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February 21, 2004 -- CropChoice news --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 percent
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.
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