[asia-apec 1628] New Report from Food First onn GEAnatomy of a Gene Spill

[Anuradha Mittal]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE				Contact: Nicholas Parker
November 1, 2000						(510) 654-1914 Ext. 229
							Author available for interviews


Anatomy of a ‘Gene Spill’
Do we Really Need Genetically Engineered Food?

Food policy think tank releases report on the StarLink/taco shell corn 
scandal which raises questions about genetic engineering of our food 
supply 

Full text of the report available at: 
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2000/f00v6n4.html

(Oakland, CA)—The scandal surrounding the genetically engineered (GE) 
StarLink corn—a variety not approved for human consumption—first found 
in Taco Bell taco shells, is symptomatic of larger problems, according 
to Food First’s latest Backgrounder: Anatomy of a Gene Spill: Do we 
Really Need Genetically Engineered Food?  The report issued by the 
Institute for Food and Development Policy, also know as ‘Food First,’ 
tackles the thorny issues of corporate concentration and collusion in 
this recent ‘gene spill,’ the difficulties of keeping GE foods from the 
human food supply, and the implications of gene spills for human health 
and the environment.

"Unfortunately, gene spills are not as easy to contain as oil spills," 
says Dr. Peter Rosset, the author of the report and Co-Director of Food 
First. "You can’t just throw a boom around them.  Once genes are taken 
out of the laboratory, they can move from plant to plant by natural 
pollination, winding up in genomes in which they have never been tested 
and where they may have unpredictable effects." 

After independent studies discovered Taco Bell taco shells to be 
contaminated with a GE corn variety only approved for animal feed, 
further studies have revealed how widespread this contamination is, with 
the latest reports finding it in U.S. exports to Japan. According to the 
report, all steps in the corn commodity chain, including planting, 
harvesting, storage, shipping, and distribution, are susceptible to 
genetic co-mingling. Complicating issues of accountability when 
accidents happen are rampant corporate mergers, acquisitions and 
alliances in the agriculture and food industry, which impede regulatory 
oversight. 

"Whether it is Alar on apples, or food poisoning outbreaks from fast 
food hamburgers, corporate power and negligence with new 
technologies—farm chemicals in one case and factory farming in the 
other—are increasingly putting our food supply at risk and our federal 
regulators to sleep," said Rosset.

The report argues that there is "no compelling need" for the these 
products to be in our food today, and calls for an immediate moratorium 
on commercial use of genetic engineering of crops and GE foods until 
each product has passed widely acceptable environmental and health 
safety tests. 

Food First—founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins 
after the success of Diet for a Small Planet, is an ‘outside the 
beltway’ policy think tank that carries out research, education and 
advocacy about out food system. Food First works to identify the root 
causes of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world, 
and to educate the public as well as policymakers about these problems 
and alternative solutions to them.

Full text of the report is available at: 
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2000/f00v6n4.html

To schedule interviews, please contact Nick Parker at (510) 654-4400 
ext. 229; nparker at foodfirst.org
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Join the fight against hunger. For more information contact foodfirst at foodfirst.org.

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