I'm reminded of the exchange in the second episode of Futurama, "The Series Has Landed," where the crew is watching the spectacularly lame "Goofy Gopher Revue."
FRY: This is weak!I say this because it seems that Monsanto can't keep its GM crops contained. Not that this should be any sort of a surprise. Though it's hard to imagine wild, Roundup-resistant bentgrass running amok and wreaking havoc1, there's a bigger principle at stake here. Given our (very) limited understanding of the complicated balance of ecology and the potential long-term impact of GM organisms, why are corporations like Monsanto charging ahead, willy-nilly2?
GOOFY GOPHER #1: Address all complaints to the Monsanto Corporation.
On principle, that strikes me as an extremely precarious position to take. Like the current confusion over high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), I think that the pro-GM industries are using low-level examples to lay the groundwork for public acceptance of something far more dangerous. They're trying to use this specific instance as a chance to sidestep the larger issue.
To explain, using a few parallels:
- The made-up case3: radioactive materials.
"It's really hard to see your watch when it's dark, so some enterprising watchmakers have taken to adding radioactive radium to watch hands and dials to make them glow. Don't worry; it's entirely harmless. A little extra exposure to radiation won't do you any harm. You won't start to glow, grow extra arms, or suffer any of the spectacularly horrific consequences of radiation poisoning.
"The same thing goes for flying on a plane. Due to being higher in the atmosphere, with less of it to absorb solar radiation, you'll end up exposed to a few extra millirems for your time in the air. There's no danger, though. Even frequent flyers on cross-country trips don't need to worry. There's no evidence of increased cancer risk, so go ahead and fly the friendly skies! It's good for you and good for America!
"See, folks, radiation is a good thing. It helps you see your watch in movie theaters. It helps run power plants and submarines. And it's completely harmless, see? Why not offer to store some of our excess, harmless, radioactive waste in your community? In fact, it's for the good of the community!It's not like we'll be burying it under childrens' playgrounds! At least not right away!" - The HFCS case.
"Gee, it seems like a lot of folks have started to worry about high-fructose corn syrup these days. Some people are even claiming that it makes Americans obese. Something about it being linked to problematic cases of weight gain. Well, don't you worry, because recent scientific studies have determined that there's nothing about HFCS to make you more obese. It's as safe as sugar!
"You see, it's just corn syrup with some extra fructose. Fructose: the fruit sugar! And it comes from corn, an all-natural - all-American - plant source. Natural corn plus a natural sugar - what could be healthier than that? Besides that, it's cheaper than sugar, which means that you don't have to pay ten dollars for a 2-liter bottle of refreshing cola. And did we mention it's all-American? Buying products with HFCS is supporting America's heartland!" - The GMO case.
"There's been some hubbub in the news lately, all about genetically-modified organisms. It's not some mad scientist growing a colossal, man-eating, winged sharktopus. No, no. It's all about some plants. Just some new grass to help keep your neighborhood golf course's greens and fairways in tip-top shape! A nice, soft grass that's immune to Roundup weed killer, saving greenskeepers valuable time and effort.
"It turns out that a little bit of grass pollen and a few plants escaped from the test plot. Not many plants, at all. Just nine out of thousands, which is essentially zero. And even if a few of these get away, it's not even a very big deal. It's not like anybody's spraying Roundup out in the woods!
"Some people are saying that, sure, a little grass isn't such a problem, but what about GM corn, or GM potatoes? Well, you'll be happy to know that they don't grow naturally in this climate, so there's no way that they can escape into the wilderness! Not only that, but we've created them with genes that protect them from not just Roundup, but also from all sorts of pests. No longer do America's farmers need to fear losing their crops to an infestation of Colorado potato beetles. That means more reliable harvests, which means lower prices for you! We're feeding the world, right from the bread basket of America's heartland!"
Problems with the above scenarios:
- Nuclear waste in your backyard.
Nuclear waste - spent uranium fuel - is, of course, the sort of thing you want to keep as far from your person at all times as possible. The amount of radiation pouring off of those things is more than enough to make you seriously unwell.4 It's many, many orders of magnitude beyond a radium watch dial or a cross-country flight.
What's most alarming is that it keeps on being spectacularly dangerous for a maddeningly long time. The last estimate I saw was 200,000 years. It seems terribly presumptuous to think that we can keep something well-contained for that sort of length of time. The world - and human society - of 2,000 years ago is, to be honest, something that stretches the average imagination. One hundred times that, into the future, is a time beyond all reliable communication. Who's to say Yucca Mountain won't look like a great place for a children's playground sometime in the far future? - HCFS. It's a wonder ingredient, if you happen to be an industrial food-product manufacturer.
