We have all read about the strain of soya beans which has been developed by the American agrochemical company Monsanto to be resistant to their general weedkiller "Roundup". There has also been a lot written and spoken about the problem of identifying these "Roundup" resistant soya beans because the market in America does not differentiate between them and more conventional soya beans.
What, however, is the problem with weedkiller resistant soya beans? There is one big advantage to the farmer in growing them. By spraying with "Roundup" he obtains a much cleaner crop which gives a greater yield for less input. Part of that input would have been more spraying with other selective weed killers to less effect. The environment also benefits as less weed killing chemicals are used. The EU has not prohibited the importation of genetically modified crops and in America the powerful American Food and Drugs Administration has placed no restrictions on genetically modified soya beans, so what is all the fuss about?
The prophets of doom are concerned about genetically modified crops in general, not just soya beans. On the way are modified maize, sugar beet and oil seed rape though neither they, nor modified soya beans will be planted in Britain at the moment. Professor Philip James, Director of the Rowett Research Institute at the University of Aberdeen, was reported in the ‘Independent’ on Friday, February 13th as having said in a Scottish BBC documentary earlier that month "the perception that everything is totally straightforward and safe is naive" and he went on to say "once the BSE problem is solved, if it is solved, then I think that the big public concern is going to be about the huge array of genetic manipulations ... and how we tackle that in a proper, responsible way".
Some people see a problem with maize, genetically modified by an agrochemical company Novartis. It contains a marker gene which is resistant to antibiotics. Greenpeace says it could lead to resistance in farm animals and then humans.
It seems that we just do not know whether food with genetically modified ingredients is going to be perfectly safe or pose threats to human health. We did not know that eating beef was going to pose a threat to human health either and some readers may remember a cigarette advertisement which said, of, I think the Craven A brand, "kind to your throat".
Genetically modified soya beans have been approved for sale in the EU, so has maize, similarly modified to resist weed killer and corn borer pests. However, Austria and Luxembourg decided not to go along with this and banned* them. Do they know something the rest of Europe do not or are they being particularly cautious?
The particular problem with soya beans is that soya is present in about 60% of the processed food that we eat. Soya flour is used to benefit the manufacturer as it helps in the baking of bread, pizza bases, pastry crusts, biscuits and noodles, making it easier and quicker to knead the dough. Soya oil is used in cooking oil, margarine and spreads while soya lecithin is used as an emulsifier or stabiliser and in mayonnaise and even chocolate. America grows 40% of the world’s soya crop and the UK imports most of what we use from America. If the imported soya is neither identified as genetically modified nor genetically unmodified, and an increasing proportion is modified, how will consumers be able to avoid it? It may be impossible already. Does this matter? At this moment we do not know and that is unsettling.
The problem intensifies. Consider this, you try to avoid genetically modified vegetables but these cereals which may, or may not, contain GM material can be fed to animals and perhaps the GM material will insinuate itself into the food chain. The impact this may have is certainly unknown and may turn out to be completely harmless. On the other hand it may not. However you try to avoid GM material, it is in the food chain. Your views would be welcomed. Are consumers more concerned about genetically modified animal products?
John Brown
* Hon Secretary Stella Walsh, points out that these countries cannot actually ban the genetically modified maize and soya if they are already in the foods and unlabelled - as a result of the ‘Casis de Dijon’ ruling under EU law.
STOP PRESS The Government moved on March 30th against domination of staple food ingredients by multinationals by publishing the names of 48 growers and suppliers of organically grown soya beans.
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