The uproar came in the wake of persistent rumours that GM food companies have been leaking experimental GM products onto the market, despite the fact that European Union law dictates that unauthorised GM material is not allowed in foods.

SA backs biotechnology

In South Africa, our government supports biotechnology and Parliament recently passed the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Amendment Bill, which allows for increased acreage of GM crops. We already find genetically modified potatoes, corn, maize, soy and cotton on our supermarket shelves.

Worryingly though, we cannot really be sure what else is out there, since a couple of phone calls revealed that the Department of Agriculture believes food regulation is the responsibility of the Department of Health, and vice versa. The alarm bells also start ringing louder when you take into account that South Africa is one of the United States' top ten markets for rice exports.

So what are GM foodstuffs exactly?

Every living organism is made up of cells and each cell has a nucleus. Inside the nucleus there is DNA, which in turn is made up of genes. But genetic engineering (GE) has made it possible to transfer genes from any one organism to another.

To create a more pest-resistant apple, for instance, scientists may find that a gene from a blowfish can help. And so the make-up of the living cells inside the apple may be fused with that of the fish and become a whole new living cell, or genetically modified organism.

Comparing apples with apples

Back in your local supermarket, however, it’s impossible to tell the difference between a GM apple and a regular one with the naked eye.

One of the main arguments in favour of GM foods is that it will relieve world hunger. The basic premise is that genetically engineered crops can withstand droughts and extreme weather conditions and therefore alleviate the onset of food shortages and famine.

The biggest worry though is that there have been virtually no official studies and no post-release monitoring of GM food on human health, despite some disturbing results from research by non industry-financed scientists.

Are we eating Frankenfood?

According to independent scientists the addition of a single gene to DNA causes one out of twenty other genes to perform differently, writes Jeffrey M. Smith in his book ‘Seeds of deception’. This means that when the gene of a blowfish enters the DNA of an apple, it will modify the genetic make-up of the apple almost entirely.

A British government-funded study conducted by Dr Arpad Pusztai and published in the Lancet medical journal in October 1999 makes for some rather shocking bedtime reading. The study demonstrated that rats fed a GM potato developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, as well as damaged immune systems and organs.

Worryingly, field trials of grapes modified with a gene from E.coli are being planned in Stellenbosch despite there being a reported oversupply of grapes this season. Moreover, according to the local wine industry all GM substances are banned in local and export wine.

Owning the food chain

It’s also fairly sobering to learn how the giant US biotech company Monsanto buys up smaller seed companies and genetically modifies the seeds. ‘The future of food', a documentary about GMOs in the US, explains how these new genes are patented and become the property of the company. This is the cause of an ongoing and emotional international debate about whether it’s ethical to patent and own life.

An Agence France Presse (AFP) report in April this year linked farmer suicides in India to the burden of debt imposed by the cost of Monsanto’s GM cotton seeds. Initially, trial crops gave good results, after which rising prices and failing crops drove farmers to despair. According to the report, nearly 10 000 farmers have committed suicide there since 2001.

But South African farmers seem to favour the new GM crops, a report released in October by the US Department of Agriculture has revealed. The reason? GM crops are easier to manage than natural varieties, need less effort and produce higher yields.

What terrifies environmentalists and farmers worldwide is that when genetically modified crops cross-pollinate with regular crops, the GM gene is dominant. This means that regular crops can turn GM within a season, and if the gene is patented the company who owns the gene controls the crops.

As with many things in life there are no concrete answers. There are, however, more questions. Should we allow a company (or a country) to own the food chain? And why does our government expose us in South Africa to potentially dangerous food? Does that not turn us into lab rats?