Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [148]
If companies are going to claim that their work will solve world food problems, they need to put substantial resources into working with scientists in developing countries to help farmers produce more food under local conditions. Such efforts could prove worthwhile if supported by policies designed to support sustainable and organic agriculture, protect against environmental risks, and prevent exploitation of small farmers or of consumers. For some years now, I have suggested that the industry institute a “tithing” program and apply 10% of income to research on projects that address the food needs of developing countries, regardless of their eventual profitability. This approach might indicate that the industry recognizes the difference between its commercial and humanitarian goals. Although I am not aware of any company that has taken on this challenge, I continue to believe that to be perceived as credible, the industry must be credible.
If government agencies want to promote food biotechnology, they are going to have to regulate it more effectively. They must insist that companies label, segregate, and ensure the traceability of genetically engineered crops, provide adequate areas of refuge, and keep their transgenes from pollinating out of control. Government regulators should be working with industry to figure out how to label the products and establish workable thresholds for transgenic contaminants. On the international level, they should stop obstructing multinational agreements and cooperate with government policies of other countries. They should grant consumer protection at least the same level of priority as promotion of industry objectives. Federal regulators must recognize as well that science-based decisions also have political dimensions and must find ways to consider societal and environmental implications when approving genetically modified foods.
And what should the public think or do about food biotechnology? As with other aspects of food politics, much depends on point of view. Eating foods containing transgenic ingredients appears unlikely to cause direct harm to human health, but at the moment there also is little evidence for benefit. If a goal is to reduce pesticides in the environment, genetically modifying foods may be an appropriate method for achieving that goal, but so may other methods that also deserve consideration. If the ultimate goal is to ensure food security for the world’s population, other means to do so deserve equal time and resources. Overall, the role of genetically modified foods in these larger aspects of the food system is as yet uncertain and unlikely to be known for some time to come.
With that said, we now turn to the concluding chapter in which we will examine some emerging food safety issues. Like food biotechnology, these issues are relatively low in science-based risk but relatively high in dread: mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax, and other potential weapons of food bioterrorism.
CONCLUSION
THE FUTURE OF FOOD SAFETY
PUBLIC HEALTH VERSUS BIOTERRORISM
SAFE FOOD IS ONE OF THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF TWENTIETH-century public health, a result of scientific advances in refrigeration, pasteurization, insecticides, and disease surveillance. This book proposes that food safety also depends on politics. Any doubts about that idea should be thoroughly dispelled by the events of September 2001, when terrorists used airplanes as weapons of destruction and an anonymous correspondent sent letters filled with anthrax spores to civic and media leaders. One consequence of these events was to reveal the vulnerability