GM food – is it food?

MalenySeptember 2013

What is Genetically Modified (GM) food?

GM food comes from plants that have been changed in two main ways so they can:

1. Survive being sprayed with weedkiller (herbicide tolerant). This greatly increases the use of weedkillers.

2. Kill certain insects that eat them (Insect resistant) – the GM toxins produced in the plant can’t be washed off.

Some GM plants can be sprayed with weedkiller AND produce toxins to kill insects

What crops may be GM?

• Soy• Corn• Canola*• Sugarbeet• Cotton** (we eat cottonseed oil which is often

called vegetable oil)• * GM canola is less than 10% of Australia’s crop• ** GM cotton is more than 90% of Australia’s crop

Am I eating GM?

• Ingredients derived from GM crops (soy, corn, canola, cotton, sugarbeet) end up in many processed foods

• Animals may be fed GM feed (soy, corn, canola)

Isn’t it mandatory to label GM food?

• Australia has GM labelling laws BUT they are so weak most GM ingredients escape labelling.

• Australian Food and Grocery Council said if all GM derived ingredients (including additives) had to be labelled most food would have a label

• How many GM labels have you seen?

Exemptions to GM food labelling

• highly refined food ie oil, sugars and starches• processing aid or food additive, flavours at

less than 1%• GM unintentionally present at less than 1%• food sold in restaurants, takeaways , stalls and

from vending machines• Eggs, milk, meat, cheese, fish, honey from

animals fed GM feed

Cake Mate Soft Frosting

Can I buy GM-free food?

• Australian grown fresh fruit, vegetables and cereals are GM-free. Australia grows GM canola (less than 10% of crop) and GM cotton (over 90% of the crop)

• Ask your supermarkets to stock GM-free food. Coles and Woolworths say their homebrands are GM-free

• Buy from trusted shops/farmers/companies• Buy organic

BUT we’ve been eating GM for years and we’re all OK, aren’t

we?

How have GM foods been approved?

• The basic assumption is that GM crops are ‘Substantially equivalent’ to non-GM crops.

• SE = key concept to regulators worldwide and is laid out in CODEX

• Criticized by Royal Society of Canada in Expert Panel Report as ‘scientifically unjustifiable’

• No regulatory agency requires long term feeding trials. Most 90 days or less. Reproductive and multi-generational feeding trials not required

How are GM foods approved in Australia?

• FSANZ’s says it is “…the responsibility of the companies that have developed GM foods to demonstrate the safety of that food..”

• FSANZ does no independent testing of GM food• FSANZ requires no animal feeding trials.• FSANZ bases approval of GM on company studies

and has dismissed peer-reviewed science showing harm from GM

• http://www.madge.org.au/sites/default/files/articlefiles/FED-UP-WITH-FSANZ-OCT2012.pdf

Calls for labelling and monitoring

• The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) want:– labelling of GM food and– a monitoring system so that doctors can report if

they think a patient may have had a reaction to a GM food.

American Academy of Environmental Medicine

• asked doctors to educate the public to avoid GM foods due to

• “the serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health.”

• http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html

Pigs fed a combined GM soy and maize diet Carman 2013

• Male pigs 4 times more likely to have severe stomach inflammation

• Female pigs 25% heavier uterus on average

Response to Carman et al 2013

• Dismissed by FSANZ as not proving inflammation present and not proving uterine weight increase due to GM diet. No references cited

• http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/gmfood/Pages/Detailed-commentary-.aspx

• Dr Judy Carman has responded to critics on the GMO Carman site http://gmojudycarman.org/category/critics-answered/

Two year study on GM corn NK603 and associated herbicide Roundup Seralini et

al 2012

• Dr Michael Antoniou , molecular biologist at King’s College, London:

• “It shows an extraordinary number of tumours developing earlier and more aggressively (in the GM/Roundup fed rats) –particularly in female animals. I am shocked by the extreme negative health impacts.”

