People of the Genetically Engineered Corn

Genetically modified foods have entered the North America food chain. Not only is this a human rights violation; Indigenous people feel this is a cultural violation because foods like corn, tomatoes, and potatoes which they have grown for thousands of years, are now pushed onto to local farmers to be grown in Central and Southern American countries. Foods are bypassing informing consumers they are genetically engineered despite substantial reports on their harmful side effects. This is because labelling is optional. An article in CBC almost ten years ago estimated, “as many as 30,000 different products on grocery store shelves as ‘modified.’ That's largely because many processed foods contain soy. Half of North America's soy crop is genetically engineered”.[1] The basic problem is different ontologies held by Indigenous peoples and western interests. There are other companies, councils, and practices that have such interest in the success of genetically engineered crops – this jeopardizes the sustainability of future generations. Humans will need to recognize their place of the food chain – we are dependant.

When Europeans arrived they discovered that almost as many species of plants were cultivated here as were grown by all the agriculturists in Europe and Asia combined. The central Andes have the greatest ecological density in the world, within 200 kilometers; it is possible to find 80% of the zones of natural life that scholars have proposed for the world.[2] One very little known fact and cultural violation that gets little attention or credit is the contribution Indigenous peoples have made to the culinary revolution of the world. The Columbian Exchange transferred not only diseases and metals, but new world foods to the old world. Foods that are now culinary centerpieces in countries like Hungary (paprika), Italy (tomatoes), Ireland (potatoes), Thailand (peanuts and pineapples) and India (chili peppers) all were introduced through the Columbian Exchange. Additionally, sweet potatoes, vanilla, and maize are also now universal foods; tobacco was used as a currency in trade worldwide; the commercialization of rubber; the improved cultivation of old world crops in the new world are further direct results. New World plant Quinine has medicinal effects that combat malaria; it is standard view that Europe’s colonization of Africa, and the slave trade, wouldn’t have been possible without quinine.[3] Today, the beef, pork, and soy industries are a massive consumer of fresh water. Locally, a negative impact of the hog industry in Manitoba is the polluting of Lake Winnipeg in the Interlake region. On top of Manitoba Hydro’s controlling of water levels, (which is nullifies the role of marshes) the combination of capitalism and European livestock practices are killing the lakes. 

This fits into Dr. Kulchyski`s lecture and his position on resource development, the conquest is not over.[4] According to multinational company Monsanto Canada`s website, its head office here in Winnipeg and farms all across Manitoba and Canada are using Monsanto products. According to the book, Farmageddan: Food and the Culture of Biotechnology, (1997)  Monsanto social construct of biotechnology provides the ideological foundation on the basis of which genetic and pharmacological engineering can hold out hopes for salvation that social engineering and politics have abandoned. Monsanto takes their advertising on step further to align itself as the saviour of the world using the logo “food-health-hope” in an attempt to place itself alongside the holy trinity: father, son, and holy spirit or the tripartite principles of peace, order, and good governance. Monsanto defines biotechnology as the science of changing the genetic makeup of seeds that grow our foods to add new benefits (p.31). This is the same thinking that suggests infant formula can be supplemented in place of breast milk.

            Monsanto has been making friends in high places; one such ally is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA allows Monsanto to sell milk to the public without their knowledge, consent, or labelling. This milk has been treated with rbGH shortly after 1985 and the controversy that ensured, dairy industry reps and drug company executives met and agreed it would be helpful to have articles published in reputable journals explaining how sound all the science and approval processes have been  (p .42 -78).[5]  Health Canada is also in on the scheme which will be detailed in latter part of essay.

            The key that unlocks the door to the global market for Monsanto is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Where has Monsanto made inroads? - From the chapter, Genetic Pollution of Mayan Corn by Suzanne York, in the textbook Paradigm Wars, the author states Mexico has a 5000 year old gene pool which includes thousands of varieties and plant relatives specific to each region. This reflects agriculture genius, adapted to soil, climate pests, and other local conditions. People of Mexico are tied to land and food, believing they are made from corn. It came as shock but to little surprise when indigenous communities detected the genetically engineered (GE) corn shortly after the NAFTA was ratified a few years earlier.

The Bt gene is the believed to be the source of the contamination through interbreeding of local corn with Bt corn. The Bt corn designed to kill the corn root worm. In a 2002 testing, 35 percent of tested maize varieties had GE contamination. This poses a threat to the survival of the varieties of maize harvested in the global homeland over millennium. 35 to 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. Among the multiple problems is the government subsidized corn is cheaper than the non subsidized Mexican varieties. The Biosafety Law, also referred to as the “Monsanto Law”, was passed under the questionable authority of a newly formed Biosecurity Consultative Council which exempts companies from any liability for genetic pollution caused by their seeds.

