Genetic Engineering - Controlling the Very Fabric of Life

Is that tomato just a tomato, your lettuce just lettuce, soy just soy? If it's not certified organic, then probably not. The tomatoes used in your tomato sauce may contain genes from the blood of a flounder so it can survive the cold, the lettuce in your salad a gene from a rat to "enhance" the flavor, the soy in your tofu dish a gene that works in conjunction with the toxic herbicide Roundup. These foods have been genetically engineered.

It is estimated that from 60-70% of what you buy in the grocery store contains genetically engineered ingredients. Did anyone ask you if you wanted these ingredients in your food? Are there labels on them so that you can make an informed choice? Do you know what you are eating, or what you are feeding your family?

I think the best way to explain the intricacies of this radical new technology is with a quote by an environmentalist and naturalist, John Muir:

"If you reach out and grab a hold of some part of nature - and give it a little tug, you discover that that part is connected to everything else in the universe." This applies to our environment, our own physiology, or to the subtlest level - even the inner workings of the cell.

That's where genetic engineering operates - at the level of the cell. Genetic engineers work off of the premise that genetic engineering is a precise introduction of one single new gene into a target organism that then gives rise to one new change. But this model does not work - because of what John Muir told us - and because of what we all know from our own experience. Life is not this little set of isolated boxes, but is an interconnected, lively, rich fabric. That if you change one thing here, you are also going to alter a myriad of other elements of that living thing and the ecosystem. This is what's been forgotten with genetic engineering.

Taking a gene from one organism and splicing it into another, in many cases crossing even plant-animal natural reproductive barriers, is not the same as natural reproduction. What researchers are doing with genetic engineering is intentionally breaking down the genetic barriers put in place by nature over millions of years.

When you think about genetic engineering you immediately can see that the industry is not co-creating with nature the best possible solution for providing the best possible foods for a growing population. Instead, biotechnology looks to control, to manipulate, to dominate nature in such a way that is inherently dangerous. The scientists are so preoccupied with whether they can do it that they have not really stopped to ask themselves whether they should do it or to consider the consequences of their actions.

What can you do? The Colorado Genetic Engineering Action Network is working to educate the people of Colorado. Learn as much as you can and talk with others about this issue. Visit our website, call us for an informational packet, volunteer to help in our campaign. But most of all, buy, eat and grow certified organic foods. Sustainable, organic agriculture is the only way that we can produce the healthiest, most abundant foods. Only by working in harmony with nature can we provide for ourselves and for our future.

Patrick West

Director, Colorado Genetic Engineering Action Network (COGEAN) - www.foodlabeling.org, 303-215-3384; State Chairman, Natural Law Party of Colorado - www.natural-law-colorado.org, 720-562-8503; Candidate, US House of Representatives District 2