It was asked on this list recently if we had tried to educate Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the problems associated with genetically engineered farm crops.

 

Here Jeffrey Smith, an Iowan who serves on the Sierra Club national Genetic Engineering Action Team (GEAT), recounts his recent attempt to do just that.

 

This via Huffington Post and the Sierra Club Biotech Forum.

 

Tom

 

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/vilsack-mistakenly-pitche_b_319998.html
Vilsack Mistakenly Pitched "GMOs-Feed-The-World" to an Audience of Experts--Oops
EDITED

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was getting lots of appreciative
applause and head nods from the packed hall at the Community Food
Security Coalition conference today, held in Des Moines, Iowa. He
described the USDA's plans to improve school nutrition, support local
food systems, and work with the Justice Department to review the
impact of corporate agribusiness on small farmers.

But then, with time for only one more question, I was handed the microphone.
"Mr. Secretary, may I ask a tough question on GMOs?"
He said yes.

"The American Academy of Environmental Medicine this year said that
genetically modified foods, according to animal studies, are causally
linked to accelerated aging, dysfunctional immune regulation, organ
damage, gastrointestinal distress, and immune system damage. A study
came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirming what we all
know, that genetically modified crops, on average, reduce yield. A
USDA report from 2006 showed that farmers don't actually increase
income from GMOs, but many actually lose income. And for the last
several years, the United States has been forced to spend $3-$5
billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one wants.

"When you were appointed Secretary of Agriculture, many of our mutual
friends--I live in Iowa and was proud to have you as our
governor--assured me that you have an open mind and are very
reasonable and forward thinking. And so I was very excited that you
had taken this position as Secretary of Agriculture. And I'm
wondering, have you ever heard this information? Where do you get your
information about GMOs? And are you willing to take a delegation in
D.C. to give you this hard evidence about how GMOs have actually
failed us, that they've been put onto the market long before the
science is ready, and it's time to put it back into the laboratory
until they've done their homework."

The room erupted into the loudest applause of the morning.

Secretary Vilsack knew at once what kind of crowd he was dealing with.
Or so I thought.

He said he was willing to visit with folks, to read studies, to learn
as much as he possible can. He pointed out that there are lots of
studies, not necessarily consistent, even conflicting. He said he was
in the process of working on a set of regulations and had brought
proponents and opponents together to search for common ground. And he
was looking to create a regulatory system with sufficient assurances
and protections.

At this point in his answer, Secretary Vilsack, who has a history of
favoring GMOs--and even appears to be more pro-GMO than his Bush
administration predecessors--was trying to sound even handed. Then he
made a tragic mistake.

After a slight pause, he added in a warm tone, "I will tell you that
the world is very concerned about the ever increasing population of
the globe and the capacity to be able to feed all of those people."

Moans, groans, hisses, even boos. Not rowdy, mind you. But clearly agitated.

You see, the people in the room were among the top experts at ACTUALLY
feeding the world. They included numerous PhDs who had spent their
careers looking deeply into the issue. Among those present were
several of the authors of the authoritative IAASTD report. The
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and
Technology for Development, is the most comprehensive evaluation of
world agriculture ever. It was a three-year collaborative effort with
900 participants and 110 countries, and was co-sponsored by all the
majors, e.g. the World Bank, FAO, UNESCO, WHO. The behemoth effort
evaluated the last 50 years of agriculture, and prescribed the methods
that were now needed to meet the development and sustainability goals
of reducing hunger and poverty, improving nutrition, health and rural
livelihoods, and facilitating social and environmental sustainability.

And GMOs was not one of those needed methods! It was clear to the
experts that the current generation of GMOs did not live up to the
hype continuously broadcast by biotech companies and their promotional
East Coast wing--the federal government.

In fact, the night before Vilsack addressed the conference, the same
audience heard a keynote by Hans Herren, the co-chairman of the IAASTD
report, during which he reiterated that biotechnology was not up to
the task. And this morning, Hans Herren was in the room when Vilsack
tried to play the feed-the-world card. Bad move.

Perhaps the reaction of the experts this morning will help to jar him
out of his GMOs-feed-the-world mindset. Unfortunately, he is now
deeply immersed in the second of this week's food conferences here in
Des Moines, the World Food Prize. It features the major GMO promoters
from around the world, including Bill Gates (who gives tens of
millions to GMO development in Africa), and top executives of DuPont
and Syngenta. Expect to hear constant chatter about how GMOs are the
solution to world hunger which, unfortunately, may undo any of the
restructuring that this mornings run in with reality may have
awakened.

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