December 2013

DEFORMITIES, SICKNESS AND LIVESTOCK DEATHS: THE REAL COST OF GM ANIMAL FEED? (PART 2)

Alarming new claims suggest that animals fed on the GM diet are at high risk of health problems – prompting fears over human safety. (Part Two of a two-part article)

By Andrew Wasley

GM "being forced onto farmers"

About 30 million tonnes of GM animal feed is now thought to be imported into Europe each year to feed pigs, poultry, dairy and beef cattle, as well as farmed fish. The UK imports an estimated 140,000 tonnes of GM soya and as much as 300,000 tonnes of GM maize annually for use as animal feed.

In reality, say campaigners, this means that much of the meat and dairy products on sale are now produced from animals fed a GM diet. Much of the soya and maize used is grown in South America, including Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

In the UK, foods containing GM material for human consumption are currently required by law to be labelled. However, human foods derived from GM fed animals – meat, fish, milk and dairy products – do not need to be labelled. This represents a loophole, claim activists, which means consumers could inadvertently be eating GM products.

Peter Melchett comments: "Labelling of all products from animals fed on GM should be legally required throughout the EU. Supermarkets in many European countries are now starting to label products from animals fed on GM."

"It is a scandal that UK supermarkets refuse to give this information to their customers, and instead deliberately keep them in the dark, with, at best, information on their websites and confusing answers to people who call their helplines. We know that people want accurate labelling, and at the moment supermarkets are betraying their customers on this issue."

The Soil Association cites a Food Standards Agency-published poll which found 67% of the public thought it was important for products made from animals fed GM diets to be labelled.

In France, retail giant Carrefour in 2010 launched a labelling scheme to inform customers that animals used to produce foodstuffs have not been fed genetically-modified feed. More than 300 products now come with a “free from GM feed” label after the supermarket giant said polls had found that more than 60% of customers would stop buying products if they knew they were made from animals given GM feed.

Similar schemes are being adopted by other major European food retailers.

In Britain, tensions over the issue were heightened following the announcement earlier this year by four British supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsburys, the Co-op and Marks and Spencer – that they could no longer guarantee that the feed used in their poultry lines would be non-GM, citing their suppliers' apparently increasing difficulties in sourcing non-GM feed.

All said customers would continue to have non-GM options, including organic and certain premium ranges. Waitrose has continued to guarantee a non-GM diet for its poultry, stating that it wants customers to have "choice". 

British farmers are facing a dilemma – accept GM feed or go organic – according to some industry sources, who agree that conventional feed is increasingly becoming more difficult to source at an economically viable price.

They say that although the availability of non-GM feed is disputed (producers organisations in Brazil maintain there is an ample supply of conventionally grown soya but say poor infrastructure at ports has held some shipments up) some major feed supply companies are now only offering their customers GM options, or organic.

"It's a nightmare trying to source non-GM feed," a supermarket source said. "The reality is that trying to source it on the scale needed [by large retailers] is very difficult. The feed companies own the boats, the mills, they control the supply chain."

One UK feed merchant told The Ecologist that GM is now effectively being forced onto farmers: "As a farmer you are constantly under pressure, you are busy, you've got to be good at finance, a good production manager, so when someone offers [GM] feed that's cheaper, it's easy to say yes."

"Not having an option is not good. But when you've got an importer saying GM is fine and that he's not going to bring in [non-GM] a farmer is not likely to go out and source his own."

The merchant said that not all farmers were aware about GM ingredients, and admitted some were not concerned anyway. He said some believed they were the victims of double standards: "'Why can we import GM from the USA or wherever, but are not allowed to grow it here' they say."

One Welsh organic dairy farmer agrees opinions are split: "I've got farming neighbours who are conventional; some are accepting GM with open arms, some don't want it. One milk supplier is not happy at all about GM feed," he says.

Michael Hart, a beef and lamb farmer from Cornwall, and the founder of the Small and Family Farms Alliance, says that he believes there is still demand for non-GM feed but that it is becoming prohibitively expensive. "My local feed merchant says he can get organic, but for conventional non-GM he'll demand more money."

Hart, a prominent anti-GM campaigner, says that since the BSE crisis farmers have become more sceptical about science and about what they are told, and that many have concerns about GM:

"Since 1996 farmers are more market aware and [more aware] of public opinion towards what we do. Is this GM stuff safe to feed my cows? Why do the public say they don't want it? Trust of science, trust of big business has gone."

Although not addressing the GM feed issue specifically, a poll conducted earlier this year by Farmers Weekly and Barclays Bank found that more than 60 per cent of British farmers would grow GM crops if it were legal to do so. The survey tested the opinions of more than 600 farmers across the UK.

