Bioengineered, the new GMO

Humans have been cultivating new plant varieties since the beginning of agricultural development, but until fairly recently, the process required patience. Many have used the argument that GMO’s are nor more than a new way to create a hybrid plant.

The term “hybrid,” which you’ll often see in seed catalogs, refers to a plant variety developed through a specific, controlled cross of two parent plants. Usually, the parents are naturally compatible varieties within the same species. This hybridization, or the crossing of compatible varieties, happens naturally in the wild; plant breeders basically just steer the process to control the outcome. In contrast, GM varieties (sometimes called “genetically modified organisms,” or “GMOs”) are a whole different animal, as we’ll explain in a bit. First, some background on plant hybridization.

Bioengineered, or “BE” for short, is the federal government’s new term for GMOs. Under the Bioengineered Food labeling law, certain BE foods containing detectable modified genetic material must disclose the presence of BE ingredients.

By adopting the term “bioengineering,” this law selects language that’s unfamiliar to most shoppers. People know about GMOs. Most people do not know much about bioengineered food. The term causes consternation and the furrowing of brows.

In 2009, American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”

More and more doctors are already prescribing GM-free diets. Now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it. In the US population, the incidence of low birth weight babies, infertility, and infant mortality are all escalating.

GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. Bt toxin, used in organic farming is inserted into the plant genes making the toxin thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray. It has properties of an allergen, causing allergy or flu-like symptoms.

The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods. The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function. This means that long after we stop eating GMOs, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us. Put more plainly, eating a corn chip produced from Bt corn might transform our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories, possibly for the rest of our lives.

If GMOs happen to cause immediate and acute symptoms with a unique signature, perhaps then we might have a chance to trace the cause.

This is precisely what happened during a US epidemic in the late 1980s. The disease was fast acting, deadly, and caused a unique measurable change in the blood — but it still took more than four years to identify that an epidemic was even occurring. By then it had killed about 100 Americans and caused 5,000-10,000 people to fall sick or become permanently disabled. It was caused by a genetically engineered brand of a food supplement called L-tryptophan.

If other GM foods are contributing to the rise of autism, obesity, diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease, allergies, reproductive problems, or any other common health problem now plaguing Americans, we may never know. In fact, since animals fed GMOs had such a wide variety of problems, susceptible people may react to GM food with multiple symptoms. It is therefore telling that in the first nine years after the large scale introduction of GM crops in 1996, the incidence of people with three or more chronic diseases nearly doubled, from 7% to 13%.

Many concerns about the disadvantages relate to human health. Scientists have not yet shown that GMO foods are harmful to health, but research is ongoing. Here are the risks scientist and doctors watch for:

• Allergic reactions
• Cancer
• Antibacterial resistance
• Changes in human DNA
• Toxicity for body organs

What to watch out for:

Foods that are likely to be GMO include:

• sugar beet, as 99.9% of sugar beet in the U.S. is GMO
• canola products, as 95% of them are GMO in the U.S.
• soybean products, since 94% of soybean in the U.S. is GMO
• corn, as 92% of corn planted in the U.S. is GMO
• cottonseed oil, since 94% of cotton is GMO

Many GMO crops also become ingredients in other foods, for example:

• cornstarch in soups and sauces
• corn syrup used as a sweetener
• corn, canola, and soybean oils in mayonnaise, dressings, and bread
• sugar derived from sugar beets

The next step in Frankenstein foods:

Under the Bioengineered Food labeling law, certain BE foods containing detectable modified genetic material must disclose the presence of BE ingredients. The clause “detectible modified genetic material” is crucial because it excuses many products that are made with GMOs from making the disclosure. Many products made with new GMO techniques such as CRISPR, TALEN and RNAi are currently untestable. Without a commercially available test, the modified genetic material is undetectable and thus those foods wouldn’t require a BE label. 

Additionally, many processed foods contain highly refined ingredients made from GMOs. The processing often leaves no detectable modified genetic material behind in the final product, and therefore those products also will not require labels. Common household products that contain ingredients such as sugar made from GMO sugar beets or cooking oil made from GMO canola would fall into this category.

Which bioengineered foods will be labeled — and which won’t?

Certain food containing detectable modified genetic material will require a Bioengineered (BE) Food  disclosure. The USDA’s current List of Bioengineered Foods includes:

• Alfalfa
• Arctic™ Apple 
• Canola
• Corn
• Cotton
• Bt Eggplant
• Ringspot virus-resistant Papaya
• Pink Pineapple
• Potato
• AquAdvantage® Salmon
• Soybean
• Summer squash
• Sugarbeet

This list determines which foods are considered bioengineered in their most basic, raw form. However, the way the BE law is written — with exemptions, loopholes and technical limitations — many products made from these bioengineered ingredients will not require a disclosure.

• Animal feed, pet food and personal care products are all exempt from the BE labeling law.
• Some foods for direct human consumption are also exempt, such as meat, poultry and eggs.
• Multi-ingredient products in which meat, poultry or eggs are the first ingredient listed are exempt even if other ingredients with detectable modified genetic material are included in the product. 

The Bioengineered Food labeling law is ineffective at finding GMOs and avoiding GMOs, largely because of restrictions, loopholes and exemptions. Too much falls outside of the law’s purview for it to be effective. 

So how do I protect my family and our health?

1. Buy foods labeled “100% Organic.”
2. Look for “Non-GMO Project Verified” label on product packaging. 
3. Eat locally grown food.
4. Identify how produce is grown by reading its label or sticker number.
   • 4-digit number means food was conventionally grown.
   • 5-digit number that begins with a 9 means produce is organic.
   • 5-digit number that begins with an 8 means it is genetically modified. (PLU labeling is optional so not all genetically modified produce can be identified)
5. Know which foods and their derivatives are most likely genetically engineered. Such as:
   • Soybeans and soy products
   • Corn and corn-based products.
   • Canola oil.
   • Dairy products.
   • Sugar beets.
   • Aspartame.