Pluto, etc.

CONSUMERS CALL ON FDA TO LABEL GE FOODS

By Colin O’Neil

Americans cherish their freedom of choice. If you want to choose food that doesn’t contain gluten, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, transfats or MSG, you simply read the ingredients label. But one choice Americans are not free to make is whether their food contains genetically engineered ingredients. Unlike most other developed countries—including 15 European Union nations, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China—the U.S. has no laws requiring labeling of genetically engineered foods. Yet polls have repeatedly shown that the overwhelming majority of Americans—over 90% in most polls— believe GE foods should be labeled.

Citing this overwhelming support, last month the Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a groundbreaking legal petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demanding that the agency require the labeling of all food produced using genetic engineering. CFS prepared the legal action on behalf of the Just Label It campaign and a number of health, consumer, environmental and farming organizations, and food companies are also signatories to the petition.

A Choice Deferred

In 1992, the FDA issued a policy statement that GE foods were not ‘materially’ different from non-GE foods and thus did not need to be labeled. The agency severely constricted what it called ‘material,’ limiting it to changes that could be tasted, smelled, or detected through the other human senses. Because GE foods cannot be ‘sensed’ in this way, FDA declared them to be ‘substantially equivalent’ to conventionally produced foods, and no labeling was required.

FDA adopted this stance despite a lack of scientific studies and data to support their underlying assumption that genetically engineered foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to conventional foods. It was a political, not scientific, decision to apply 19^th century logic to a 20^st century food technology, and in the process left all consumers in the dark to hidden changes to their food. We as consumers no longer base our decisions solely on what we can see or taste or smell, so why should the FDA continue to do so?

FDA Should Prevent Consumer Deception – Not Create It

FDA’s authority to require labeling goes well beyond the agency’s outdated definition of ‘material.’ Rather, the law authorizes FDA to require labeling for GE foods in order to prevent consumer deception. Because FDA allows these facts to go unlabeled, consumers believe they are purchasing something different than what they actually are.

To be patentable, a genetically engineered food must be ‘new’ and ‘novel.’ Thus, a product or process that is patentable cannot be both ‘novel’ for patent purposes yet ‘substantially equivalent’ to existing technology in other contexts. Continuing to treat GE foods as novel for patenting purposes but traditional for labeling purposes is a clear error in judgment by the FDA and abuse of the public’s trust.

Polls consistently show1 that more than 90 percent of Americans want GE foods to be labeled and consumers do not expect food to be genetically engineered absent labeling. FDA’s continued failure to mandate labeling is an abdication of its duty to protect consumers from deception.

Unlabeled, Untested and You’re Eating It

Unlabeled GE foods are misleading not only because they contain unperceivable genetic and molecular changes to food, but also because they have unknown and undisclosed risks. FDA has never conducted a single safety assessment for GE foods and does not affirm their safety. There have been very few independent, peer-reviewed, comprehensive studies of their long-term human health and environmental impacts, and the few that exist give cause for concern. In fact, scientists both within FDA and outside the agency agreed that there are profound differences between genetically engineered foods and those produced through traditional breeding practices.

Yet, rather than requiring the necessary safety assessment, FDA explicitly places responsibility for determining the safety of GE foods and crops back in the hands of their makers the biotechnology companies, and uses what it calls a ‘voluntary consultation’ process. Companies that develop a GE crop are encouraged, but not required, to share the conclusions (but not the raw data or methodology) of any studies they may have conducted on their GE crop. This system does not favor health, safety or transparency.

A recent independent Canadian study found that a toxin from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which has been engineered into Bt corn, was present in the bloodstream of 93% of pregnant women, as well as in the fetal cord blood of 80% of the pregnant women.2 These findings cast grave doubt on the biotechnology industry’s assurances—accepted at face value by federal agencies, including FDA—that the genetically engineered Bt toxin would be broken down by human digestive systems before entering the bloodstream. This study not only underscores the scientific uncertainty surrounding the health impacts of GE crops, but also casts doubt on the wisdom of federal agencies’ practice of relying excessively on crop developers’ own safety assessments rather than on independent studies.

