Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety (31 page)

Others raise more personal issues of values. In 1998, at the peak of the furor over genetically modified foods in Great Britain, for example, none other than His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, wrote of food biotechnology: “I happen to believe that this kind of genetic modification takes mankind into realms that belong to God, and to God alone. . . . We simply do not know the long-term consequences for human health and the wider environment of releasing plants bred in this way. . . . It is the
unforeseen
consequences which present the greatest cause for concern. . . . I personally have no wish to eat anything produced by genetic modification, nor do I knowingly offer this sort of produce to my family or guests.”
⁶

One might hardly think it productive to argue with such beliefs, but biotechnology stimulates theological as well as secular debate. Derek Burke, the former chairman of the British government’s scientific committee on novel foods, took the secular route: “He [the prince] is raising one more food scare. As far as we can see, the risks of genetically engineering crops are very, very low. You can’t walk away from changing the world.”
⁷
A Vatican official also weighed in: “We are increasingly encouraged that the advantages of genetic engineering of plants and animals are greater than the risks. . . . We cannot agree with the position of some groups that say it is against the will of God to meddle with the genetic make-up of plants and animals.” Pope John Paul II disagreed; at an outdoor mass attended by 50,000 farmers, he said that using biotechnology to increase production was contrary to God’s will and that when farmers “forget this basic principle and become tyrants of the earth rather
than its custodians . . . sooner or later the earth rebels.”
⁸
Officials thought it necessary to counter religious arguments, because such values
matter
. Prince Charles’s statements contributed to a sharp increase in public opposition to transgenic foods in Great Britain.
⁹

British attitudes toward food biotechnology are more extreme than those found in the United States, but what most strongly emerges from surveys on both sides of the Atlantic is the importance of trust. If people do not trust the industry, they must rely on their governments for assurance that food is safe and worth eating. If they do not trust government, they worry more about safety. When, as discussed in
chapter 7
, U.S. government agencies made industry-friendly decisions to approve transgenic foods exclusively on the basis of science-based perceptions of risk—completely discounting all other considerations—they created a trust vacuum. Without an opportunity to consider the commercial, societal, and political implications of science-based approaches, advocacy groups focused on the one issue open for debate—safety. This chapter examines the health and environmental safety issues raised by genetically modified foods. In looking at these issues, we will see that despite protestations of industry and government to the contrary, it is impossible to separate science from politics in matters related to the safety of these foods.

When scientists first discovered how to move genes from one organism to another, they wondered whether such manipulations could be harmful to health or to the environment. In 1975, researchers met in Asilomar, California, to review the potential hazards of genetic manipulations. To prevent unanticipated problems that might emerge from the new recombinant DNA techniques, they proposed stringent research guidelines. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) soon required recipients of its research grants to follow such guidelines. In an extreme example of caution, residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts, debated whether such experiments should be allowed within the city limits. Later, when time and experience reassured people about the safety of the techniques, the guidelines became less restrictive. In retrospect, the intense anxiety—dread and outrage—about early genetic engineering experiments strikes many scientists as inappropriate to the low level of risk.
¹⁰
They view objections to food biotechnology as equally inappropriate.

Industry scientists working on early food biotechnology projects considered
their work fundamentally similar to conventional genetics. If the foods did pose risks, these would be small and outweighed by benefits. Indeed, industry leaders believe that the projects are so interesting and potentially beneficial (and, of course, economically viable) that they raise no safety issues whatsoever. Critics disagree. In particular, they question the safety of genetic engineering manipulations that use (1) genes from bacteria responsible for diseases in plants, (2) genes for antibiotic resistance as “selection markers” (see page 176), and (3) regulatory DNA sequences transferred from one organism to another. They wonder whether “in the transgenic plant the harmonious interdependence of the alien gene and the new host’s protein-mediated systems is likely to be disrupted in unspecified, imprecise, and inherently unpredictable ways.”
¹¹

Critics ask whether the new proteins made by genetically modified plants might cause allergic reactions. They question the wisdom of planting vast areas of land with crops modified to resist herbicides or insects: will such plants transfer herbicide resistance to unwanted weeds, or toxin resistance to harmful insects? Government regulations do not require agricultural biotechnology companies either to answer such questions in much detail or to do very much to identify the potential consequences of releasing transgenic foods into the environment (consequences such as those that occurred with StarLink corn). The government not only fails to require labeling of genetically modified foods but actively opposes attempts to label such foods. All of this means that companies can decide for themselves what foods to produce and market, and consumers have little choice in the matter. Questions of safety, therefore, cannot be addressed without dealing with issues of regulation, oversight, trust, and control—politics. With politics in mind, we can now examine the principal safety issues: allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, and harm to the environment.

It makes sense to think that introducing the DNA for a new gene into a food would also cause that food to make a new protein. That, after all, is the function of genes and the very purpose of food biotechnology. It also makes sense that some people might develop allergic reactions to the new protein; some proteins are allergens. In theory, any food protein can be allergenic. In practice, however, just eight foods cause 90% of food allergies: milk, eggs, soy, and wheat in children, and peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and fish in adults. When susceptible people eat these foods, most react
with mild symptoms (itching, for example), but for others the result can be deadly. True food allergies—those that involve components of the immune system and threaten life—are relatively rare. Doctors diagnose them in less than 8% of children and 2% of adults in the United States.
¹²

Whether the new transgenic proteins in foods might cause allergies is not easy to answer, mainly because many of the transgenes come from microbes never used as food. Furthermore, food allergies are a highly neglected area of medical research, and depressingly little is known about the structural features of proteins that induce immune reactions. Because exceptions are frequent, the few generalizations are highly tentative: allergenic proteins appear to occur in high concentrations in foods, to share some structural similarities, to be less easily digested to their constituent amino acids than are nonallergenic proteins, and to require multiple exposures to induce reactions.

