Caroline Lepczyk
Tuesday, May 28th
Today was the last active day of our May Experience. In the morning we went to the Borlaug Museum,The World Food Prize’s headquarters in Des Moines after which we went to lunch at Zombie Burger before going to the Biocentury Farm in Boone and then to Monsanto in Ankeny. The day was quite interesting, but also very busy.
In the morning when we visited the Borlaug Museum, on the sidewalk out front was a very interesting piece of graffiti. Underneath a skull and crossbones read ‘GMO FOOD TOXIC.’ This warning label applied to the museum because they are avid supporters of both Monsanto and GMOs and received a 5 million dollar donation by the company for their renovation of the museum. The World Food Prize supports GMOs because they do have proof, and belief that genetic engineering of food crops may be able to help us defeat world hunger, and Monsanto is the leading company in genetically engineering crops.
My favorite part of the day was when we visited Monsanto; I had been looking forward to the visit from the very first week. Originally the plan had been to visit in the morning, but the plans were changed so that we visited around 4:30. We talked to lobbyist David Tierney about food production; new vegetables and fruits that carried genetically engineered traits, the trajectory of GE crop production around the world, and the flaws of GMO labeling efforts. After our discussion, we were also given a ‘nickel tour’ of the lab, which was very interesting as we were able to see the new equipment and the how much work the company was able to do.
The company’s main source of concern at this time appears to be the public’s reception of the GMO crops. They are worried that if the legislation which requires genetically engineered foods to be labeled is passed, that the public will elect not to purchase those foods and in turn drive them off of the market. Although they do not believe that GMO foods are dangerous, or have that they have anything to hide, they are worried that the public’s distrust of the new technology will prevent them from purchasing the products I think they’re right. Although in a perfect world it would be nice to know exactly where food comes from and how it is created, it would be incredibly difficult to do this, and without proper education of the public, could result in a negative manipulation of the food market.
This year alone, 26 states saw bills requesting the labeling of genetically engineered food, a two hundred percent increase from the 13 states, which introduced similar bills last year. These bills were most likely instigated both by the labeling initiative now happening in the city of Seattle, which calls for the origins and contents of foods to be listed on the products and the bill introduced (and denied) in California in 2011 which called for the labeling of GMO foods. Although these bills may work in a small city setting such as Seattle, widespread application would be horribly expensive, not only for farmers, but in turn for consumers.