Reversing European attitudes won’t be easy. A jury acquitted former Greenpeace supremo Lord Melchett and cohorts last September even though they admitted destroying a crop of experimental maize. A recent poll reported that 64 percent of British shoppers would prefer to buy food made from animals fed only non-GM diets. Says Paul Muys, a spokesman for the EuropaBio trade group, “Experience has taught us not to be overenthusiastic.”
Most of the known risks are small. If, say, Monsanto’s Round-up Ready gene, which makes soybean plants resistant to herbicides, manages to spread to weeds, it would be a nuisance and probably nothing more. But what if, for instance, the pollen of bioengineered corn, laden with pesticides, drifts over to milkweed, the food of the monarch butterfly? “I don’t think we’re talking about wiping out a whole species,” says John Losey, an entomologist at Cornell University whose studies show that the pollen would kill monarchs. “The risks are hard to get a handle on.”
Scientists have a better grasp of the risk to people. Allergies are the biggest problem: say you put a peanut gene into wheat, causing somebody to have an allergic reaction to breakfast cereal. Strict labeling regulations, such as those the European Parliament is expected to consider in April, might require the cereal maker to list peanuts as an ingredient, even if only a peanut gene is present. And there are upsides to GM food. If a crop produces its own pesticide or herbicide, no spraying is needed. Of course, you still end up eating chemicals, but gene-induced ones are more likely to be harmless.
A strict cost-benefit analysis is probably not what sways most Europeans against GM foods. They just don’t trust the food industry. A few years ago agriculture companies introduced GM foods with none of their present humility, and virtually without debate. “The regulations have almost followed the products,” says Susan Davies, a policy analyst at Consumers’ Association in London. Europeans may eventually acquiesce to GM foods, which they probably will eventually, many people suspect their choices of what to eat will only get narrower. “People fear a lack of alternatives,” says Rebecca Goldburg, a biologist at the Environmental Defense Fund. “What happens when farmers who don’t want to plant [GM foods] can’t get non-transgenic seeds because nobody makes them anymore?” In return, Europeans at least appear to be gaining the regulatory control they wanted from the beginning.
