afford to buy the very food they may help to harvest. According to a survey of farm workers in Fresno, county – conducted by The California Institute of Rural Studies – in 2007, 45 percent faced food insecurity. Also, children who are hungry at home are more likely to depend on school lunch programs for most of their nourishment. Even the kids know what a disaster that is. A society that allows such a large percentage of its citizens to go hungry or rely on unhealthy foods that make them sick is shameful.

What can you do about it?

It’s not enough to vote with your fork. Volunteer with and give money to organizations that work on food access issues. There are many. A good place to start is The Community Food Security Coalition.

7. Not Enough People Engaged in Agriculture

Somebody’s got to grow all that food, but farmers are getting older and farming has long been in decline as a career choice. That’s because the system favors machine over man and profits over everything. This means lack of opportunities for farmers to earn a living wage that allows them to buy food and health insurance (see point five from last week). And it’s also unsustainable. (See point number 9 below). If we want to continue to eat, we’re going to have to get more people engaged in farming and we’re going to need to integrate agriculture into society.

What can you do about it?

One way is to grow your own, support neighborhood and school gardens, and urban agriculture. But the real change has to happen at the policy level, so speak up. Now is the time to start working with groups engaged in guiding policy for the next farm bill, such as The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

8. Monocrops

Monocropping is bad for the environment because it’s chemical dependent, harmful to wildlife and ecosystems, and kills the soil. It also increases the chances of famine due to lack of crop diversity. It makes communities dependent on imports of other needed crops, instead of fostering self-reliance. Processed packaged foods depend on monocrops, like palm oil, that cause deforestation and push indigenous people off their land, and soy, which is often genetically modified. (See point 4 from last week). In particular, soy monocropping is causing tensions in Argentina, as it displaces other types of farms.

What can you do about it?

Don’t buy packaged, processed food. Buy fresh, local foods grown by farmers with diverse operations. Cook real food from scratch in your own kitchen.

9. Finite Resources

Our modern, industrialized food system is dependent on fossil fuel based inputs and an unlimited supply of water and soil. All of these things are finite. Add to that that the food system is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, and it’s clear that we cannot continue the way we are going. We have to find a better way.

What can you do about it?

This problem is bigger than all of us but you can keep voting with your fork for the food system you want. And if you get into an argument with your uncle about how we can possibly feed the world with organic agriculture, say what Michael Pollan has said, “how do we know? We’ve never tried.” (paraphrased)

10. Biofuel Production

Of course it would be easier to simply continue doing things the way we have been and just find another way to fuel our wasteful ways, but that’s not going to work. Replacing fossil fuels with biofuels made from virgin agricultural crops (as opposed to recycled vegetable oil) could devastate our food system and environment. Biofuels, which are made from corn, palm oil, sugar cane and other agricultural products, are monocrops (see point eight) so they have the same potential to cause deforestation and other environmental problems. They also displace people and cause the price of basic commodities to rise, which is devastating to poor people who spend a large proportion of their income on food.

What can you do about it?

This is another bigger-than-all-of-us problem, but you can do your small part by reducing energy use, driving less, and speaking up for sane urban and suburban planning and smart energy policies.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Images: chronos-tachyon, Danielle Scott, Muffet, Jonathan Assink, avlxyz, unanoslucror, lucianvenutian, ebruli, Jeffrey Beall, Daisy Double Oh, MSVG, Calc-Tufa, 91RS

You gonna eat that? Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that once planted in the wild, genetically modified organisms, such as bio-engineered fruit, grain or vegetables can change native, wild plant neighbors’ DNA. In the future, food activists worry, you might not even have a dietary choice.

A flurry of news stories, blog posts and Tweets have “cropped up” in recent weeks around this study and related events. Even teenagers are dialed into the debate over the merits and dangers of GMOs, says Jenny Kessler, who founded and directs the Garden Program at The Automotive High School in Brooklyn, New York.

