FEED - September 2006
Contents
- USDA is failing to regulate engineered crops
• U.S. rice supply contaminated with unapproved rice
• Engineered golf course grass escapes into the wild
• Pharmaceutical-producing crops in Hawaii violate laws - Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found around swine facility
- What animals are fed at factory farms
1. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is failing to regulate engineered crops
This month, FEED is featuring three stories that illustrate the USDA's continuing inability to effectively regulate and confine genetically engineered (GE) crops.
• U.S. rice supply contaminated with unapproved rice
In August, the USDA announced that the U.S. rice supply is contaminated with an unapproved GE rice variety—a discovery made not by the USDA, but by an export customer. According to Bayer CropScience, the company that engineered the rice, the unapproved variety was field tested in the United States in 2000 and 2001. Though officials assert that the unapproved rice is not a health risk, its presence in the food supply years after the company stopped field testing demonstrates that experimental GE crops are not being isolated from the food supply. The USDA's response to the situation has been to quickly approve the rice variety, a move that the Union of Concerned Scientists strongly opposes. Read more about it in The Washington Post. Stay tuned to find out how you can speak up about the issue.
• Engineered golf course grass escapes into the wild
A recent scientific study demonstrates that a GE golf course grass, creeping bentgrass, has escaped from cultivation and is establishing itself in the wild. The USDA has allowed GE herbicide-resistant bentgrass to be tested in Oregon since 1999. In 2003, scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency found that GE grass pollen could be blown up to 13 miles from the test plots to cross-pollinate with non-engineered bentgrass. In a 2004/2005 survey, the same scientists found GE bentgrass plants established in wild areas up to two miles from the experimental plots. The GE bentgrass resulted from the movement of both wind-borne GE seeds and pollen from the test sites, defying the USDA's assurances that wind pollination was very unlikely. Read more in New Scientist.
• Pharmaceutical-producing crops in Hawaii violate laws
A federal judge has ruled that the USDA showed "utter disregard" for environmental laws in permitting four institutions to plant crops that were genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals. The USDA allowed ProdiGene, Monsanto, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and Garst Seed to grow pharmaceutical-producing corn and sugarcane in Hawaii without first conducting environmental reviews, which are required under the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Home to many endangered species, Hawaii is particularly vulnerable to the ecological consequences of contamination by engineered crops. Read the ruling (pdf).
2. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found around swine facility
A team of scientists from the Universities of Texas and Cincinnati has found that air samples collected in and around a swine factory farm contained bacteria that were resistant to as many as four different classes of antibiotics. Twice as many resistant bacteria were found in downwind samples compared with samples taken upwind, and 287 times as many were found in samples from inside the facility, indicating that the swine facility was the source of the resistant bacteria. Read the study in Environmental Health Perspectives (pdf).
3. What animals are fed at factory farms
A new UCS website, TheyEatWhat.com, explores the reality of feed at animal factories. Legal feed ingredients include diseased animal parts, feathers, manure, plastics, drugs, chemicals, and unhealthy amounts of grain. Some of these ingredients raise human health concerns. Others just indicate the low standards for animal feeds. All are symptoms of a system that has lost sight of the appropriate way to raise food animals. Visit http://www.theyeatwhat.com to learn more.