Surveillance of food allergies also is limited. The widespread use of soy proteins—transgenic or not—in foods such as infant formulas, meat extenders, baked goods, and dairy replacements might be expected to increase the prevalence of soy allergies, but the increase would be difficult to detect unless it affected large numbers of people. Worse, because methods to diagnose food allergies are unavailable or imprecise, the allergenic potential of most genetically modified foods is uncertain, unpredictable, and not easily tested.
¹³

These research limitations make genetically engineered foods especially vulnerable to charges that newly introduced genes will cause plants to produce allergenic proteins. Industry-friendly scientists recognize that such charges are based on “reasoned concern” but complain that they also are based on “fear through ignorance, and political motivation.”
¹⁴
Antibiotechnology advocates raise the issue of allergenicity not only because it is scientifically justifiable but also because the industry is unable—or rarely tries—to prove that a newly introduced protein is
not
an allergen (witness StarLink). The government does not require biotechnology companies to test for allergens, and they rarely do. For one thing, testing is difficult. For another, testing is hardly in a company’s best interest. Monsanto scientists, for example, wondered whether making soybeans “Roundup Ready” would make them more allergenic. They voluntarily tested and found the proteins in their soybeans to be similar in structure and quantity to those in conventional soybeans. On this basis, they assumed that no new allergens had been introduced but were not required to test for that possibility.
¹⁵
Like testing for microbial pathogens, testing for allergens is risky: you might find one.

Indeed, finding an allergen in a new transgenic food is a disheartening experience, and not only for its maker: it is a “shadow . . . cast over the agricultural biotechnology industry.”
¹⁶
One such shadow emerged in the mid-1990s when scientists working for the venerable agricultural company Pioneer Hi-Bred created a transgenic soybean to solve a nutritional problem—the need for sulfur—in poultry feed. Chicken feathers are strong because their proteins are linked tightly with sulfur. The sulfur comes from sulfur-containing amino acids, particularly one called methionine. Soybean proteins are relatively low in methionine, and soy-based chicken feed must be supplemented with this amino acid—a troublesome expense. Proteins enriched with methionine might solve this problem. As it happens, Brazil nuts contain a particular protein with two unusual characteristics: it is exceptionally rich in methionine; it also is present in large amounts (it accounts for 18% of all the proteins in Brazil nuts). Pioneer Hi-Bred scientists isolated the gene for the Brazil nut protein and transferred it into soybeans. They recognized, however, that a protein present in such high concentration might be the very one responsible for allergies to Brazil nuts.

Thus, they thought it prudent to find out if their transgenic soybeans caused problems for people allergic to Brazil nuts. Ordinarily, this study would be impossible because few laboratories have the biological materials needed to test for food allergens. By coincidence, Nebraska researchers had collected blood samples from people known to be allergic to Brazil nuts, and they happened to have on hand all the components necessary to do the tests. To the company’s dismay, the experiments “succeeded.” People allergic to Brazil nuts exhibited the same kinds of blood and skin reactions when exposed to proteins extracted from the transgenic soybeans. Despite a substantial investment in development of the soybean feed, Pioneer Hi-Bred discontinued the project.
¹⁷

It must be understood that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not require the company to do such studies, nor do most companies conduct them. As discussed in
chapter 8
, allergenicity and other safety concerns about transgenic foods raise complex regulatory issues. Under a policy developed by the FDA in 1992, the company was encouraged—but not required—to consult FDA staff about the need to test products before marketing them.
¹⁸
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a company with a long tradition of ethical practice dating back to the days of its founder, Henry Wallace, did so voluntarily. Once testing revealed the allergenicity of the transgenic protein, FDA policy required the company to label its soybeans as genetically modified. Although the soybeans were intended for
chicken feed, the company could not imagine how the beans could be kept separate from the human food supply, and it withdrew them.

In this unique instance, the company recognized that the gene donor came from a food known to be allergenic, was able to obtain blood samples from people allergic to Brazil nuts, and ended the project. Supporters of the FDA policy interpreted these events as a demonstration of its effectiveness; the soybeans never entered the food supply. Others, however, thought that this case proved that the FDA policy favored industry and could not protect consumers against less well studied transgenic proteins. The next case might not be so ideal, and the public less fortunate. Transgenic foods do not have to be labeled (see
chapter 7
), and avoidance is often the
only
effective way to prevent food allergies. Without labels, people with food allergies have no choice.

In 1993, the FDA asked for public comment on whether and how to label food allergens in transgenic foods and held a conference the next year to consider developing rules on this issue. The agency never released such rules, however, almost certainly because of industry pressure. The initial FDA proposals required “premarket notification”—informing the agency in advance about development of transgenic foods—but the biotechnology industry objected. Industry leaders wanted limits on
any
rules governing the safety of transgenic allergens and demanded that they “sunset” (be withdrawn and disappear) after three years.
¹⁹
Since then, international groups have had problems reaching consensus on the level of risk posed by transgenic allergens but do agree about how to minimize risk: developers should gradually introduce products into test markets and then monitor their effects.
¹³
This approach, no matter how sensible, will not be easy to implement. The unresolved status of FDA policy on transgenic allergenicity means that the industry retains
voluntary
responsibility for protecting the public against uncommon or unidentified allergens in genetically modified foods.