Kessler teaches English, ESL and a class called “Food, Land and You.” Through this coursework or participation in the Garden Program, Automotive students learn about farming and industrial agriculture and gain hands-on experience cultivating and cooking food.

“Some of my students agree with economist Jeffrey Sachs that genetically modified crops should be used to alleviate world hunger now, since they can grow on depleted land in bad conditions,” Kessler says, “but most are concerned that GMOs aren’t tested enough before they enter our mainstream food supply. Or they worry that modified seeds and cross-pollination will make natural products scarce and expensive, or even extinct.”

The Garden Program group (as seen on Flickr.com/autogarden) wishes for – after a personal visit from Anna Lappe or Michael Pollan – better information about the effect of modified crops on human and plant health, and to inspire Americans to buy more locally produced food.

Basic reading:

“A report by a team from the United States and China appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [where] researchers point out that gene flow between crops and their wild relatives is common and difficult to contain. They note concerns that wild plants could, as a result, gain genetically engineered resistances. And these could affect the natural balance in their environment.” -US News And World Report feature

“Bayer CropScience AG is responsible for financial damage sustained by Missouri farmers when their rice crops were contaminated by genetically modified seeds, the growers’ lawyer told a federal court jury in St. Louis”¦Testing of one of the “˜LibertyLink’ [rice] strains at Louisiana State University was completed in 2001. While there has never been a specifically identified contamination event”¦studies suggest an event of cross-pollination with ordinary rice or a mixing of regular and genetically modified seed occurred then.” -BoingBoing.net opinion, discussion

“The debate over genetically modified crops has flared up in India, where critics have stalled the commercial release of insect-resistant eggplant, despite recent approval from the country’s biotechnology regulatory committee.” -

Economist Jeffrey Sachs’ official bio, including recent news by and about him

EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and business highlights by new EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

Image: liangjinjian

When farmers in Mato Grosso, the top soy-producing state in Brazil, were introduced to GMO soy varieties, they jumped at the chance to plant them, even though the country’s government hadn’t yet approved their use. It was a foolish risk to take; the GM soy these farmers planted has consistently provided lower yields than conventional soy varieties.

About half of the soy grown in Mato Grosso is genetically modified, but because of the lower yields – and the fact that many distributors are shunning GMO – quite a few farmers are turning back to conventional crops. However, so much research has been done on GM crops in the past decade that it may be difficult, at least initially, for conventional-minded farmers to compete. Concerned consumers and environmental scientists alike hope they can act quickly enough to preserve the seed base of non-genetically modified soy.

Image: tabithahawk

Take a look through your cupboards. Read the ingredient labels on your organic and natural food products (and your conventional ones). You’ll likely see soy lecithin on a large proportion of labels. You probably don’t know that the soy lecithin in your organic food is most likely from non-organic genetically modified soybeans.

Doesn’t the National Organic Rule prohibit the use of both non-organic ingredients and GMOs?

It does, but there is one important thing to know about this rule….foods can be labeled organic if they contain at least 95% organic ingredients. The other 5% can be non-organic. Furthermore, if a product is not available in organic form, it might be on a list of exceptions to the rule. Organic soy lecithin was not available when the National Organic Rule was written, so it made the list. Organic soy lecithin is available now, but manufacturers have no incentive to switch as long as it is still allowed under the organic rule (and it’s cheaper). The USDA is currently considering comments on a proposed change to the rule. A decision is expected in the spring.

Why is it in my food?

In industrial applications soy lecithin acts like egg yolks and has similar emulsification properties. In fact, egg yolks also contain lecithin, but now that soy lecithin is available it is rarely used. Soy lecithin is what makes margarine and peanut butter spreadable, chocolate coatings smooth, batters pourable, ice cream creamy. It also facilitates mixing and prevents spattering during cooking, and extends the shelf life of foods.

How is it made?