FDA’s Looming Decision on GE Salmon Labeling

One issue related to GE food labeling currently sitting at the FDA is the pending approval of AquAdvantage transgenic salmon, the first GE animal intended for human consumption. The genetically engineered Atlantic salmon was developed by AquaBounty Technologies, which artificially combined growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon, (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) with DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout (Zoarces americanus).

This genetic modification causes the AquAdvantage salmon to produce growth-hormone year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows at twice the normal rate. This GE salmon poses a number of health, environmental, economic and animal welfare concerns and is only made worse by FDA’s acknowledgment that it would likely not require labeling despite these concerns. Yet a careful look at this fish reveals that it is not the safe and healthy fish that its proponents would lead you to believe [See GE Salmon Nutrition Facts].

According to the company’s own data, its GE salmon contains less healthy fatty acids than other farmed salmon and far less healthy fatty acids than wild salmon. FDA claims that the omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio in the AquAdvantage salmon is similar to the ratios found in scientific literature for farmed Atlantic salmon. In fact, the ratio for the AquAdvantage salmon is nearly 15% less than the recorded ratio for conventionally farmed Atlantic salmon and 65% less than wild salmon.

GE salmon also contain levels of healthy vitamins and minerals inferior to the levels present in other farmed salmon.The company study provided to the FDA identified a number of vitamins and essential nutrients for which the levels present in the AquAdvantage salmon differed from non-GE salmon by more than 10%. The AquAdvantage salmon has lower levels of every essential amino acid tested and nearly 25% less folic acid and vitamin C. As a result of the genetic modification, this fish is fattier, less nutritious and at higher risk for physical deformities than other salmon.

With regard to food allergies, FDA stated: ‘the technical flaws in this [AquaBounty’s allergy] study so limit its interpretation that we cannot rely on its results.’ It’s no wonder a 2008 Consumers Union nationwide poll found that 95 percent of respondents said they thought food from genetically engineered animals should be labeled. 3 And while you’re not going to see this type of comparison on a nutrition label, absent mandatory labeling for GE foods, you will not be able to choose between a GE fish and regular farmed salmon.

In the U.S., we pride ourselves on having choices and making informed decisions. The longer the U.S. clings to its antiquated policy on GE food labeling, the more its standing as a leader in scientific integrity will be compromised. It is long overdue that FDA acknowledges the myriad reasons GE foods should be labeled and rewrites its outdated policy, lest it continue to foster consumer deception.

Colin O’Neil is Regulatory Policy Analyst at the Center for Food Safety.

Endnotes

1 http://gefoodlabels.org/gmo%20labeling/polls-on-gmo-labeling/

2 See Aris A., Leblanc S., “Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada,” (Feb. 18, 2011) available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890623811000566 (last visited May 25, 2011). In approving Bt corn, FDA had previously relied on the industry’s assurances that the Bt toxin would be broken down during digestion. 

3 http://www.greenerchoices.org/foodpoll2008/

October is for Baseball

Many months ago we rang in the much anticipated beginning of spring with the opening day of baseball season. Believing in a few certain things, I conceded that the best indicator of spring’s arrival was not the celebration of any particular holiday or even a seemingly optimistic change in the weather, but rather Opening Day. Now we find ourselves in the grips of autumn and another notable indicator that the march of the seasons continues along, the World Series.
 
But our story must first pickup where we left off.  While reluctant spring flowers were emerging from the ground, faithful enthusiasts across the country lined up to ring in the beginning of baseball season.  In the club houses young talent met worn faces and old teams were greeted with new stadiums.  Life in the spring is always changing at the drop of a hat.  Injuries beget despair while streaks produce hope.  But like a group of clamoring fauns trying to hit their stride the field remains wide open and nothing is guaranteed.

