Thought for Food

Natural History, Oct, 2003 by Robert (American businessman and engineer) Anderson

Unless you don't eat, you probably already have strong personal opinions about genetically modified (GM) foods [see "Crop Circles," by Marc J. Cohen, page 58]. Rightly or wrongly, they call forth many of the same health anxieties people have about pesticides, hormones, and food irradiation.

A good place to begin sorting through the relevant information available on the Internet is the "GM Food" page at "Scope" (scope.educ. washington.edu/gmfood/). On the "Scope Forum" menu, at the upper left of the screen, "Positions" will lead you to incisive responses from eight experts to questions about the risks and benefits of GM foods. "Site Bites," in the same menu, gives brief reviews of sixteen other Web sites on GM food, "scoping out" the biases you're likely to run into at each one.

I began with the site run by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Their "Food" page (www.ucsusa. org/food_and_environment/index.cfm) offers a balanced examination of humanity's short experience with GM crops (click on "Biotechnology" under "In This Section"). Under "Contents," on the right, you can also click on two excellent "Special Features" that focus on the way new technologies can threaten the food supply. A good discussion of the risks of genetic engineering is available under "Backgrounders," and under "Guides" you'll find a list of altered foods currently allowed in U.S. markets.

To check out one of the principal players on the "upbeat" side of the debate, the "Site Bites" reviews suggest Monsanto, which has "created an unceasingly and completely positive picture of GMFs" (go to www. monsanto.com/ and search for "GM Food"). So has the U.S. Department of Agriculture (www.usda. gov/agencies/biotech/index.html): "Blue skies for agricultural biotechnology, here," says the Scope review.

But to see how a bastion of spirited scientific nay-sayers is saying nay, go to the "Genetic Modification" page of the London-based Independent Science Panel (indsp.org/ gm.php). There you'll find the organization's recently issued report, "The Case for a GM-free Sustainable World."

If you're looking instead for some explanation of biotechnology that falls in between the Bad Guys and the Good Guys, Colorado State University offers an up-to-date guide to transgenic crops. Without taking sides, this excellent site (www.colostate.edu/programs/lifesciences/TransgenicCrops/index.html) presents the science underlying the issues in substantial detail. On the menu at the left, the entries on current and future transgenic products (toward the bottom of the list) give concise overviews of specific GM crops in use and in the pipeline.

Whether or not you think the trend toward GM foods is leading into dangerous waters, you do have the right to know which of your supermarket purchases have been genetically engineered. GM-food labeling is not required yet in the United States, but some of the more partisan Internet sites can help you out. For example, at Greenpeace's "True Food Network" site (www. truefoodnow.org/) you can click on the blue icon at the right for the "True Food Shopping List." There you'll see which companies have embraced the brave new world and which continue to make food the old-fashioned way.

Robert Anderson is a freelance science writer living in Los Angeles.