The role NAFTA played was by demanding that Mexico break up the traditional communal land-ownership system for their participation in NAFTA. Mexico went from corn producer to importer. Ten thousand years of health benefits from maize for all humankind is up against the government representatives word that there is no evidence that GE corn is bad for you. Further yet, corporations can patent the seeds that Indigenous farmers have grown for generations, forcing them to then buy them back from them or starve altogether. These practices are not only destroying their lives and cultures, but threaten biodiversity and Indigenous farms with 1000’s of years of methods and knowledge.[6] Contamination through interbreeding is the biggest threat to the global food supply, and a human rights violation.

Food practices have changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 10,000. Just what are some of the effects of consuming genetically modified foods? According to French study released, “In rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto's genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company's popular Roundup herbicide, rats developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage”.[7] From the book, Genetic Roulette, rats fed Bt corn for 90 days had multiple health problems. They showed significant changes in their blood cells livers and kidneys which might indicate disease (p.26). Further rats fed GM FlavrSavr tomato for 28 days got bleeding stomachs, and several died (p.24). Scientists have criticized the creating of resistant seeds is counterproductive, there is no genetic uniformity in nature, there will be survivors. In three years, species will develop immunity.[8]

Ethics and practices like genetically engineering foods is also another cultural violation. The stark difference is opposing ontologies. The spiritual relationship that Indigenous people have to food and the land is explained thoroughly in the book, Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community, (1997). In the chapter, Andean Cosmovision and the Nurturing of Biodiversity by Julio Valladolid and Fredrique Apffel–Marglin, the concept of improved farming practices and sustainable development is put up against peasant farming methods harvested over centuries. PRATEC (Andean Project of Peasant Technologies) was founded in 1987 by researchers who spent their life working for the development projects and brought the green revolution to the countryside. All of native peasant background, the researchers devoted themselves to delivering this belief to help their people. They came to the slow realization that sustainable development was the problem.

After recognizing that sustainable development itself is the problem and a foreign import, the researchers started to decolonize themselves. The reason they quit their job was because they were becoming agents of the state. The world view of Andean Farmers and relationship to the ecosystem is far different than western practices. To the peasant farmers, the relationship has names indicating their ontology. The ayllu is a local group of related persons, and non humans the pachu. PRATEC stresses the importance of chakra, the peasant’s field.

Western anthropologist Enrique Mayer has criticized PRATECs work as something he finds to lack scientific credibility. This viewpoint which is shared by the larger society, ultimately failing to see other ontology’s and epistemologies that PRATEC strives to articulate. The problem is science is founded on a clear separation and opposition between humans and nature. Conversing with the wind, water rocks, ect. - is all viewed of a supernatural beliefs held in the westernized minds of the people. The material void is devoid of spirits or any metaphysical aspect.

Anthropologists, who base their beliefs in a narrow science based perspective, also have their own critics. Those opposed to the field of linear thinking science have argued that it is in fact impossible to separate the metaphysical. Even the quantum physicists, have established that the world is all interconnected, right to the anthropologist and the experimenter themselves. The term anthropocentrism is the assertion that only humans will matters, that the only actor is man. The phrase, ‘we were never modern, we just dreamed we were’, is expressed in the process of deluded ourselves to thinking we were creating an amnesia that our nonhuman companions were just inert objects. Over the course of establishing PRATEC, they rejoined their hearts and souls to their minds. Over the course of de-professionalizing themselves, they now walk through the chakras and learn from the peasants how to see and feel with Andean eyes and heart again (p. 639 – 670). [9]

These great projects are not isolated to South America; First Nation communities in the United States and Canada are also taking back food sovereignty.  According to Dr. Winona Laduke’s lecture on Food Sovereignty, factors need to be considered are different ontologies, for example the calendars. First Nations people have 13 months with 28 days, in sync with the moon rather than Roman Gods.[10]  Her project, White Earth Land Recovery Project, Onaway's basic practical objective is to provide seed grants to Native American organisations whose aim is to increase indigenes' self-esteem through self-sufficiency initiatives. This finds an ideal home with the Ojibway, Indian. White Earth Land Recovery Project which has connected the community, specifically the children with the land, the language, and history of their peoples growing practices. Native Harvest is a store and economic development spinoff, language revival is done on the land. Children learn the language on the land, working with food and planting seeds. This is a pathway to knowledge between children and elders, restoring communication methods.   "Our land is Mino-Aki (good land) whose biodiversity is essential to the health and spiritual well-being of our people”. White Earth Land recovery Project protects the biodiversity of food.[11]