Farm evidence "without merit"

Unofficially, one supermarket source admitted that "no one knows" when it comes to the potential health implications of using GM feed. As for whether GM is potentially risky or not, he says, "No-one can really say that one or the other is the case."

However, in formal replies to questions from The Ecologist retailers defended their position. A spokesperson for the Co-operative Group said:

"Since 2003, we have been working with suppliers to achieve greater availability of products from animals fed a non-GM diet. Unfortunately, this position is proving to be increasingly difficult to deliver.

"This is because the amount of non-GM soya being produced is decreasing, there are increasing difficulties in segregating through the soya supply chain and there is an increasing cost to farmers and potentially to customers for non-GM soya."

"All of this has meant that our previously stated position of increasing availability of products from animals fed a non-GM diet is no longer tenable."

The spokesperson said the company will continue to monitor the animal feed supply situation and added: "since this issue broke in the news we have had very few individual complaints and queries, and there has been no impact on sales."

Marks & Spencer said in a statement: "Alongside other retailers, we have written to our suppliers to tell them that we will no longer stipulate the use of non-GM feed in our fresh meat supply chain. This change in policy is absolutely necessary because there is now a much reduced supply of non-GM feed available to UK farmers. As such we can now no longer guarantee that our fresh meat has been fed on a non-GM diet."

Josephine Simmons from Sainsbury's said: "Whilst the latest scientific research and current Government advice is that GM ingredients do not present any risks to human health, we acknowledge the concerns of our customers and do not permit the use of GM crops, ingredients, additives or derivatives in any Sainsbury's own label food, drink, pet food, dietary supplements or floral products, this remains the case."

"We know that some people also have concerns about products from animals whose feed may contain GM ingredients. We therefore offer a choice of products from livestock fed a non-GM diet."

Tesco declined to comment.

The Food Standards Agency said it is "aware of anecdotal reports that pigs in Denmark perform much better when fed with non-GM than GM ingredients. These claims are unproven and they are currently being assessed by the Danish authorities. We look forward to their conclusions, and to the results of formal experiments that are under way in the Danish pig research centre (VSP)."

It added: "Every new GM crop must go through a detailed evaluation and be specifically authorised before it can be marketed. The evaluation covers safety and nutritional quality and is carried out at EU level by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). FSA is confident in the rigour of EFSA's assessments. As a result, the FSA can confirm that any GM food or feed that is authorised in the EU is as safe as its non-GM equivalent."

The body highlighted criticisms of both the Seralini and Carman research.

In a detailed statement, Tom Helscher from the agribusiness giant Monsanto – one of the world's largest producers of GM crops and suppliers of glyphosate, marketed under their well-known Roundup brand – said:

"Product safety and stewardship is a high priority for us and we routinely review studies that relate to our products and technologies. There is a large body of evidence that supports the food and feed safety of commercial GM crops and derived food and feedstuffs."

Helscher said the company were aware of Pedersen's claims but said that "if the allegations had merit, pigs all over Denmark and the US would be having diarrhoea problems, which isn't the case. There is a very robust collection of recent publications that found no negative effect of GM feed on pig health or performance."

He said Carmen's study and its results "are at odds with the long safety records of glyphosate and GM, and contrary to the weight of evidence substantiated by a large body of credible, peer reviewed literature."

"For over a decade, millions of pigs have been fed GM corn and soybean meal without negative impacts on health, reproduction, and growth. To date, there has been no scientific evidence confirming any detrimental impact on the animals or on the products - that is the meat, milk and eggs derived from animals fed GM crops.

"Therefore, the long history of safe use of GM feed is at direct odds with the author's allegations and suggests their findings are without merit."

Helsher said the Seralini study "does not meet minimum acceptable standards for this type of scientific research; the findings are not supported by the data presented, and the conclusions are not relevant for the purpose of safety assessment. Major flaws in the Seralini research have been reported by many reviewers."

Back in Denmark, Ib Pedersen's farm manager informs him that one of his pigs has unexpectedly died – the carcass has been carried out and lies behind the farm buildings, still warm.

Pedersen takes a sharp knife and slices the animal open, blood pouring onto the concrete floor. The intestines and other internal organs, including the stomach – it's full, the feed consumed just hours before is still visible – are pulled out and individually checked for signs of inflammation or other abnormalities.

Nothing unusual, the farmer says. Not this time. – Third World Network Features.

Additional reporting & research: Sarah Stirk & Louisa Michel 

-ends-

About the author: Andrew Wasley is investigations editor of The Ecologist and the Ecologist Film Unit.

The above article is reproduced from The Ecologist, 28 November 2013.

When reproducing this feature, please credit Third World Network Features and (if applicable) the cooperating magazine or agency involved in the article, and give the byline. Please send us cuttings. And if reproduced on the internet, please send the web link where the article appears to twnet@po.jaring.my.

4034/13