table talk / By Joseph Byrd

GMO, cloning and other controversies

(Feb. 8, 2007)  Within the past few years - starting in 2000 with printed notices at the Arcata Co-op registers, rallying the troops - there has been a potent local reaction against genetically-modified (GMO) foods. Well, the Co-op has a bad record for consumer-friendly action (as opposed to decisions that are motivated by its directors’ narrow concerns). Was this truly concern for the environment, or a knee-jerk response?

There is a lot of anti-corporate sentiment around, much of it justified: Surely no one is convinced that most GMO research is being done for the public good. But science, like it or not, is dependent on funding, and banning study because we despise the funding source simply means research will not get done. And one thing that seems obvious is the need for more research. Cutting off government funds is reminiscent of the Bush Administration’s ban on stem cell research, dependence on faith rather than science-based reasoning.

Food is an international issue, as controversial as the struggles between opposing theocracies of states such as India and Pakistan, nations that, whatever their differences, are welcoming of anything that can help feed their millions. We may indeed have the new food technology that can save them. But if so, it is tied up in an enigma of protectionist laws, corporate might, and cynical political power, a package in which Left and Right happily serve their own interests at the expense of world hunger. And I’m still left wondering what a sensible, non-ideological position might be. But ideology is here, whether we like it or not, and GMO is in the hands of some very powerful companies like Monsanto. That doesn’t thrill me.

The BBC World Service a few years back had a panel game show called Inspiration, about “current inventions.” There were a number of possible experiments described, without advocacy. Among them were the implications of GMO substitution of a kangaroo’s stomach bacteria for those in domestic cattle (thus vastly reducing the methane released into the atmosphere). It posed such questions to a panel of scientists and science writers in a kind of “who can guess what might be the result of this research?” fashion.

It was an entertaining view of current scientific possibilities, all pretty innocent and unsophisticated relative to American panel shows. But slick or not, it was fascinating, in its gentle plodding BBC fashion. And while the scientists took no position, the consensus clearly assumed that GMO is capable of doing good. Well, that’s worth considering. So I start from an assumption that evil scientists working for venal corporations is not the whole story.

In search of just what ills genetically modified foods might cause, I log onto a SCOPE Forum (Science Controversies Online Partnerships in Education). SCOPE is sponsored by UC Berkeley, the University of Washington and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A forum under its aegis ought to be a voice of sanity. But it’s not a colloquium, more of a debating society. Everyone is either passionately for or against GMO.

Senthil Subramanian (a biologist from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) sees GMOs as a way to provide food and dietary needs to the Indian subcontinent:

“Farmers get better yields and their profits increase because of the reduction in cost of cultivation. Consumers get good quality food that is free from chemical residues, which keeps them healthy. The technology opens up several new markets and thus helps the business community. Governments and health organizations reap benefits in the form of easier production of vaccine fruits and nutritious crops. The chemical pesticide industry could lose business because of the reduced use of their products by farmers. Nobody has anything to lose as long as adequate awareness is created among farmers and industry about the precautions and potential dangers.”

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