GM food labeling act

Second of three senate legislative hearings on potential genetically modified food labeling act held in southern Illinois

Genetically modified food, the subject of Senate Bill 1666, is a relatively new way to do something that humans have done for thousands of years: artificial selection.

However, both state and federal governments are trying to catch up to the science and determine whether or not consumers should be warned that certain products contain genetically modified organisms, which SB 1666 would require.

An Illinois senate legislative hearing was held on this topic Aug. 7 at SIUC. The event, which was the second of three planned hearings in Illinois, was hosted by the non-governmental organization Food & Water Watch.

This organization, according to its website, is a national consumer advocacy group focusing on corporate and government accountability regarding food, water and fishing.

Genetically modified crops were first released into the market in 1996. By 2010, approximately 86 percent of corn and 93 percent of soybeans in the United States were genetically modified, according to a report by the National Agricultural Statistics Board.

SIUE biology professor Darron Luesse said genetic modification differs from the traditional method humans use to modify organisms in a number of ways.

Though both result in genetic changes to the organism, artificial selection can take thousands of generations to get the desired trait to be prevalent.

“With genetic engineering, when you are transforming an organism, you are putting in some specific piece of DNA from outside that organism, and that [DNA] doesn’t normally occur there,” Luesse said. “With artificial selection, you are basically looking at the offspring of a given plant and picking out the traits you like the best and then breeding those, so you push [the plant’s evolution in] a different direction.”

SB 1666 was introduced earlier this year by Senator David Kohler (D-Peoria), a member of the Food Labeling Subcommittee of the Illinois Senate Committee on Agriculture and Conservation.

The members of the Food Labeling Subcommittee were the hosts of the hearing, with Senators Kohler, Sam McCann (R-Jacksonville), Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign) and Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) all present.

Opposition

Senators first heard testimony from opponents of the legislation. Jeffrey Adkinson, representative of the Illinois Grain and Feed Association, was first to raise his concerns.

The way the current system works, Adkinson said, would make the labeling of genetically modified food cumbersome and expensive.

“By mandating labeling, the system will be required to do more identity preservation, which puts more variables into the system,” Adkinson said. “More variables mean more opportunities for things to go wrong, which translates into increased risk resulting in more costs.”

Identity preservation is when agricultural shipments have their details tracked.

Adkinson argued that any legislation requiring the labeling of genetically modified food ought to be handled at the federal level.

After Adkinson finished his testimony, Senator Koehler said he would like the U.S. Congress to pass genetically modified food labeling eventually. However, he wished to start the debate at the state level.

Dennis Thompson, the chief executive officer of the Illinois Crop Improvement Association, told the Senators he was concerned the increased burden on agribusiness required by labeling would result in both an increase in the price of food and a reduced variety of available food for Illinois consumers.

Because food production is a global industry, he said some food manufacturers would avoid business in Illinois.

Other opponents included a food manufacturer and a representative of the Illinois Farm Bureau, all voicing similar concerns.

Karen Batra, director of communications at Bio, the national trade association for biotech companies, said in an interview that they support voluntary labeling programs such as certified organic for non-genetically modified food and products that do not use pesticides or hormones. They do not support legally mandated labeling, though.

“If a consumer sees that a particular food is mandated by law to carry a certain label, it infers automatically that there’s some kind of safety concern when there is none,” Batra said.

Proponents

Jerry Bradley, a Carbondale co-op manager, responded to the economic and logistic concerns of the opponents by saying that most packaging has health claims about fiber, protein, cholesterol and others. He argued that it should not be a major problem to note a product’s genetic modification as well.

“Ultimately, this issue is not about the science, the economics or the claims being made by one side or the other about genetically engineered food,” Bradley said. “This issue is a matter of transparency, trust and the right to know, pure and simple. Just label it.”

Wesley Jarrell, professor emeritus of Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Illinois and a Champaign farmer, said, because they are new, the knowledge on genetically modified organisms is still limited, and America ought to be cautious until the public knows genetic modification is safe.