• http://safefoodfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SFF-press-release-for-website.pdf

Response to Seralini 2012

• FSANZ, EFSA, Health Canada, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment reviewed and rejected the study’s findings

• http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/gmfood/seralini/Pages/default.aspx

• The EU plans a 2 year carcinogenicity study on NK603 GM corn. EFSA guidelines validate Seralini http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14956:eu-plans-2-year-carcinogenicity-study-on-nk603-maize http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15002:seralini-validated-by-new-efsa-guidelines-on-long-term-gmo-experiments

• Seralini website responds to critics http://gmoseralini.org/category/critics-answered/

FSANZ’s approval of NK603 GM corn

• Approved in 2002. Not grown here but can be imported as animal feed or ingredient in processed food

• 9-day acute toxicity trial. Mice given single dose of purified GM protein

• Assumed that as GM protein not similar to known allergens would not be allergenic

• Although GM corn had differences in fatty acids and amino acids assumed “compositionally equivalent to unmodified corn varieties.”

Scientific evidence of harm from glyphosate (Roundup)

• Roundup and birth defects: is the public being kept in the dark?

• Industry has known from its own studies since the 1980s that glyphosate causes malformations in experimental animals at high doses

• Industry has known since 1993 that these effects also occur at lower and mid doses

• The German government has known since at least 1998 that glyphosate causes malformations

• The EU Commission’s expert scientific review panel knew in 1999 that glyphosate causes malformations

• The EU Commission has known since 2002 that glyphosate causes malformations. This was the year it signed off on the current approval of glyphosate.

• http://earthopensource.org/index.php/reports/roundup-and-birth-defects-is-the-public-being-kept-in-the-dark#sthash.d2PMoMhP.dpuf

GMO Evidence - Roundup

• Prof Andres Carrasco: Glyphosate Causes Birth Defects in Chickens, Frog

• Dr Cattani: Roundup Causes Infertility in Rats• Gilles

-Eric Seralini: Glyphosate is Toxic to Human Placental JEG3 Cells • Gilles-Eric Seralini: Glyphosate is an Endocrine Disruptor in Hum

an Cells• Dr

Benedetti: Soybean Workers Suffer DNA Damage from Glyphosate

• Dr. Thongprakaisang: Glyphosate Induces Growth in Human Breast Cancer Cells

• Dr. Krüger: Roundup Suppresses Growth of Beneficial Gut Bacteria

• Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hoppe: Glyphosate Found in Human Urine Across Europe

• People in 18 countries across Europe have been found to have traces of the weed killer glyphosate in their urine, Samsel and Seneff: Glyphosate Enhances Damaging Effects of Environmental Toxins

• This study shows that glyphosate, the active ingredient of roundup, enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins.

• Dr. Krüger: Roundup Suppresses Growth of Beneficial Gut Bacteria

• Michael Pollan – Some of my best friends are germs http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

• Tom Laskawy - Gut Punch – How Monsanto could be destroying your microbiome http://grist.org/food/gut-punch-monsanto-could-be-destroying-your-microbiome/

People report illnesses improve on GM-free diet

• Caitlin Shetterly’s headaches, nausea, rashes, and fatigue diagnosed by allergist as GMO corn allergy http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/allergy-to-genetically-modified-corn

• “Moms Across America” PANDA, allergies,• Rachel Linden was sick for ten years with asthma,

seasonal allergies, food allergies, infections and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Institute of Responsible Technonology. Says people reporting allergies, autism, diabetes, arthritis, colitis Crohn’s disease, celiac, improve on non-GM diet

• http://www.madge.org.au/madge-digest-no-133-aprilmay-2013#two

How can we feed the world?

Failure to Yield 2009

• reviewed two dozen academic studies of corn and soybeans, the 2 main GM crops

• UCS report concludes GM ht soy and corn has not increased yields.

• Insect-resistant corn, improved yields only marginally.• Increase in yields for both crops over the last 13 years

largely due to traditional breeding or improvements in agricultural practices.

• http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/failure-to-yield.html

Sustainability and innovation in staple crop production in the US Midwest Heinemann et al

2013

• 50 years of yield data with corn, canola and cotton from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation database. Until 1985 US yields signif higher than EU. Since then W. Europe outproducing US in corn. Using less pesticide too.

