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Three dangerous little pigs
(Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004 -- CropChoice news) -- Pat Venditti opinion in Globe & Mail, 02/20/04: This week, the government agency that's responsible for Canada's
food safety quietly slipped out an announcement that three little pigs had gone to market by mistake in Quebec. The animals were genetically engineered as part of a program to produce
pharmaceutical proteins, and their safety for use in the human food chain has never been assessed.
This is a major breach of Canada's food-safety program, which
explicitly prohibits the release of genetically engineered animal
material into the environment or food system. The government
announcement stated that officials were taking "action to control" this situation.
Unfortunately, this is precisely what the same agency said in a virtually identical announcement made two years ago, when 11 little genetically engineered (GE) pigs accidentally went to market in Ontario. The steps taken were either not fast enough, or they
have simply failed. What is happening to Canada's food safety, and
can the government be counted on to protect us?
The government department that is supposed to make sure our
food is safe is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA. This
body oversees the approval process for GE ingredients in the
human food chain -- foods that we eat directly or foods fed to
livestock. It is the CFIA that is in the frame for failing to act early or
comprehensively enough to keep mad-cow disease at bay. It is this
agency that failed to prevent the import and use in food production
of GE "Starlink" corn -- a grain that is not legal in Canada. And it is
this agency that is currently responsible for considering whether to
approve GE wheat -- a crop that Canadian farmers fear would
destroy their markets.
But back to the three little piggies. They were the property of TGN
Biotech -- a research firm based in Ste-Foy, Quebec. TGN has
altered the fundamental genetic makeup of these animals, so that
the semen of the male pigs contains some form of pharmaceutical
protein.
The litters of pigs contain both genetically engineered and "normal"
animals, and the non-engineered pigs are sent to market.
Naturally, the female gene-altered pigs do not have semen to
harvest for pharmaceutical ingredients, but they are genetically
altered in the same way as the male animals. Neither male nor
female GE pigs are approved for release into the environment or
use in the human food chain -- in fact no GE animals have been
approved for this purpose anywhere in the world.
In this case it appears that, through human error, three of the
genetically engineered female pigs were confused with their
conventional sisters, and sent off to a rendering plant in Quebec.
From there they were further distributed to feed mills and farms in
Quebec and Ontario, for use as livestock feed.
The biotech company realized its mistake and the CFIA has been
scrambling to control this event. They have also been trying to
hose down the issue, claiming that these pigs are probably safe for
the human food chain, when the reality is that their safety has
never been tested. Such releases are illegal, and have unknown
consequences for human health and the environment. It is unclear
if meat from animals fed this contaminated feed has been sold to
consumers.
What with mad-cow disease, trans fats, and toxins in farmed fish,
Canadians have had their confidence in Canada's food-safety
system shaken of late. Canadian wheat farmers are in a state of
alarm over the potential approval of GE wheat, as 80 per cent of the
markets for that product say they don't want it, and may reject all
Canadian wheat if any GE variety is grown. Well, given that the
CFIA can't keep whole pigs out of the system, why should buyers
expect that GE wheat won't end up in conventional shipments?
It's time for Parliament to step in. First of all, it has to find out what
the consequences are for this apparent flagrant disregard of the
food-safety system. After all, as far as Greenpeace can find out,
there have been no prosecutions or penalties from previous
incidents. It appears that food safety at the CFIA depends more on
good fortune than precaution.
Parliament needs to look beyond its current scandals to an issue
that directly affects every one of us -- the safety of our food. We
need a parliamentary inquiry into how these repeated breaches of
the system keep occurring, and specifically into how GE life-forms
are handled.
Meanwhile, there should be a moratorium on the development of
new GE products in Canada. We should take concrete steps -- not
to pacify public opinion, but to assure Canadians and our
international markets that our food supply is, as our government
likes to claim, the safest in the world.
Pat Venditti is a specialist in genetic engineering for Greenpeace,
Canada. | |