“If [genetically engineered] products are so good for individuals and society, growers and processors should be proud to put it on the label,” Jarrell said. “At the same time, we believe it’s our responsibility to be accountable and transparent to our customers. They deserve the right to all the information that we can give them so that they can decide what to feed to themselves and their families.”

Senators also heard supporting testimony from both a regular farmer and an organic farmer.

Geneticists or other scientists were not present and did not give testimony at the meeting.

What genetic modification does

Luesse said a genetically modified organism is one that receives a piece of DNA from a different species through specific human techniques.

The two primary techniques are using a bacteria to infect a plant with a desired gene, and blasting a plant’s cells with a particle gun that shoots gold that is coated in DNA.

In both methods, the key is to transfer the genes into the plant’s reproductive cells to ensure offspring of the plant carry the trait.

The poster child, Luesse said, of genetic modification is Bt corn, which expresses the Bt toxin that normally occurs in the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to ward off the European corn borer and other pests.

Luesse said genetically modified plants can also be made immune to diseases and herbicides, the latter making herbicide more effective in killing weeds but keeping the crop alive and reducing the amount of herbicide used.

All of these varieties of genetically modified crops are meant to increase yields, according to Luesse. By increasing the yield of plants without increasing the required land, genetically modified crops allow for smaller fields with more food to feed the growing world population.

Luesse said genetically modified crops can help solve a number of other problems. For instance, tomato plants can be bred to remove salt from soil high in salt content.

Genetic engineers are also trying to tackle Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world with Golden Rice, which produces beta-carotene in the edible parts that the body can convert to Vitamin A. Luesse said that the work on Golden Rice is still ongoing, and he has yet to see definitive evidence that those who eat Golden Rice are getting any nutritional content.

New York Times science journalist Amy Harmon recently wrote “A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA,” which describes a recent application for genetic modification, a last ditch effort to save Florida oranges from a bacteria disease called citrus greening.

Harmon wrote, “Leading scientific organizations have concluded that shuttling DNA between species carries no intrinsic risk to human health or the environment, and that such alterations can be reliably tested.”

Despite this consensus among regulatory organizations, a July 27 New York Times poll found 93 percent of Americans support labeling genetically modified food, with 75 percent concerned about genetically modified food. 37 percent feared genetically modified food would cause cancer or allergies, and 26 percent believed them to be toxic or not safe to eat.

Genes we add to an ecosystem can move from a genetically modified crop to other, non-genetically modified crops nearby or into weeds, according to Luesse.

“There’s always a concern when you’re messing with the natural dynamic if you’re adding genes to a system, that that’s going to change the whole system,” Luesse said. “It’s part of our duty as a species on this planet to not screw up the whole thing. We need to be careful not to allow these genes we put in to become ubiquitous and move around when they probably shouldn’t be.”

Yet, Luesse maintained that genetically modified crops can help the environment in a variety of ways.

Genetically modified crops, producing some of their own nutrients, also require less fertilizer, which leads to less fertilizer run off into rivers, which in turn causes fewer dead zones in lakes and oceans.

Ultimately, according to Luesse, humans may not have a choice between genetically modified organisms and organics.

Thomas Malthus, an 18th century mathematician, estimated human population would outpace food production by around 1950. The reason this did not happen, Luesse said, was the Green Revolution that began in the early 1960s, which featured advances in planting methods, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and mechanization to increase yield per acre.

As a result, Luesse said, the 1960 agricultural output of around 250 million tons went to 700 million tons by the year 2000 with 10 million fewer acres of farmland.

“We’re not going to come up with some super, new fertilizer or herbicides, pesticides or better tracker. What is increasing is [population],” Luesse said. “We’re making more people that are going to want to eat, but we’re not making more food per acre. Long term, we’re going to need to get more per acre, and I have not seen any technology, other than genetic engineering, that has the capacity to do this.”

The third senate legislative hearing on SB 1666 will be held Sept. 17 in Chicago. ALESTLELIVE