By the time summer rolls around the elegant dance of the butterfly is being overshadowed by the brash and often humiliating stumble of the cicadas. This must be the way nature intended it, after all there can only be so many butterflies.  Falling like so many acorns from the trees, their precipitous decline is both raucous and public.  And just like the drunken cicada, many once great ball clubs suffer their embarrassing demise for all to watch.

But this is exactly what makes America great.  Teams that can afford to pay their players three times over can still fall prey to a team whose city wouldn’t make that much money in a year.  The luck of a young ball club is sometimes no match for the wisdom and patience of the venerable one.  No game is the same and nothing is promised.  And as former champions wane under the pressure, their past contenders ascend into October.

So what’s so great about the World Series?  Thirty teams start out the season but only two make the dance.  One city gets to celebrate victory while the other stands in silent disbelief.  But whether or not your team is lucky enough to make it to the fall classic, all baseball fans watch the World Series.      

Just like opening day, the World Series can be observed from the privacy of your own home or celebrated in the public arena.  No matter if it’s a warm night in Texas or cold inclement weather in St. Louis, all baseball fans will quietly hope for a seven game nail-biter.

Once the field is decided and the winners and losers pack up their things then it is time for us to pack-up as well.  Pack up those shorts and t-shirts we were saving for that unlikely October heat wave and exchange our baseball mits for our nearly forgotten winter gloves.  And when our ball clubs come home to meditate on the season’s end, we too will take time to contemplate the advancing calm of the winter. 

The elegant dance of the butterfly and the public demise of the cicada all give way to the slumber of winter.  A time for though, a time to heal and time to prepare.  Rest up baseball fans, something tells me you’re going to need it.

Growing Up Can Be a Real Mixed Bag

One of these days the snow will pile so high it buries my neighbors car.  We will lose our lawn ornaments and our minds to the winter.  Our schedules and our jobs will sleep peacefully under a blanket of snow. But not today.

One of these days my parents will sell their house and with it the empty space where my tree house used to live.  My heart will give momentary pause every holiday when I don’t find myself waking up in my old bed and my memories will float unhindered by geography, rather affixed to a drifting buoy in my mind.  But not today.  

One of these days, I won’t have to pay my college loans anymore.  Instead I will be paying off a mortgage or college tuition.  Bills will pile as high as the Andes and debt will try to break me like rickety chair. But not today.

One of these days I will ask, “where did all the time go?” I will try to buy it back with new cloths and golf lessons, new music and self-help books.  I will bribe its advance with a gym membership and the company of younger friends.  But not today.

One of these days I’ll drink bourbon all afternoon and stumble home like a bee drunk on nectar.  It will flow like a 100-year flood, uncontrollable like ice cream in the summer or temptation on the Nile.   But that’s not today though.

One of these days I will see the world for what it is.  A new lens that is part sage, part moon and part bacteria.  My eyes will forget the weight of these cloths and I will stop to see the glory in the coming of the rains.  But not today.

One of these days I will risk it all on sevens.  I will ride chance like it was the last place horse at the Kentucky Derby, chasing my dreams until I am broke and starved knowing that at least I tried.  But not today.

Today I will play it safe.  I will sit at a desk and look out on this world.  I will plan for the future but eat like a pig.  I will forget to brush my teeth and I will lick my wounds with cheap whiskey and day beans and rice.  I will read about politics and then go out drinking until I forget it all.  I will run circles around the moon until my shoes wear out and I have to crawl home.  I will roll up my sleeves, wipe the sweat off my brow and then resume my video games.  I will give my cloths to charity and then buy them back once they’ve been washed so I don’t have to do laundry.  I will scrape and scrounge just to pay for my internet bill.  I will give pause to charitable donations and then accept them as gifts rather than pity.    

One of these days I will get it together.  One of these days I will grow up, toughen up, man up and generally start getting up at a reasonable hour.  But not today.  No my friend, that day will come. But it is not today.

