Will posted today on his blog Willtaft, that higher food prices will directly and indirectly contribute to agribusiness profits, and erode public resistance to GE crops. You can find his post here.

Perhaps I am just trying to find the silver lining in a serious global problem, but I really think that the food shortage and rising food prices will support our movement.

First of all, this crisis is proof that the biotech industry has not delivered what they promised. CBC’s “As it Happens” today interviewed one of the chair people from the world conference on food security (sorry, no podcast so no reference). In their report, they singled out organic agriculture as the way to ensure food security in the future. The interviewee referred to the fact that GE soy crops actually yield lower than conventional soy crops (edit: this is supported by this new study, and this old study).

Second of all, the reason mega-agribusiness exists today is because it is so hard for a small family farm to compete using traditional methods. Their margins are so narrow, that they often end up having to sell their farm. Many independent family farmers in Canada are finding that as people focus more on eating local, they are finally able to make farming a sustainable business financially. If we look only at the economics of it, an increase in the price of grain will mean that farmers that don’t use the major inputs that are increasing in price (GE seed, fertilizer), they end up with larger margins.

Finally, even if the cost of organic and conventional/GE (there is not a strong enough market for non-GE crops in Canada for there to be market price for non-GE) foods increased by the same amount, the organic food gains the competitive advantage. Bbrian017 posted a comment on Will’s post saying that the cost of a bag of pasta increased from $1 to $2. I am assuming that that was the cost of a bag of conventional pasta, so imagine organic pasta was $1.50, and now it is $2.50. Before you had to justify spending 33% more to buy organic, whereas now you only have to pay 20% more.

While I definitely disagree with using food crops to produce biofuels, and the rising cost of food is a global crisis, I believe that it will push some of those fence-sitters into the non-GE camp.

My company, GE-Free Solutions, has finally launched, and received an excellent show of support at EPIC last weekend. Not only did we have 400 people sign a petition declaring that they would eat non-GE foods if they were available, but we also had a number of companies show great interest in becoming certified.

GE-Free Solutions works with companies to help them remove genetically engineered ingredients from their products, and certifies those products at non-GE once they meet the standards. We have had great interest from companies in a range of industries from soap and aromatherapy to juice and food producers and restaurants.

Why is there a need for a non-GE certifier? First of all, our readers already know what is wrong with GE food. Second of all, it is very challenging for a consumer to know what is GE and what is not, so it is in the best interest of consumers to have products labeled. Finally, self-declaring that a product on GE-free is a process than many businesses do not have the capacity to do. The business must wade through a 23 page document to see what they can and cannot do in terms of labeling non-GE, and then set up a verification system. GE-Free Solutions provides all the services a business needs to become GE-free, and works to raise awareness of the dangers of GE foods on behalf of the certified companies, and for the benefit of Canadian consumers.

For more details about GE-Free Solutions, see our website.

By us, of course, I mean the myself and the readers of this blog: health-conscious consumers who generally eat organic and local food. Yesterday the Globe and Mail plastered “why grocery bills will soar” in larger-than-normal type face across the front page (you can also find the article online). Paul Waldie, the author, wrote that Canada will see food prices rise dramatically because oil prices are hitting record levels and will continue to rise, and because the cost of fertilizer has doubled in the last year…

You probably already get where I am going with this. Local food is not greatly impacted by the cost of oil, with the exception of farmers operating costs, and organic farming doesn’t use fertilizer. If anything, the rising cost of oil and fertilizer means that organic, local farming will be able to compete with conventionally grown, or even genetically engineered and imported crops, dollar-for-dollar. Now if only the government cared more about consumers than mega-agribusiness, they might provide financial support for farmers who want to switch to organic farming.

What is xenotransplantation?

Xenotransplantation is the use of non-human organs in humans. Most commonly this means using pig organs. The pigs are often genetically engineered with human genes, grown to adult size, and then their organs are harvested for implant into humans.
This technology is still in the experimentation stage, but many scientists are excited about the possibility of solving the organ shortage with this process. It is illegal to do clinical trials in Canada, but they are being done in other countries like Mexico (with the support and funding of Canadian doctors and organizations).

Why is wrong with xeno?
Genetically engineering pigs with human genes is inherently dangerous. Genetic engineering produces unpredictable and hard-to detect side effects. Even if the pigs are raised in total isolation, what do you do with the carcases once they are dead? What about their excrement? We simply have no idea what effect they have on the bacteria, what will happen with the DNA and novel proteins, what might happen if another animal (or human) ingests the pig meat with human genes.

By far the most serious risk from xenotransplantation is the risk of novel diseases. Retroviruses are diseases which are suppressed in the DNA, and do not affect the host, and cannot be transmitted. They are dormant. Most organisms have retroviruses in their DNA. The fear is that when a pig organ is implanted into a human, a pig retrovirus could infect the human host. This is not only a problem for the human who receives the transplant, but for the human race, since the virus could be transmitted to other humans.
HIV is a primate retrovirus that spread to humans.

For further reading:
http://www.crt-online.org/wrong.html

Not for the faint of heart:
http://www.xenodiaries.org/