Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [90]
CHAPTER 5
PEDDLING DREAMS
PROMISES VERSUS REALITY
BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES HAD BEEN WORKING ON AGRICULtural projects for 10 years or more when, in 1992, I received a last-minute invitation to talk about the labeling of genetically modified foods at a conference organized by Public Voice, a consumer advocacy group for food and health policy in Washington, DC. As a trained molecular biologist—though a long lapsed one—I was intrigued by the possibilities of the technology. I had not been following the field very closely and was puzzled about why an advocacy group might be concerned about labeling products that were still hypothetical. As it happened, I was not unprepared to address the question. For teaching purposes, I routinely collect scientific articles and newspaper clippings on nutrition topics, and I had accumulated a thick file on food biotechnology. The invitation provided an excuse to see what was in it.
The file surprised me. It immediately revealed that the industry’s exciting promise to solve world food problems had little to do with the reality of its research and development efforts. Instead, companies were working on crop products most likely to generate returns on investment. Furthermore, industry leaders seemed to view the public not as an enthusiastic partner in enhancing the food supply but rather as a hostile force threatening their economic viability. The industry and its supporters in science, government, and business framed public questions about the safety or other consequences of food biotechnology as irrational challenges by scientifically illiterate consumers. I could not evaluate their science-based contentions that the techniques were inherently safe and the foods no different from those produced by conventional genetic crosses, however, as none had yet come to market.
Since then, the situation has changed in some ways but not in others. Once the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the marketing of genetically modified foods in 1994, the production of these foods grew rapidly. By 2001, genetically modified varieties accounted for 26% of the corn and 68% of the soybeans planted in the United States as well as 69% of the cotton (the source of cottonseed oil for animal feed). Manufacturers were using ingredients made from transgenic corn and soybeans in 60% or more of processed foods on supermarket shelves—baby formulas, drink mixes, muffin mixes, fast foods, and, as we have seen, taco shells. Early in the twenty-first century, it is not possible to keep genetically modified foods out of the food supply.1
What should we, as citizens and consumers, make of this situation? This chapter establishes a basis for answering that question by examining the promises of the food biotechnology industry—what it could do—in comparison to the reality of its products and actions.
THE THEORETICAL PROMISES
In theory, if not yet in practice, food biotechnology holds much promise for addressing world food problems, most notably the overall shortfall in food production expected early in the twenty-first century. By some estimates, the global demand for rice, wheat, and maize will increase by 40% above current levels as early as 2020.2 To feed an increasing population on a constant area of arable land, the land must produce much more food—and do so without irreversibly damaging the environment. No technical barriers—again, in theory—prevent the use of genetic manipulations to improve the quantity and quality of the food supply, increase its safety, reduce the use of harmful pesticides and agricultural chemicals, and reduce food costs. Table 11 lists examples of the stunning range of potentially beneficial applications of food biotechnology that are