HCFS exists because regular corn syrup isn't as sweet as sugar. The extra fructose makes it just as sweet as sucrose, meaning it's a one-for-one swap, more or less, in industrial processing. Given that it's significantly cheaper5 than sugar, it's not hard to see why businesses have decided to make the switch.
Or, more accurately, why they don't even consider sugar in the first place.
True, there was a recent study that found no reason to believe that HFCS is some sort of obesity catalyst. Prior to that, some had raised concerns that it was even worse for you than its empty calories would suggest. Not true. It's just as bad as its empty calories suggest.
Aside from the ecological problems of a corn-based industry6, attempting to produce large amounts of our food from corn can't possibly be healthy. All of the processing necessary to make it edible7 must lose something in the shuffle. Even if corn were some sort of nutritional superfood, the long trip through the factories of ADM and Cargill ends up reducing it to simplified outputs. HCFS: sugar slurry.
This begins to hint at why HCFS is perceived as a fattening food ingredient. It's entirely empty calories, used in food processing as a cheap ingredient. It goes hand in hand with high levels of fat and sodium, all three being key in most junk foods, and is rarely seen in the company of genuinely nutritious items. You can't even buy it in a grocery store (by itself). And it's most prevalent in the cheapest stuff available: sodas, cookies, and all sorts of other things that would be fine as occasional small treats, but usually aren't. HCFS makes it affordable to be fat.
As a culture, we're obsessed with money. We don't pay much attention to the consequences of what we eat. Above all else, we love buzzwords and "magic bullet" solutions. So it's a surprise that cheap, calorie-laden food has given rise to an obesity epidemic? - GMO. Potentially as bad as sci-fi B-movie, only more subtle.
Roundup-proof grass may not be an earth-shattering danger, but it does raise a simple question: why? It's one thing when a biotech company tries to make a case for "golden rice"8 as providing some benefit to humanity, but better grass for golf courses? What could possibly be a more obvious money-making venture targeted to the wealthiest people in the world? GM grass for polo grounds, of course.
The grass itself probably won't cause any problems, but it's still muddling about with some very poorly-understood stuff. And there's no reason to believe that it won't spread, in time, all over the world. Various GM plants have been discovered in places far from where they've actually been planted, such as Japan, which has banned the cultivation of GM crops. These genes have a much higher chance of disseminating themselves than the biotech corporations are willing to admit.
This becomes a serious issue when it begins to affect the life cycles of other organisms. One example is the monarch butterfly, which feeds exclusively on milkweed leaves. If those leaves are dusted with GM corn pollen - pollen which carries the Bt insect toxin - the caterpillars die. Not only that, but the GM Bt toxin, unlike the naturally ocuring bacterial variety, doesn't break down quickly in sunlight. No one knows what happens when it builds up in the soil.
At the very least, it seems like a great way to speed the evolution of pest species. Bt-producing potatoes won't make the Colorado potato beetles go extinct; they'll simply evolve an immunity to that toxin, and that's one of the few good, organic ones available. Monsanto may be giving rise to Roundup-proof weeds, forcing them to develop some new poison to replace their current "magic bullet" product. It all seems to be pointing to the development of newer - potentially more toxic? - pesticides and herbicides to keep the machine of 'conventional' agriculture9 running.
And you can bet that Monsanto will be there to turn a profit.
1You know, things like swatting at airplanes atop the Empire State Building, launching intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear payloads, or voting Libertarian. (I kid. As everyone knows, most grasses are staunch Republicans. It's the trees that tend to vote Libertarian.)
2Oh, right. Profits.
3I say this because I've never heard anyone make this argument. By framing the issue the right way, a little misinformation can go a long way.
4As in dead.
5Thanks, in part, to U.S. farm subsidies that drive down the price of corn to virtually nothing. For more detail, it's worth checking out Michael Pollan's website or his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.
6Including, but not limited to: the use of massive amounts of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides; devoting vast stretches of land to monocultures; expending tons of fossil fuels in fertilizer production, long-distance transport and industrial processing; etc.
7Yes, the majority of corn grown in vast fields across this nation is, for all intents and purposes, inedible. It's also nearly indestructible, which makes it a commodity, the first step on the way to turning a food into a food product.
8It's a scam. Since when does helping the poor, desperate and starving justify a massive PR campaign? See Pollan again. Check out his article on the the great yellow hype.
9'Conventional,' my foot. Several thousand years of human agriculture is organic by default, and the sudden introduction of industrial fertilizers and poisons gets labeled 'conventional' overnight? Talk about a marketing coup.
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