Farmers and the GE Express
Statement of Jack Kittredge
NOFA/Mass
(Northeast Organic Farming Association/Massachusetts Chapter, Inc.)
Regarding Genetically Engineered Food
Wednesday, July 19, 2000
For several years now, the United States Department of Agriculture has been encouraging American farmers to get onboard the genetic engineering train. They said bovine growth hormone, which increases herd milk output by extending a cow's period of lactation for several extra weeks, would make dairying profitable again. They said crop seeds, into which had been engineered traits for pest resistance or herbicide tolerance, would outperform natural seed and bring good times back onto the farm. Well, I'm here to say: "It ain't so!"
My name is Jack Kittredge. My wife and I operate a 55 acre organic farm in Barre, Massachusetts. For ten years I served on the certification board of the Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, and I speak now for NOFA/Mass.
Many American farmers were quick to jump on the genetic engineering train. Years of financial struggle combined with the promise of miracle-like results turned many of our heads. First in dairy, now in cropping staples such as corn, soy, cotton and potatoes, genetic engineering has been widely adopted.
In 1999, over 50% of the US soy crop, some 35 million acres, was planted to genetically engineered seed. Almost half the US cotton crop, and well over a third of our corn crop last year was also genetically engineered. Over 40 genetically engineered food ingredients are currently on store shelves, and approximately 2/3 of all foods currently for sale in the US contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient.
Now that so many of us have got on board the GE Express, however, we're finding that it may be a train to nowhere.
First off, buying GE seed is neither cheap nor easy. The seed itself is priced with a hefty permium. You also have to sign a contract not to save or resell the seed, and agree to apply certain chemicals to the crop on a regular basis.
Once the seed is in the ground, you face new problems. For one, yields of genetically engineered crops have been disappointing, especially under difficult soil and weather conditions. For another, GE organisms have a different chemistry than their natural cousins. Plants designed for herbicide tolerance can survive 2 to 5 times more spraying. But the soil organisms which provide micronutrients to those plants are no more tolerant of these poisons. So these greater spray levels kill microbial life and leave a dead soil. Plants designed to emit pesticides do so without thought to real pest pressures. The result is they kill many more than the target organisms -- including many which would be beneficial to the crop's vigor -- while the target organisms quickly evolve resistance to this constant presence of poison.
A seat on the GE Express also exposes a farmer to new levels of liability. Besides reducing the biodiversity of your own soils, the wind-borne pollen of your crop can drift onto a neighbor's field and contaminate that GE-free crop. Because of such risks involved with this new technology, crop insurance is difficult to get on genetically engineered plantings.
Finally, it is becoming clear that GE crops do not represent better market prices for farmers. Resistance to these foods abroad has grown rapidly. In 1996 we sold about $3 billion of corn and soy to Europe. In 1999 those sales were off by two-thirds. Countries like Brazil, which outlaw genetic engineering, were experiencing huge booms in crop exports. A GE-free premium has emerged which is attracting more and more farmers to return to natural seed. The USDA now (July) estimates the 2000 season will see a 6% drop in GE soy acreage and a 20% drop in GE corn acreage.
But millions of acres of genetically engineered food crops will be coming onto the US market this fall. Our government still claims that GE foods are not significantly different from natural ones. What is the consumer, concerned about family health, to do? Fortunately, although no labeling is currently required of GE foods, there is a label which guarantees that this technology has not been used.
Every organic certification program in the country (there are currently over 40 of them) forbids the use of genetically engineered organisms anywhere in the farming process. Buying certified organic food is thus the only way a shopper can be assured that his or her family is not being used as guinea pigs for this new technology. Purchasing such foods also rewards farmers who have resisted the whistle tempting them to board the GE Express and still have both feet firmly planted on the ground.
Thank you.
This page was last modified on March 18, 2009 at 10:39:08 AM.
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