by Ronnie Cummins

Contrary to the claims of a literal army of public relations flacks, indentured politicians and scientists, the first wave of genetically engineered (GE) foods and crops have apparently suffered a fatal hemorrhage.

Future historians will likely record Tuesday, July 30, 2002 as the beginning of the end, the day of irreversible decline for Monsanto and the Gene Giants. On that day, facing mounting global opposition from farmers, consumers and even major US food transnationals such as General Mills, Monsanto was forced to announce that they were backing off "indefinitely" from plans to commercialize herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready wheat, the most important new billion-dollar crop in the biotech pipeline. Previously, Monsanto had promised Wall Street that the first GE wheat would hit the market in 2003. Earlier this year, facing heavy opposition, they pushed the date back to 2005.

Now Monsanto’s highly-touted GE wheat joins the growing list of obituaries of Frankenfoods and crops: the Flavr Savr tomato (RIP 1996); the Endless Summer tomato (RIP 1996); Bt potatoes (RIP 2001); GE flax (RIP 2001); herbicide-resistant sugar beets (RIP 2000); and StarLink corn (RIP 2000). Other controversial crops such as GE rice have been put on indefinite hold. Monsanto’s controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) has been banned in every major industrialized nation except for the US, Mexico, and Brazil. Recombinant pig growth hormone (rPGH) has been approved in only one industrialized nation, Australia. Other biotech crops, including squash and zucchini, are grown by so few farmers that it’s difficult to determine if they are even commercially available.

For the first time, major US food corporations, like their EU and Asian counterparts, are telling the biotech industry to back off. As Austin Sullivan, senior vice-president of General Mills told the Chicago Tribune June 28, "Candidly we have told the biotech industry that we are in a perilous situation." When asked why General Mills and other large food makers don’t just stop using genetically engineered ingredients altogether, since consumers don’t want them, Sullivan admitted, "That’s a question we ask ourselves from time to time."

Shortly before Monsanto’s latest capitulation, a large EU grain miller bluntly told wheat industry leaders that his company would "stop buying US or Canadian wheat at once" if GE wheat was allowed on the market. Other leading EU, Japanese, and US buyers have echoed the same sentiment. Farmers in the US and Canada have also made it clear that bringing GE wheat to market would lead to a billion dollar meltdown in North American wheat exports. Desperately trying to downplay its defeat and prevent its stock from falling even further, Monsanto characterized their surrender on wheat as a "delay" until sometime beyond 2005, when consumers and industry are ready to accept gene-altered wheat, and strict grain industry segregation procedures are in place. But as Monsanto, and even Wall Street, now recognize, consumers are never going to accept GE wheat. Frankenwheat, for all practical purposes is dead. RIP. The Bush administration, for PR reasons, may still try to approve it for commercialization, but it will never be sold on the market.

Compounding this crushing blow to Monsanto and the biotech industry, whose earnings and stock value since the first of the year have plummeted, a US Federal District court in Maine approved a settlement July 29 that prohibits a major factory fish farm, Heritage Salmon, from bringing its GE salmon onto the market. The Maine ruling, resulting from a lawsuit filed by the US Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) and the National Environmental Law Center, sets an important legal precedent that threatens to block any future commercialization of GE fish--until now the second most important biotech blockbuster being readied for market. The Maine court settlement will likely impact future legislative deliberations as well, such as the recent debate in the California legislature on a moratorium for GE fish.

Monsanto announced, June 12, that its second largest customer for GE soybean seeds, Argentina, was bankrupt, and that its soybean farmers would no longer be able to receive seeds on credit. With this announcement, Monsanto was also forced to admit to investors that its global profits would decline by as much as 20% this year. Over the past three years, Argentina has become the world’s second largest producer of GE crops (their only crop being Roundup Ready soybeans), accounting for more than 16% of all global GE acreage -- largely due to Monsanto selling GE soybeans on credit, as well as offering the beans at bargain basement prices. Argentina’s economic meltdown means that global acreage of GE crops will level off and start to decrease this year, contrary to claims made earlier by Monsanto and the USDA.

Frankenstein appears to be mortally wounded, but, of course, this beast has the ability to rise from his coffin unless we nail the lid shut. Farmers and consumers, joined by a number of brave scientists, have now, for the first time in modern history, stopped a new and dangerous technology dead in its tracks. Public acceptance and farmer use of agricultural biotechnology has peaked and is now moving down in a slow but inevitable decline. No new blockbuster Frankenfoods or crops are likely to gain approval for commercialization on the global market. Those already approved (such as Bt corn) will come under increasing pressure as scientific evidence mounts that they are dangerous for human health and the environment, and as labeling becomes mandatory in most nations. This is ground for celebration and reason for hope. The battle against genetically engineered foods and crops over the past decade has shown that the global Civil Society can stand up to transnational corporations and indentured science and government and literally change the dynamics of the marketplace, alter public perceptions, and eventually transform public policies.

We’ve turned the tide of the battle, but there are still major tasks that lie ahead. Specifically we need (1) mandatory safety testing and labeling of all GE foods and crops in all nations, especially the United States, Canada, and Argentina, where 96% of all GE crops are produced; (2) marketplace pressure campaigns for removal of all GE soy, corn, canola, and cottonseed from animal feeds; (3) pressure on major clothing companies to stop using gene-altered cotton in their garments; (4) pressure on major supermarket chains and food makers, especially in North America, to remove all GE ingredients from their brand name products; and finally (5) continuing public education and pressure to prevent new Frankenfoods and crops (animals, fish, pharm drugs, lawn grass, trees) and human genetic engineering from being commercialized.

In North America we have a special obligation, and now an opportunity, to do what our counterparts in Europe, Japan, and other nations have already done: to put so much pressure on major supermarket chains like Safeway and Loblaw’s and food and beverage giants like Starbucks and Kraft, that they voluntarily ban the use of GE ingredients in their products.

Ronnie Cummins is the National Director of the U.S.-based Organic Consumers Association. For more information visit www.organicconsumers.org.


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