It’s a byproduct of soybean oil that is extracted during processing. We’ve already talked about the heavy processing soy protein goes through before it ends up in countless foods. Soy lecithin is extracted from soy oil in a similarly industrial manner. First, water is added to the oil and put in a centrifuge to separate the lecithin from the oil, then it is generally bleached with hydrogen peroxide. The product is then dried and sometimes it is further refined with acetone.

Add to this the fact that nearly 90% of the soy grown in the U.S. is genetically modified and heavily sprayed with pesticides, and you have to wonder if you should be eating it.

What can I do?

Eat unprocessed, whole foods for the most part, and seek out food manufacturers who are doing the right thing and switching over to organic soy lecithin without being forced by a rule change. This is unconfirmed, but there a few chocolate brands I’ve read about on the internets that use organic soy lecithin, but you still need to read the labels because they may not use it in all of their products. These include Lake Champlain, Dagoba, Endangered Species Sjaaks, Sweet Earth, and Green and Black’s.

Please comment if you know of other food companies/products using organic soy lecithin.

Sources:

United Soybean Board

Treehugger

Weston A Price Foundation

Soy info Center

Image: jessicafm

According to Consumers Union, 95% of consumers in the U.S. want products containing genetically modified organisms to be labeled. Yet, in 1996 the FDA ruled that genetically modified foods were not substantially different from others and need not be labeled. Then, in January 2009 as the Bush administration headed out the door, the outgoing FDA ruled that it wouldn’t require the labeling of genetically modified meat or fish.

What’s going on here? We’re told that the free market works because of the rational behavior of informed consumers. How can consumers make intelligent choices when the information they need is deliberately held back by government influenced by powerful corporations?

We’ve talked about the power seed giant Monsanto exerts on our government before. Did you know that Monsanto’s hydra-like tentacles of influence extend across the globe? Let’s explore how the company was able to introduce its GM soybean technology to Brazil.

There was a point in the early part of this century when Monsanto wasn’t doing too well. It couldn’t sell its products in Europe. Nobody wanted them. Americans were getting anxious about consuming foods made from GM seeds. Monsanto needed a new market. A big new market. We’ve already talked about how the soy industry in Brazil has led to slavery and deforestation. The soy industry in Brazil has also had a big impact on Monsanto, essentially saving the company from ruin.

According to a policy brief from Food First, and other sources, Monsanto used illegal tactics to push their GM technology on Brazilian farmers and then strong-armed the Brazilian legislature to make the technology legal.

Brazil had a ban on planting of GM seeds in effect since 1998, but it was one of the only holdouts in South America. Brazil’s neighbor, Argentina, was a large producer of GM soy. Monsanto encouraged farmers in Brazil to plant its “roundup ready” GM soybeans that were illegally imported from Argentina in defiance of the ban. Monsanto knew that once its seeds were in the ground they would be able to make a case for intellectual property rights. Armed with their patents, the company’s lawyers went to the courts to solidify its new Brazilian market.

By arguing that Brazil was impeding its legal right to collect royalties on its intellectual property (the seeds), Monsanto made its case and GM soy was legalized in Brazil in 2003. Still, the essential companion to Monsanto’s Roundup-ready GM soy, the herbicide Roundup, was not legal yet. In 2004, a congressman from southern Brazil pushed through a series of federal amendments legalizing the herbicide. This same congressman purchased a large farm from Monsanto for one-third of the market price. The Brazilian government is investigating the congressman for corruption.

You may be thinking that you’re not eating GM soy because you buy organic. But if you eat organic food that contains soy lecithin (and you probably do since its in everything) check back in two weeks when we wrap up our soy series with a piece about soy lecithin. We’ll explore why the organic rule allows small amounts of non-organic ingredients in organic products and learn that it’s not that simple.

Want to learn more about the drama behind GM foods? Check out this link to news articles from different sources that will give you a good idea of Monsanto’s trials, successes, machinations, and manipulations over the past few years.

Image: Mike138