Californians force-fed Frankenfood?

Biotechnology advocates want to turn your local field into a Franken-farm. So charges a report that Greenpeace released at a Sacramento rally last Wednesday, detailing plans by various biotechnology companies to release genetically engineered varieties of major California crops.

The report focuses on six crops whose genetically altered counterparts are already being field-tested: lettuce, rice, strawberries, grapes, walnuts and tomatoes. These crops make up $1.1 billion of California’s export revenues annually.

Bob Krauter, spokesman for the California Farm Bureau, touts the “tremendous benefits” of biotechnology: “When consumers see the benefits of biotechnology, when it helps provide better food that is higher in nutrition and helps farmers reduce pesticide use, we can all agree that that’s a positive thing.” But if biotechnology promises better living through science, why is Greenpeace outraged?

Dr. Doreen Stabinsky, Greenpeace’s science adviser and author of the report said, “Around the world, and increasingly in the U.S., consumers are saying ‘No’ to genetically engineered food. … If brought to market, this genetically engineered produce could imperil the state’s $1 billion agricultural export market for these crops due to worldwide consumer and food company rejection of genetically altered food, as well as devastate the state’s growing organic market.”

Concerns over food safety sparked a ban on GE foods in all major U.K. supermarket chains. Boycotts and labeling laws are in effect in Japan and South Korea, two of California’s top markets. Stabinksy says, “We are concerned that if California farmers accept these new experimental crops, they will find themselves without markets for their produce.”

The repercussions of genetically engineered food are more than economic, however. Organic farms are directly threatened by the new GE crops. In order to obtain organic certification, food must possess no genetically engineered traits. However, pollination can occur between fields miles apart, allowing genetically engineered crops to breed with organics—a phenomenon known as “genetic drift.”

In 1999, Terra Prima, an American organic foods company, destroyed 87,000 bags of tortilla chips that were rejected by European importers because they contained genetically altered proteins. Terra Prima’s cornfields were contaminated by genetic drift, invalidating the crop’s organic certification.

Once introduced into the environment, GE organisms cannot be recalled. Wind-pollinated plants such as strawberries, walnuts and grapes are especially vulnerable. With many farms sharing processing equipment, industry insiders say that avoiding contamination is virtually impossible.

Greenpeace activists are urging California farmers to reject genetically engineered produce in favor of sustainable organic agricultural practices.

"California is clearly at a crossroads. It can choose genetic engineering, or it can choose organic agriculture. Both cannot co-exist in the state," Stabinsky said.