Gm Through The Back Door - Brief Article

Ecologist, The, April, 2000 by Nick Atkinson

NICK ATKINSON AND MARK LYNAS ON THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY'S NEW TRICK-SLIPPING GM PRODUCTS INTO THE HUMAN FOOD CHAIN VIA ANIMAL FEED.

DESPITE FALLING CONSUMER demand for GM crops worldwide, GM foods are still making their way into human diets, largely through genetically-modified maize and soya animal feeds. But as activists alert consumers to this issue, all that could change.

READ ANY OF the press in the UK these days, and you'd think the biotech battle had been won. All of Britain's major supermarkets have taken genetically modified (GM) ingredients out of their own brands, investors like Deutsche Bank are warning the corporations to rid themselves of their embarrassing agri-biotech divisions, and even US farmers knowing that markets for GM products in Europe and Asia are collapsing -- are being forced to rethink the crops they grow.

But the real picture isn't quite so simple, nor quite so rosy from an anti-GM campaigner's point of view -- not when animal feeds are taken into account. For over 50 per cent of the GM material imported into the UK each year is fed to livestock. That's a ready market for nearly 2 million tonnes of mainly US-produced GM soya and maize products, which are mostly being withdrawn from direct human consumption. So rather than contaminating bread, margarine and veggieburgers, GM ingredients are going straight into eggs, butter and beef.

The consequences for humans of eating animal products from livestock reared on a diet high in GM ingredients is as yet unknown. The industry's trade association UKASTA (United Kingdom Agricultural Supply Trade Association) tries to reassure consumers that it is 'unlikely' that intact genes would be passed on to livestock or humans through the widespread consumption of GM material. However, the industry is on shaky ground -- the last time it took a risk with animal feed ingredients, the result was BSE. That particular mistake is calculated to have cost the UK [pounds]4 billion, and 'new variant' CJD has now killed 43 people in Britain.

In fact, all three of the main companies supplying the UK animal feeds market are already giving evidence to the BSE inquiry. These are BOCM Pauls, Dalgety and ABN -- a division of Associated British Food (ABF), which produces Allinson, Kingsmill and Sunblest breads, Ryvita, Twinings teas and Silver Spoon sugar. Although ABF 'recognises the considerable concern' felt by most of the British public over GM foods, it remains 'confident' that their continued use is entirely safe. The position of BOCM Pauls and Dalgety is broadly similar.

Pressure from consumers and activists has already begun to have an effect, however. Iceland -- the frozen foods supermarket chain which was first to withdraw GM soya from its products -- is now sourcing its chickens from elsewhere to avoid the problem. Marks and Spencer has also followed suit, and claims to be the 'first high street retailer' to be removing GM soya and maize from all its animal feed.

Activists have also been working hard to put pressure on companies and keep the issue on the political agenda. Campaigners in Oxford targeted Tesco in November last year, offering passers-by genetically modified cooked breakfasts. None took up the offer. In December the Newcastle-based anti-genetics group GeneNo! visited a cattle feed mill in County Durham.

Three people dressed as cows scaled two large grain silos and suspended a banner reading 'No GM Animal Feeds'. Now Greenpeace is campaigning on an international scale to pressurise animal feeds companies and retailers to give GM-free guarantees -- focusing particularly on McDonald's, whose poultry suppliers use large amounts of US-originated GM soya.

Greenpeace regards animal feeds as a commercial 'back door', through which supplies of GM soya and maize are still flooding into Europe. How quickly this door can be closed depends on the determination of consumers and activists to follow through on the major successes already achieved by the anti-GM campaign. These successes are now beginning to rebound on the US itself, as the public debate about genetic engineering, which the technology's corporate sponsors thought they had avoided four years ago, is beginning to take off.

Across Asia, the effects of the public's rejection of GM crops have been dramatic. The Japanese government is now introducing labelling laws, to come into force next year. Already, in anticipation of a tougher regime, Japanese beer producers are eliminating GM corn. In Thailand, soy sauce manufacturers are vying to capture the GM-free market. It's a story that -- as it gets repeated globally -- could sound the final death knell for this dangerous and unwanted technology. But unless GM ingredients are removed from animal feeds for good, livestock production just might be throwing a lifeline to the beleaguered biotechnology industry.

Nick Atkinson and Mark Lynas work for Corporate Watch, which has produced several briefing sheets giving more information about GM animal feeds and the companies which produce them.