Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [146]
Advocates also use the legal system to pursue antibiotechnology goals. In 2001 alone, 36 states considered bills aimed at transgenic foods: restricting plantings or sales; requiring labeling, notification, tracking, or evaluation of environmental impact; banning terminator technology; or prohibiting the use of such foods in school lunch programs. Few such bills pass, however. By 2001, Maryland was the only state to ban a genetically modified food, in this case fish in waterways that connect to other bodies of water.55 Consumer groups, chefs, and some scientists have filed lawsuits and organized petition campaigns to compel the FDA to institute labeling and safety testing. The Alliance for Bio-Integrity (Iowa City, IA), led by Steven Druker, has filed such suits. Other suits argue that transgenic manipulations make it impossible to observe religious dietary laws; one was cosigned by 113 Christians, 37 Jews, 12 Buddhists, and 122 people who checked, “my faith is not easily categorized.” Still others have filed antitrust lawsuits based on the idea that the industry’s control over seeds inhibits competition. A petition organized by Mothers for Natural Law collected an astounding number of signatures—nearly 500,000—from people favoring transparency in labeling. Jeremy Rifkin organized a class-action suit against Monsanto arguing that the company is part of an international conspiracy to control the world’s corn and soybean supply through intimidation and deceptive business practices. Regardless of the outcome of the bills and lawsuits, they force attention to be paid to societal as well as safety issues.56
Such methods may annoy (and sometimes infuriate) biotechnology companies, government regulators, and scientists, but they are traditional ways of taking political action in a pluralistic democracy; they are legal, fair, and—given the many reasons for distrust—thoroughly justifiable. Transgenic sabotage, however, is another matter. When Ingo Potrykus complains about “those who would damage humanitarian projects” (discussed in chapter 5), he worries most that vandals will destroy test plantings of Golden Rice. In Great Britain, Greenpeace and other groups conducted “destruction actions” against test plots of transgenic crops, sometimes dressed in full-body anticontamination suits and goggles. In the United States, numerous incidents of uprooting transgenic crops, trashing laboratories, burning genetic engineering materials, and making personal threats against scientists cross a legal line and enter into the realm of food terrorism.57 Such actions undermine the legitimacy of the political goals they are designed to accomplish, as do the controlling actions of corporations (see concluding chapter).
TOWARD DIALOGUE, IF NOT CONSENSUS
Protests against genetically modified foods—or the threat of such protests—affect the behavior of retailers who understand that consumers can choose to buy organic products, now labeled as such. Many companies label their products “GM-free” (see figure 25, page 226). In the late 1990s, Gerber’s and Heinz announced that they would stop using genetically modified ingredients in their baby foods, and McDonald’s “quietly” told farmers to stop growing Monsanto’s transgenic potatoes. Frito-Lay told its suppliers not to grow transgenic corn, and Archer Daniels Midland warned its grain suppliers to begin segregating bioengineered crops. Corn growers viewed such developments as a clear sign that “GM organisms have become the albatross around the neck of farmers.”58 The loss of both domestic and foreign sales outlets coupled