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Genetically modified (GM) foods are now being rejected
by farmers and consumers even in their most solid constituency:
the heartlands of the USA. The world’s largest grower and exporter
of GM produce is feeling the effects of a global backlash against
GM, and public debate is increasing domestically. As a result, even
industry-friendly growers organisations, such as the National Corn
Growers Association, have been advising farmers to steer clear of
GM crops. The Worldwatch Institute predicts that global acreage
of GM crops will fall 25% this year.
US farmers, fearing they will not be able to sell
GM products to European and other markets, are retreating in droves
from planting GM seeds. Last year market rejection cost them more
than $200 million in export revenue. A Reuters poll – conducted
early in the planting season at the annual convention of the American
Farm Bureau Federation – showed that farmers were already reducing
Roundup Ready soybean plantings by 15%, GM maize by 23%, and Bt
cotton by 26%.
Some seed companies are discounting their stocks
of GM seeds because of lack of demand, and those whose crops have
remained GM-free can expect premiums for their products. An added
disincentive: farmers who do choose to grow GM crops may be held
legally liable for any genetic pollution of the GM-free fields of
their neighbours. Farmers associations such as the National Family
Farming Coalition and the American Corn Growers are vocal in rejecting
GM technology and corporate control of agriculture. Even among loyal
customers, farmer resentment is growing against the heavy-handed
marketing techniques of the corporations.
It is not just in overseas markets that consumers
are rebelling. Though the biotech industry has often invoked those
"rational US consumers making science-based decisions to
eat GM foods," the reality is US citizens have been kept
in the dark about the technology. Virtually all US citizens will
have eaten GM food, but a poll by the Pew Research Centre showed
that in December 1999 only 22% of them believed they had actually
bought GM products. But it seems the more they find out, the less
they like it.
In response to consumer fears, the US snack industry
giant Frito-Lay has told its suppliers not to grow GM corn. This
will put pressure on those companies that have gone GM free in Europe
and Asia, but still use GM products in the US. Fast food outlets
McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys have all rejected GM potatoes
for their french fries in Europe.
Meanwhile on the stock market, many ag-biotech
companies’ share prices declined steadily throughout 1999,
prompting the Wall Street Journal to pronounce on January 7, 2000,
that "with controversy growing … it’s hard to
see those companies as a good investment, even in the long term."
More woes for the industry come in the form of
a lawsuit in the US District of Columbia. A group of six farmers
on behalf of themselves and others "similarly situated"
internationally, with the backing of The Foundation on Economic
Trends and the National Family Farm Coalition, have filed a class
action complaint against Monsanto (and its ‘co-conspirators’).
They allege that the company is part of a global cartel to monopolise
and restrain trade in the GM seed market, and that its rush to market
GM foods financially damaged and misled farmers and undermined consumer
confidence. The plaintiffs are petitioning the court that GM seeds
cease to be sold until Monsanto has "adequately tested GM
seeds and crops for human health and environmental safety, and subjected
such tests to independent scientific review and public disclosure."
The lawsuits don’t end there. The case against
the US food regulatory body, the Food and Drug Administration, over
its 1992 decision to approve GM foods is ongoing, and Greenpeace
and 70 other plaintiffs have won the first round of a suit against
the Environmental Protection Agency over its authorisation of Bt
crops. Campaigns to get GE foods labelled are gathering strength
too. In December 1999 the ‘GE Food Right to Know’ Act
went before Congress, and bodies such as the National Farmers Union
support the labelling initiative.
Activists like the ‘Night-time Gardeners’
and ‘Reclaim the Seeds’ - inspired by European and Asian
direct action against GM crops – have destroyed GE crop test
sites. Protests, from those in Seattle against the WTO to those
in Montreal, Canada during the Biosafety Protocol discussions, have
drawn thousands onto the streets. Activists are now gearing up for
‘Biodevastation 4’ in Boston, USA, at the end of March.
However, the biotech industry is not about to topple.
Bill Clinton named January 2000 ‘National Biotechnology Month’,
just as a US Senator was touring South East Asia to secure new markets
for GM products. Novartis is sponsoring a ‘Food to Plate’
museum exhibit in Chicago, a science magazine aimed at secondary
schools, and distributing ‘We Back Biotech’ car-license
plates, while the Biotechnology Industry Organisation recently advertised
on US television with the slogan "Biotechnology. A big word
that means hope." Although not all PR campaigns are going
so smoothly – Monsanto has shelved its multi-million dollar
campaign with PR consultants Burson Marstellar after the New York
Times reported that the company had paid $25 each for people to
take part in a pro-biotech protest outside an FDA hearing.
In short, this is a battle for the minds –
and stomachs – of US citizens. How they respond in the coming
year will be crucial for the agbiotech industry, which is struggling
to survive its most sustained attack yet in the US.
Sources: "Biotech futures," Multinational
Monitor, Jan/Feb 2000; "Trouble in the garden," Rachel’s
Environment and Health Weekly #685, Feb 3, 2000; various newspaper
and email news reports.
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