GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS SAFER THAN ORGANIC

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
July 6, 2003

Organic foods are generally viewed as the "golden measure" against which
the safety and healthfulness of all other foods should be measured. This
carefully cultivated perception is used by the organic-food industry to
justify the higher price of organic produce. This industry has also
campaigned against genetically modified crops, claiming that GM foods -
"Frankenfoods" - are dangerous for human health, bad for the environment,
unnatural and exploitive of farmers in developing countries.

In a remarkable turn of events, an increasing number of scientific studies
have not only demonstrated that these claims have little merit, but also
that the opposite is true!

For example, in several peer-reviewed studies Bt-type GM corn has been
proved to be on average safer for humans than traditionally or organically
grown corn, and Bt-corn and other GM crops have been shown to be both
beneficial for the environment and for farmers in Third World countries.

Even the genetic process of transferring DNA between unrelated organisms
has been shown to be a common process, occurring trillions of times each
second around the world. Indeed, the most commonly grown non-GM wheat in
Colorado is a variety that contains half a rye chromosome.

Arguably the most stunning GM crop-related discovery pertains to the
demonstration that Bt-corn contains on average 90 percent less
cancer-causing mycotoxins than the non-GM corn varieties grown by organic
and traditional farmers.

What makes these mycotoxins particularly dangerous for humans is that most
types of food processing do not affect the toxic effect. Certain
mycotoxins have been found in food products as diverse as corn flakes and
beer.

Three large international studies have recently reported on the mycotoxin
content of hundreds of corn samples collected in 18 countries. In one
study, the average content of just one type of mycotoxin in non-GM corn
samples was about 12 micrograms per gram of seed, whereas the content for
GM corn samples was only 1.3 micrograms per gram of seed.

Why does Bt-corn contain such drastically reduced amounts of mycotoxins?
The fungi that produce the mycotoxins,Fusarium molds, enter corn plants
primarily through holes produced by corn borers. Because every cell in
Bt-corn is equipped to fight corn borers directly, corn borers that attack
such plants are quickly killed and do not replicate, which results in
fewer Fusarium infections and reduced mycotoxin production.

The general safety of foods containing GM crop-derived products has been
further proven by the fact that over a billion people consume such foods
on a regular basis, and not a single illness or death has been reported.

In 2002, close to 6 million farmers around the world planted GM crops, and
nearly three-quarters of those farmers were in developing countries. The
advantages of GM crops for resource-poor farmers is illustrated by a study
of Bt-cotton growing farmers in Lang Fang Prefecture in Hebei, China.
During the five years in which they have planted Bt-cotton, their incomes
have gone up by 30 percent (less money spent on pesticides) and their
health and the health of their families has improved due to the reduced
exposure to these toxic chemicals. Finally, the quality of their drinking
water has improved due to the reduced contamination of their wells by
pesticide runoff.

GM crops can yield safer and more nutritious foods, reduce the use of
pesticides and thereby help the environment, and help farmers around the
world lead better and healthier lives. In light of these developments, it
might be time for the leaders of the organic-food industry in the U.S. to
begin to think about growing GM crops on organic farms, and to institute
policy changes to allow such foods to be sold in organic food stores.