SPROUTING UP: THE US WAKES UP TO GM FOODS

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.