End of Organic? Report Says GMO Crop Contamination Cannot Be Stopped

With each passing year, an increasing number of states are attempting to adopt GMO labeling laws amid the federal government’s resistance to allow you to know what’s in your food. With each victory, or even loss, we get stronger — and closer to making GMO labeling a reality. The sad reality, however, is that many experts say GMO labeling will not suffice in the overall fight against biotech due to the fact that GMO crops can easily contaminate nearby farms.

A new report finds that the GMO contamination issue is much more serious than previously thought, and the concerned experts couldn’t be more correct.

There have been numerous real-life cases of GMO contamination thus far, though most aren’t well known. In fact, a third of organic growers are reporting problems with cross contamination, according to this survey. More than 80% of farmers who participated in the survey are ‘concerned’ about the impact of genetic seeds, and 60% are ‘very concerned.’

One key example rests with Australian farmer Steve Marsh, an organic farmer who sued a neighboring farmer for compensation after his field of non-GMO wheat was contaminated by Michael Baxter’s Roundup Ready canola seeds. He took his case to the Supreme Court of Western Australia and lost.

Another example of GMO contamination can be seen with an unapproved strain of genetically modified wheat discovered in Oregon. The Roundup Ready strain was nixed in 2005 when global resistance to Monsanto forced the company to stop working on it. It was never approved for use, let along growing and exporting.

The claim by the biotech industry that GMO crops can be contained and kept away from organic farmers who have chosen not to use genetically modified ‘suicide’ seeds has steadily been proven false. A third of organic growers are now reporting problems with cross contamination, according to one survey. More than 80% of farmers who participated in the survey are ‘concerned’ about the impact of genetic seeds. About 60% are ‘very concerned.’

One organic farmer, Oren Holle, blames the USDA’s loving relationship with Monsanto:

 “…the USDA has been extremely lax and, in our opinion, that’s due to the excessive influence of the biotech industry in political circles.”

The newly released report outlining the prevalence of GMO contamination, which can be found in the International Journal of Food Contamination, reports that by the end of 2013 and since 1997, 396 incidents of GMO cross-contamination across 63 countries had been recorded. Many of which had involved GM rice.

The Paper Makes the Following Main Points:

• 1. GMO contamination is unavoidable and will happen no matter what through nature.
• 2. Contamination will even occur via field trials or illegal plantings. The report references 9 cases of contamination of unauthorized GMO crops which have bypassed environmental and food safety testing.
• 3. Genetically modified rice made up about 33% of the contamination cases by crop. This is despite the fact that as of December 2012, GM rice hasn’t even become widely available for production or consumption. There is a global absence of any commercial cultivation of GM rice. The authors suggest this figure might be related to the routine testing of imports of GM rice at national borders.
• 4. It is difficult to contain and halt contamination after it has already happened.
• 5. “From these data, it’s not clear what the main factors affecting contamination rates are. It’s not only the GM contamination itself (cross-pollination, mix-ups etc.) that contributes to the number of cases, but also the the testing regime (both routine and targeted). The highest rates of contamination are in imported foodstuffs to Germany but this is probably because they do a lot of testing. All EU countries have high rates because they report their findings of the RASFF database. The data for contamination exists – but not the factors to analyse what influences contamination.”
• 6. The researchers conclude that for most experimental GMOs, there is no protocol for testing, which makes detection for contamination extremely difficult.

The report concluded:

“The detection of GMO contamination is dependent on both routine and targeted monitoring regimes, which appears to be inconsistent from country to country, even within the EU.

The lack of an analytical methodology for the detection of GM crops at the field trial stage (i.e. pre-commercialisation) can hamper efforts to detect any contamination arising from such GM lines.”

What if we Banned GMOs, then Could GMO Contamination Be Stopped?

There is one pivotal point missing from many GMO debates which I feel compelled to bring up. Whether studies somehow determine that GMOs were safe all along, even with mountains of evidence (both scientific and anecdotal) pointing to the great danger of this technology, there is one BIG problem with GMOs.

That BIG problem is that you can’t recall genetically modified corn or soy, apples or papayas, trees or other GM crops – and once they are unleashed, there is no turning back.

You can’t recall GMOs. Once they are in the biosphere, they are doing what biotech companies like Monsanto likely realized from the outset. Genetically altered crops are cross-pollinating non-genetically modified crops, turning everything into a patentable, and arguably highly toxic ‘commodity,’ which can then be used for various purposes.

As Purdue so simply puts it:

“GMO “contamination” of non-GMO grain can occur in corn by virtue of either cross-pollination between adjacent fields of GMO and non-GMO hybrids or by commingling (a fancy term for “mixing”) of seed. The latter can occur at planting time as farmers switch from planting one hybrid to another via seed carryover in the planter. Commingling can also occur during or after harvest time via grain mixing in the combine, trucks and wagons, drying facility or the storage facility.”

• Organic farmers like Phil McGrath have had their livelihoods directly impacted by cross-contamination from GMO farms nearby.
• South Korea was recently overrun with GMO contamination in 18 regions despite a nationwide ban on GMO crop cultivation.
• The European Union has banned GM-contaminated honey from being sold.
• China has rejected GM-contaminated corn from the US.
• And Monsanto and Bayer GM crops have contaminated European countries along railways where grain is regularly transported.

Still, the USDA says that co-existence between non-GM and GM crops is possible.

Since we don’t really know what will happen with GM crops – and we can’t take them back once they intermingle with non-GM crops – how are they safe? They simply are not safe, and no amount of ‘science’ can explain that away.

Additional Sources:

GM Watch