• http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2013/06/bth_20130624_1146.mp3

Increase use of pesticide

• "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years” Benbrook November 2009

• “farmers applied 318 million more pounds of pesticides over the last 13 years as a result of planting GE seeds.”

• http://www.organic-center.org/science.pest.php?action=view&report_id=159

Superweeds

• In 2012 49% of US farmers surveyed had glyphosate resistant weeds on farm. Up from 37% in 2011 http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/02/report-spread-monsantos-superweeds-speeds-12-0

• GM crops resistant to 2,4-D and dicamba awaiting approval

Superpests

• Brazil has lost 10 billion Real of crops to caterpillars. Blamed on expansion of GM maize. Bt maize kills armyworms that feed on the caterpillars. http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14997:brazilian-farmers-lose-10-billion-real-as-caterpillars-devour-gm-and-other-crops

• Rootworm in corn are developing resistance to bt toxin in the UShttp://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/08/monsanto-superweeds-and-superinsects-compounding-drought-damage-corn-country

Argentina

• Birth defects in Argentina in Ituzaingó near GM soy fields. Roundup and Endosulfan sprayed. Cancer rates 41 times the national average http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/sofia-gatica

• Watch “Argentina’s Bad Seeds” on Al Jazeera• Open letter to the Pope from Argentinian rural

group on the damage caused to people, food and country by GM monoculture for export

• https://www.facebook.com/AfricanCentreforBiosafety/posts/553207478055918

India

• 1988 Seed Policy imposed by World Bank, required deregulation of seed sector.

• Suicides of farmers 250,000+• Parliamentary committee on Bt crops= damming report• Panel of technical experts appointed by the supreme

court has recommended a 10 yr moratorium on field trials

• http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201332813553729250.html

• SRI and organics transforming lives http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/organic-rice-cultivation-transforming-lives-of-damoh-farmers/article2668286.ece

Phillippines

• Consumers International- estimated 270,000 small-hold forced to grow GM corn and ending up in debt. The cost of seeds has risen 282% and accounts for 18-21% of a farmer’s total cost of production. http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/february2013/the-gmo-seed-cartel.php#sthash.HrkbgLrd.dpufUprooting

• GM rice uprooted by farmers http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/15036-national-rice-farmers-council-raises-alarm-over-golden-rice

Africa• African groups oppose G8 s, AGRA and Gates ′

plan to privatise African agriculture. http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/14917-african-groups-challenge-g8-and-new-alliance

• ETC report - The New Biomassters• http://www.etcgroup.org/content/new-biomassters

• The Kamburu Story - A community-led response to climate change in Kenya Institute for Culture and Ecology Kenya http://vimeo.com/7096771

South + Central America

• Mexico protests re possible commercial growing of GM corn

• http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/14780-mexico-ground-zero-in-the-fight-for-the-future-of-maize

• Strike over Free Trade in Colombia. Farmers defend seed.

• http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/15038-colombia-farmers-uprising-puts-the-spotlight-on-seeds

US and hunger

• Feeding America – network of 200 food banks- report in 2011 17 million US children food insecure.

• “one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, according to the study, “

• The consequences of malnutrition can be severe - it affects cognitive development among young children, school, more frequent sickness and higher healthcare costs.

• http://abcnews.go.com/US/hunger_at_home/hunger-home-american-children-malnourished/story?id=14367230#.T6NKrHmTzKd

TPP and corporate agreements

• TPP and AFTINET• Negotiated in secret –expect to finalize end of

this year• Investor State Dispute Settlement• CSG• Food standards and labelling• AFTINET

Cool the climate while feeding us all

• IAASTD – UN report Agriculture at the Crossroads• Agroecology can double yields in 10 years “while

mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty.” http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/susagri/2011/susagri150.htm

• La Via Campesina• Permaculture• SRI- triples yield http://independentsciencenews.org/un-sustainable-

farming/how-millions-of-farmers-are-advancing-agriculture-for-themselves/

Food Movement is rising!

• Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance – People’s Food Plan

• Farmers Markets• Shop local• Get involved!