By Peggy Lee -published in tofu#3

Have you checked out your tofu lately?

Rather than the all-natural healthfood staple we have grown accustomed to, the tofu on our dinner table may bea dangerous new product of the latest lab experiment.


Beware, for the oldsoybean has now been transformed or "genetically engineered" by the multibillion dollar agribusiness industry into several new marketable varieties. Unwittingly, most of us consume such genetically engineered tofu and other soybean derivative products without any awareness of its many potential health risks. We have become the global lab rats for theagribusiness industry that continues to produce and market GE food products for big profits.

Genetic engineering of food involves transferring gene products from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals and humans into plants in order to produce a desired trait. Agribusiness corporations which sell GE products claim that soybean plants grown from GE seeds are pest and disease resistant, can grow faster and larger and are "safe" for human consumption.

In 1996 the public debate about the safety of genetically engineered food exploded when Monsanto revealed that its genetically engineered soybeans were resistant to their own best-selling herbicide Round-Up. If these GE seeds were immune to strong herbicides, what kind of effects would this have on humans and other animals that ingested these altered soy products? Would they too develop immunity to powerful antibiotics? All the hazards and dangerous side-effects of such a non-natural transfer of toxic materials into our food chain is only yet to be fully understood. We are still the first generation to be consuming genetically engineered products regularly in our everyday diets.

Often research findings that prove GE products unsafe for human consumption are never disclosed to the public. Any threat to the profits of agribusiness corporations are dealt with internally. It is the corporations who own the means, control the funding and often conduct the research too. Unfortunately, governments in US, Britain and Canada have colluded with GE agribusiness corporations and unquestioningly accept their research claims that verify the ‘safety’ of their products.

The collusion of governments with agribusiness corporations is evident in the continual rejection by national and international bodies to implement mandatory and standardized international GE food labeling. At present there is a grossly inadequate system of labeling that requires only food product with ‘live’ organisms (eg. yogurt) or food products deemed "substantially different" (over 5% GE products) from their traditional counterpart to be labeled.

The underlying politics of GE food labeling lies in one word: profit. If consumers were granted the right to know, then potentially it could allow for a boycott of the GE industry. The United Nations body, Codex Alimentaris,rejected the call for mandatory labeling on May 27th 1998 claiming that itwould constitute an illegal barrier to trade. American agribusiness corporations have been especially resistant to international GE food labeling of any sort. The only countries that have stood up against the GE industries are those within the European Commission which have introduced partial labeling for all GE soybean and maize products. Half of all US soybeans contain GE material and one-quarter of all US soybean products are exported to the EU.

To date, already many dangerous new diseases and toxins have emerged that are associated with GE food products. Because many of the dangers of GE productsare yet to be fully known, it is very difficult to test for anticipated or unknown materials. In 1989, a new disease EMS [Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrone] was traced to the GE food supplement L-tryptophan. The new disease was contracted by 5000 people, leaving 37 people dead and 1500 permanently disabled. Under the present labeling system, the GE food supplement L-tryptophan is categorized as ‘safe’ because it is considered "substantially equivalent" (99.6% pure, less than 5% GE material).

Some of the new GE experimentation’s also contain potentially fatal Allergans. One such example was the Pioneer Hi-Bred International Soybean where genes from the Brazil nut were transferred to boost protein content in traditional soybeans. This product was immediately recalled because of the potentially fatal effect it could have on people with Brazil nut allergies. Another major danger of injecting toxic foreign material and herbicides into traditional plants crops is that the resistance to antibiotics can be spread to animals and humans; thus leading to the creation of new powerful ‘superbacteria’. This happens because often times the injected foreign genes are linked with ‘tracker’ genes for experimental purposes. These ‘tracker’ genes are usually resistant to antibiotics. It was found that GE maize and corn approved for sale in US, Canada and some EU countries contained ‘trackers’ that are resistant to ampicillan.

Genetic engineering has already transformed all aspects of our traditional food products. From genetically engineered vegetables to food staples such as corn, rice and maize. From our everyday tofu and soybeans which make-up a vital component in all processed foods to meat and dairy products (because fifty percent of all genetically engineered products are fed to farm animals). Sixty-percent of all processed foods contain GE soy products:vegetable oil, soya flour, lecithin, soy protein.

We are witnessing the growing agribusiness monopoly over our global food supply. By patenting GE seedlings and plant variants, the agribusiness industry is dangerously reducing the already limited bio-diversity of our planet. The further monopolization of the world food supply by Northern agribusiness corporations will lead to further poverty and desperation for not just the Third World farmers but the general population as well.

Not only are the GE food products dangerous but the patenting of seedlings will make Third World farmers ever more dependent on Northern agribusiness corporations. The dangers of GE foods affects us all and thus we need a global resistance. Only by seeking out organic foods, respecting traditional farming methods and ceasing our consumer support of this unethical and dangerous agribusiness industry can we hope to resist its effects. We need to support the call for mandatory standardized international labeling.

It’s time to put our money where our mouths and our lives are! As Vandana Shiva, a vocal Indian anti-biotechnology activist said: "I call biotech and patenting the colonization of the future. . . The colonization of the past only has some victims in the world. The colonization of the future has us all in solidarity."