This got me thinking it would be nice if we trained kids in Keeseekoowenin to a similar project, have it part of the school curriculum. I feel our community, while battling social ills, has the potential. My mom remembers her mom garden, it had everything – carrots, potatoes, rhubarb, and I remember snacking on rhubarb and sugar. I remember her picking chokecherries in Riding Mountain, saskatoon`s with my aunties.  In Keeseekoowenin, community elder and keeper of Medicine Eagle Woman Camp, Audrey Bone has said that, "medicines can come to you or someone through dreams or when spirits can talk to you." Audrey goes to 61A where she picks medicines and conducts ceremonies where she feels a great connection to our traditional roots. "The difference between western and modern medicine is that a lot of people are getting their traditional names now at the camp when there was a time when that never used to happen. Now people are bringing their kids to the camp to receive their names which will intern will help them in their life. A traditional name gives them a sense of who they are and how they are connected to the spirits. This is something we are bringing back slowly due to the colonial effects of residential school taken our traditional aspects away. It puts them on direction that they take could take in life." Audrey recalls learning about medicines from McKay Blackbird when she was a child.

I asked Audrey what she believed getting the traditional land (61A) back meant to Keeseekoowenin Band. She said, "gaining back way of life holistically, meaning physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It’s beneficial to the way we eat, and for healing ourselves." Audrey operates a camp called Medicine Eagle Women’s camp in (61A) Clear Lake. Audrey says "we teach them medicines, share information and all sickness that are high in community, we have medicines for them.” Audrey also said that the park should be kept natural, and used in traditional way always so that future generations can enjoy the park as our ancestors once did. Our ancestors used to walk and pick berries and medicines at Clear Lake where they would also set up camp and hunt.[12] In Keeseekoowenin the relationship to the land is important, that relationship was disrupted in 1930. Keeseekoowenin was the last community to be forcibly removed from a national park in Manitoba. The relationship to the land is important, the [sahikan] lake has a spirit [manitouak], and it comes from the mountain, that’s why it is so clear - that relationship and understanding needs to be restored. Indigenous people worldwide share this view. We are disconnected from the production of food, and joy of eating. We are planting a time bomb in the bodies of children around the world. [13]

 The University of Winnipeg (U of W) has been instrumental to preserving and passing on knowledge. U of W Doctoral Professor and respected elder Tabasonakwut Kinew has repeatedly said we need to get these teaching down to pass on to next generation. The key to unlocking the knowledge is done through unlocking and learning the language.  What are alternatives? Tabasonakwut Kinew has encouraged practices and beliefs should be taught. He questioned who is going to do our marriages – what is the four day final journey? Suggested students write a letter to Lloyd Axeworthy to ask that courses be taught. It can teach land based practices such as plucking a goose, snaring rabbits, picking sweetgrass, making medicines. Teach a philosophical worldview, Nin(gitima)giz - I am pitiful/poor. This is not a defeatist attitude; tt is recognizing and respecting our human role at bottom of food chain. [14] Another option is to develop a food sovereignty project, like White Earth Land Recovery Project, works hand in hand with language revival.

Visiting professor at U of W, Dr. R.N. Pati gave a presentation on the Juang, the Forest Dwelling Tribe of Orissa near Kendujhar in east India focussing on their intellectual property, rights, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and their Indigenous rights to territories. He said Tribal peoples make up 8% of population in India, development focuses on customary rules that strive for peaceful co-existence. The principle of reciprocity governs the values of the tribal peoples. The principle of duality was explained that water represents male, earth represents female.  Another key concept is the principle of equilibrium. Ecology and human health are intertwined - Festivals respect the symmetry with environment; and the principle of reciprocity was repeatedly stressed.

 The Juang as people live, hunt and farm collectively - one clan. They also live on hill slopes, practices are slash and burn agriculture, shifting cultivation. Biodiversity conservation among Juang villages has objectives to conserve biodiversity in hill villages. Key concepts are [1] Sustainable use and [2] Equitable access to resources. The project objectives are the empowerment of Self Help Groups [SHGs] - they have a home herbal garden, manure preparation, and medicinal plants are cultivated. It is key to incorporate children in the school effort - they cultivate honey. Livelihood activities include raising goats, cattle, and pigs. In the local markets, there is pottery, they collect water from streams. The balance prevents haves and have not’s. Medicinal plants and aromic plants have protected habitats, water harvesting is very important. Buying and planting the selected plants on the four rented lands from different plants. They have workshops on entrepreneurship, providing information and training for the use of internet technology – in particular, the creation of website helps spread group’s message. Hair oil and massage oil are harvested and contributed to the preservation of biodiversity. However, communities receive no compensation for bio prospecting.[15]