Opening Day

I believe in a few certain things.  Seasons seem come and go as they please.  The day moon will rise, when it feels like it.  The sun will almost always go to bed at a reasonable hour.  The days of the week rarely change, although you can miss one or two if you don’t pay close attention.  Some things are less static and deserve more thoughtful and critical attention.  Often I find myself sitting, wondering what mosquitoes mediate on as they sit perched on the exposed skin of an errant shoulder.  While intriguing to find out, I would not be the first to provide the thoughtful mosquito a shoulder to rest upon.

March can never be predicted in Washington, D.C. A fortuitous early Spring day can usually be expected with the arrival of March.  Yet a bite on the leg by the lost dog of Winter will certainly push back its advance.  Seemingly rabid, March is consumed by a panic of chills and cold sweats.  A welcomed warmth of the fever inevitably breaks to the chilling winds and cold rains. 

There are a few good indicators of the changing season.  We do after all need some assurance that life will begin anew.  March Madness is just as fever pitched as March itself, not a good indicator. Also basketball is an indoor sport itself, so it couldn’t be more disconnected from the ever-increasing amount of daylight.  Teams painfully dying off one-by-one is hardly a celebration of nature’s triumphant rebirth.  Holidays are good indicators, not great.  New Years should be blanketed in snow but too often it’s not.  Easter on the other hand carries a symbolic and very Spring-like meaning, but just like Christmas it tends to be a tad bit exclusive.   

The best indicator that Spring has arrive is not a change in the weather and it certainly isn’t the Spring equinox.  Spring in America officially begins on the opening day of baseball season.  (This also gives hope to Toronto but not Montreal anymore.)  No matter if its forty degrees and rainy or sixty degrees and sunny, you can trust that the baseball season will escort you down the winding road of the seasons.  Rounding the seasons, baseball inevitably finishes on Winter’s plate.  Someone wins but many don’t.  Shirtsleeves are substituted for warm jackets and gloves.  And everyone goes home to lick their wounds and warm their feet.

Some may consider opening day a holiday, I certainly do.  It can be observed from the privacy of your own home or celebrated in the public arena.  And no matter how successful or excruciating the previous season was, every team begins anew.  New players come and rosters change.  Fans harp on collapsed empires or changes in pitching staff.  But for baseball fans, we now have a common enemy against the lost dog of winter.  Baseball is back and its going to be great.

-March 31, 2011

A Song for the Prettiest Girl In Town

(This is the only picture I have sadly.  She’s all healed now.)

After a five hour ride, my bus finally arrived to DC after a weekend excursion to visit friends Queens.  As we pulled up to the curb everyone got out their phones to call their husbands, boyfriends or roommates to pick them up from the bus stop.  However my mind had room to think about one thing only, the current love in my life, my Trek 1000SLA - a city Princess on wheels.  Nothing made me more excited than to find her parked right where I left her, always faithful and no worse for wear.  Inspired by one of my favorite songs, “Plastic Jesus” sung in Cool Hand Luke, I sang an old timey song for her as we biked along Capitol Hill last night:

Cruisin downhill going twenty-five

Smooth on the road as she grips my thighs

She takes me where I need to go,

Stronger than a pick-up truck

Flyin’ at speeds that would test your luck

She’s got an angel’s love when you ride her slow.

Curves ‘round the bend like a lover’s hips

Sittin’ on high like a jockey sits

A steed in the breeze trailed by a pack of dogs,

Try your best but you can’t catch her

This is one race that you can’t setup

My girl turns all your princes into frogs.

When I got her I don’t need to worry

My arm around her I’m never in no hurry

We could kick-up sand or soot or snow,

A squeeze on the hand tells her I’m there

Breeze on my face lets me know that she cares

To take me where I need to go.

I’d ditch in a heartbeat just to save her life

And we take turns saying that it’s alright

You’ll never have to see me leave,

A daily escort through the gates of heaven

A distance to exist that seems unsettlin’

She’s a real cool hand that I got with me.

We’ve got stars up high and the road to ourselves

You can run red lights darlin’ I won’t tell

Got no one tailing us tonight,

But an open road and time to catch-up

She knows I missed her no need to hell her

With my darlin’ by my side everything will be alright.