Bayer: Contaminated Rice & Pain Relief
Contaminated Rice and Pain Relief
By Arty Mangan
Bioneers Blog, Posted on September 5, 2006
Straight to the Source
Recently the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, holding a handful of contaminated rice at a press conference said, don't worry, be happy.

That's obviously not a quote, but my interpretation. He actually announced that U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become contaminated with a genetically engineered variety not approved for human consumption. He also asserted that the rice poses no threat to human health or the environment.

His assurance of no health risk is based not on scientific testing, but rather on the theoretical assumption of substantial equivalence. The unfounded theory of substantial equivalence says that a gene found harmless in its natural genetic environment, which is then transferred via GE to a new organism, is presumed to be safe in the new GE organism; therefore, no health or safety testing is required. The problem is it's a flawed theory that completely ignores the dynamic and evolving nature of genes and their almost uncountable relationships with tens of thousand of other genes.

When asked where the contaminated rice came from or to what extent the contamination occurred, Mr. Johanns couldn't provide answers. Don't worry, be happy.

Perhaps there are other factors that feed Mr. Johanns' confidence, like the fact that the producer of the GE crop that contaminated much of US rice supply was the trusted brand Bayer, the folks who have provided us with aspirin and other products for decades. Bayer, whose slogan is "working wonders everyday", has a "rich" and interesting history.

Founded in Germany in 1863, Bayer merged with two other companies to form IG Farben, which was involved in producing gases used in Hitler's death camps.

In 1999, Brian Ross of ABC News reported that recently discovered documents link Bayer to the Nazi experiments conducted at Auschwitz. Also in 1999, Bayer was charged in a class-action lawsuit with conspiring with Nazi doctor, Joseph Mengele, to conduct human experiments on concentration camp children for profit.

But don't worry that was a long time ago. What's important is what "wonders" Bayer has been working on more recently?

In 1998 they did human pesticide testing in Scotland telling at least some of the subjects that what they were drinking was a drug not a pesticide. The purpose of those tests were to provide data to US EPA to allow a lesser safety standard for the pesticide Azinphos-methyl, a chemical related to nerve gas developed during World War II. Azinphos-methyl is classified by the World Health Organization as "highly hazardous".

Bayer lobbied the Bush administration to allow human tests of pesticides as part of the EPA review, which had been disallowed by previous administrations. The Bush administration proposed new rules authorizing experiments on humans with pesticides and other chemicals, which even allowed some testing on children. It comes as no surprise that the Bush people, who readily ignored the Geneva Conventions in regards to torture, have a different way of looking at these kinds of things.

The perverse irony of the Bush administration's decision is that banning human testing of chemicals and pesticides originated with the Nuremberg Code, http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/011128a.asp which was a result of the Nuremberg "doctor trials" of Nazis during World War II the same trials that Bayer took part in. The Nuremberg Code established ethical standards for human testing which included voluntary informed consent of the subject, weighing the risk against the expected benefit, avoiding unnecessary pain, suffering and injury, etc.

According to the Pesticide Action Network of North America http://foodandfarming.bioneers.org/www.panna.org/campaigns/caia/corpProfile sBayer.dv.html website, Bayer produces some of the world's most toxic pesticides. Bayer and the companies they have purchased or merged with have contributed to the poisoning of Peruvian children, a chemical explosion in Madagascar, the genetically engineered StarLink corn disaster, and they are responsible for 24 superfund sites. This is only a partial list. In other words Bayer has a rap sheet that would make Hannibal Lecter blush.

I'm not saying that the rice contamination is on a par with Bayer's past transgressions, but the fact is we don't really know what the long-term consequences are. There is a history unique to Bayer; and there is a way of thinking and pattern of doing business that disregards human safety, that is not unique to Bayer, but which is sadly characteristic of the biotech industry in general. It's one large experiment, without public consent or benefit. And why on Earth is the obsequious Secretary of Agriculture running around with a broom cleaning up after the industry? Is that really what we pay him to do?

The recent rice contamination may cost American rice growers as much as $1 billion, the value of their export market. Japan and Europe have prudently banned U.S. long grain rice due to the contamination. The rice producing states of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California are suing Bayer in a class action suit, following Australian canola growers, whose crops were contaminated by another Bayer product.

So when Mike Johanns and Bayer say don't worry, be happy, and that doesn't assuage your concerns, you may want to contact your government officials at all levels and tell them you are not interested in being a guinea pig for the experiments of Bayer and the rest of the GE gang.

California just preserved local rule by heading off a statewide bill that would have prohibited county bans on GE crops, because people spoke up and put pressure on their government officials. That effort protects the right of local communities to put the experimental technology of genetic engineering through a filter of common sense and precaution.

from http://foodandfarming.bioneers.org/node/54

Arty Mangan is the visionary and organizer of the Bioneers Food and Farming Project and a Board Member of the Ecological Farming Association