So just what can consumers do today to inform themselves about avoiding genetically engineered foods and fight back? Besides avoiding McDonald’s french fries and seedless grapes, Greenpeace has put out a consumer’s guide. In the How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food List: a Shopper’s Guide by Greenpeace, one company in particular stands out ignoring the wishes of consumers to label products containing genetically modified foods: Loblaws. In addition, Loblaws also owns No Name and Presidents Choice brands which make up more than 1100 retail stores operating and carrying unidentified genetically modified foods. The shopper’s guide serves as a starting point to check ingredient lists for foods made with soy, corn, canola, and cotton. These four crops account for nearly 100 of genetically engineered crops grown in North America. Many of today’s foods are made readily available to consumers here in Canada. Protestors gathered in front of Loblaws to protest against the soft regulations that make labelling genetically modified ingredients optional for companies, 95% of people who participated in survey want products labelled.[16]

The reason why this is not a bigger issue here in Canada is unclear, but optional labelling has played quite a role. At least 35 countries have adopted mandatory labelling for any product that has been genetically modified, animal feed containing GMOs will also have to be labelled. Canada has not; a free vote in Parliament Oct. 17, 2001, defeated a bill by Liberal MP Charles Caccia. His private member's bill, C-287, would have required mandatory labelling of genetically altered foods. Health Canada has taken the position that GM foods are just as safe as conventional foods. According to a 1999 Environics poll, 80 per cent of Canadians want GM foods to be labelled. Greenpeace Canada says that number is closer to 95 per cent.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says the industry faces huge losses if mandatory labelling is implemented. The fear is that consumers will see the labels as a warning and avoid these foods; labels will increase the price of foods produced and processed in Canada.[17] Optional labelling keeps the masses ignorant.

In conclusion, the basic problem is economics and politics are overriding good ethical morals that we seem to preach about in other forums, such as human rights, the charter of rights and other instruments of good governance. There is enough food in the world to feed people; it is the methods of distribution and all mighty dollar that influence actions however. What will be the effects 20 years from now of genetically modified food? The biggest issue for our children’s generation will be the foods they eat. It’s in everything, the condiments, soups, tomatoes and pasta sauces, salad dressings and cooking oils, snack foods, especially the potato and tortilla chips. The messing around of plants and animals is likely to share the same fate as Indigenous people did shortly after contact with Europeans. The effects diseases had on the Americas population, is the same thing is happening to the biodiversity of plant, food, and animal species now.

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[1] "CBC News Indepth: Genetic Modification." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/ (accessed December 3, 2012).

[2] Grim, John. Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001. P. 640. (Accessed October 25^th, 2012).

[3] Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas. Journal of Economic Perspectives. Volume 24 number 2. Spring 2012. Pages 163-188. Accessed 10 November 2012 at: http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/Nunn_Qian_JEP_2010.pdf

[4] Kulchyski, Peter. "Conflict and Resource Development." Class lecture, Indigenous Peoples, Land and Natural Resources from University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, November 26, 2012.

[5] Kneen, Brewster. Farmageddon: food and the culture of biotechnology. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 1999.

 

[6] Mander, Jerry, and Victoria Corpuz. Paradigm wars: indigenous peoples' resistance to globalization. New expanded ed. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books; 2006. P.145-152 (accessed October 12, 2012).

[7] French Study Finds Tumor and Organ Damage in Rats Fed Monsanto Corn. Accessed 9 November 2012 at: www.truth-out.org

[8] Smith, Jeffrey M. Genetic roulette: the documented health risks of genetically engineered foods. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes! Books, 2007.

 

[9] Grim, John. Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001. (Accessed October 25^th, 2012).

[10] Laduke, Winona. "2012 Dodge Lecture - Winona LaDuke - Food Sovereignty, Biopiracy, and the Future - YouTube." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un1hx-n5Pcc (accessed October 25, 2012).

[11] Laduke, Winona. "White Earth Land Recovery Project." http://www.onaway.org/indig/ojibwe.htm (Accessed 28 October 2012).

 

[12] Bone, Audrey. Interview by author. Personal interview. Keeseekoowenin FN, Manitoba. April 10, 2009.

[13] Patel, Raj. “Conclusion”. Stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world food system. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House Pub., 2008.

[14] Kinew, Tabasonakwut."Class lecture", Pathways to Indigenous Knowledge from University of Winnipeg. Winnipeg (accessed September10, 2012.

[15]Dr. R.N. Pati."Class lecture", International Indigenous Rights from University of Winnipeg. Winnipeg (accessed November, 2012.

[16] Greenpeace: Beware the Frankenfood. Accessed 10 November 2012 at: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/environment/environmental-protection/greenpeace-always-bearing-witness/beware-of-frankenfood.html

[17] "CBC News Indepth: Genetic Modification." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/ (accessed December 3, 2012).