Posted 25th June 2001

Testing Times

For Organics Pro-GE in foods companies are continuing to press governments (successfully in the case of Canada) to stop labelling of foods as GE-Free. However, even if the Ideologically Engineered corporates lose the anti-labelling battle, they may win the testing war, asserting not witout cause, that testing is ineffective at ascertaining truth as to genetic purity of food products. This war tactic is a very old one, whereby the invading troops though unable to find and destroy the enemy soldiers will instead round up the women, pollute and dilute the purity of the gene-pool by rape, abduction and reproduction and thus wipe out the race.

The public's concern for genetically modified organisms (GMO) such as seeds and plants have spawned an industry of spot testing for GMOs. Generally, a GMO is a product that looks and tastes the same as the original, but has changes in a gene (or an entirely new gene) that confer some desirable trait, such as resistance to pests or frosts. Testing for GMO is especially important because even farmers who plant non-GMO products and take precautions again contamination from GMOs still may have some GMOs in their shipments. This is because there are many stages in the growing and delivery of food, and contamination can take place any place along the line. Even 1 part in 1000 of GMO product (>0.1%) is considered too much. Theoretically, soybeans are tested multiple times before being labeled as non-GMO. First, the seeds are tested before they are planted. Then they are tested after they are grown in case "cross pollination" makes some of them contain the genes in the GMO products. Just wind or dust blowing from a nearby field could be enough to contaminate the product. They are tested again after the product is picked and stored, in case the tools and equipment used were not cleaned properly and contaminated the product. Another test is performed after shipping the beans on trucks, trains, or boats; if even a few GMO beans were left from a previous shipment, the new shipment will be contaminated.

However, testing is expensive. No matter how often you test, there are thousands of ways for contamination to occur. Testing cannot possibly cover all parts of bins or containers or every bit of a shipment. For example, testing a sample from the middle of a bin may show no contamination, but what if there were GMO seeds at the bottom of the bin, or the side? If everything was tested, there would be no product left! These issues raise an often understated danger of GMOs for food production and health. Even products which are labeled "non-GMO" may have been contaminated with some GMOs, and this could create new plants or other unknown risks to consumers. For example, many retailers have bins of seeds and plant foods. How is the retailer (or the customer) to know which bins contain traces of GMO? How do buyers of seeds (for planting) can be certain that every single seed is OK and that there is no contamination with GMO?

The likely answer is: there is no way to know for sure. There are several ways to test for GMOs. The first is bioassay, usually used on the seeds before they are planted. The farmer plants a sample of seeds (usually 12,000) and sees if they grow after being exposed to one herbicide. Since the GMO seeds carry a gene that makes them resistant to a herbicide, they will grow without any mutations. Non-GMO products will have mutations, such as missing roots. The most widely used method to test for GMOs, used at several stages by farmers in the field, is a strip test called ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). Because it is the easiest and least expensive, many farmers use it to spot test their crops before sending them out for further testing. One ELISA test identifies a protein in GMO soybeans that protects these soybeans from a herbicide. The test can be performed on a part of a plant or a sample of harvested grain or seed, and may detect GMO seeds in quantities < 0.01%. A kit with 100 tests costs ~$600. To perform the test, a farmer simply sticks a test strip into a prepared sample. Within three to five minutes, a "control line" appears to show that the test is complete. If a second line also has appeared on the strip, this means that the sample contains the protein that codes for protection again herbicides. This test is similar to a pregnancy test where a woman pees on a strip; one line means the test was done, and the presence of a second line means pregnancy hormone was detected.

Another ELISA test, the "GMO Check" kit, checks for specific proteins at specified levels and is appropriate for testing food ingredients. A kit containing 43 of these tests costs ~$1000. A more complicated test is DNA analysis of the seeds. Using PCR (polymer chain recognition) technology, the company can check for a promoter (part of DNA that comes directly before the gene) or for the gene itself. This test can detect the presence of GMO and also quantify how many GMO molecules are present. This method takes longer and is more expensive, ~$250/test. If further screening or quantifications are added, the test can cost hundreds more. Although the above tests can detect GMO products, there is no standard for what constitutes a GMO or non-GMO product. Therefore, even if a company claims that its product "contains no genetically modified organisms," there is no definition or regulation of what that means. In the confusion, the pro-GMO slip through and take-over the gene pool.