Jeffrey M. Smith / In the past 20 years, Hawaii has hosted more than 4,500 open-field tests for experimental genetically engineered plants—more than any place in the world. Currently, 169 such tests are under way on corn, sorghum, soybeans, canola and rice. Some of Hawaii’s outdoor trials have involved biopharmaceuticals—plants that are genetically engineered to produce medical supplies, drugs, vaccines and industrial chemicals. The Islands also grow seed for mainland farmers from transgenic crops that are engineered to produce their own insecticides or resist herbicides. So far, the government has approved transgenic varieties of soybeans, corn, canola, sugar beets, zucchini, crookneck squash and papaya, which means that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are widely present in our food supply.

That’s where Jeffrey M. Smith comes in. He’s the founder and director of The Institute for Responsible Technology, and the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating. He’s now in Hawaii promoting his new book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, and the Institute’s Campaign for Healthier Eating in America.

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Why have you devoted your life to this issue? What’s your primary concern here?
Hopefully, it won’t be my whole life. Hopefully we’ll end the dangers of genetically engineered food quickly so we can move on to something else. But what I learned in 1996, just before they introduced genetically engineered foods widely into the environment, was they were doing something with a completely infant science with a primitive technology based largely on unproven or disproved assumptions and they’re going to deploy this technology into the entire food supply and release it into the environment, where we had no way to recall it. I was appalled. GMOs expose the public in a way that no other technology has, in food fed to a billion people. My background is as a communicator and educator. I figured, we need to start getting this information out to people.

The GMO issue is multifaceted. We’ve got multinational corporations trying to control the world’s seed supply. Britain’s Daily Mail reported an estimated 125,000 farmers in India have committed suicide because they were financially ruined by their foray into transgenic cotton. Then we’ve got the environmental issues, like unintentional cross pollination with cultivated and wild plants, as well as an increased use of herbicides, pesticides, water and fertilizers associated with these crops.

With all these hot topics to choose from, why did you decide to focus on food and health concerns?
It was strategic, actually. I was aware of what happened in Europe in 1999. In January of ’99, the biotech industry was still projecting a 95 percent take over of all commercial seeds in the world within five years. They were expecting to basically replace nature. But three weeks after they made their prediction, there was a high profile food scandal related to GMOs that erupted in Europe, and suddenly everyone was buzzing about the potential health dangers. That created a tipping point of consumer rejection. Using GM ingredients became a marketing liability in Europe, and within a single week in ’99, virtually every major food company committed to stop using GMOs.

What are some of the most worrisome health effects?
There are many, but let’s start with one. There’s been just one known human feeding study, and it showed that herbicide-resistant Round-Up Ready genes survived digestion and were present in gut bacteria. We may have compromised our gut bacteria in America and that is not trivial. It’s an important part of our immune system. There’s also the potential for allergens. Studies done on rats show intestinal damage, anemia, depressed immune response, low birth weight, increased infant mortality, organ damage, toxicity and more. Very few animal studies have been done, and they were not long-term feeding studies. Laborers working in fields of cotton reported rashes, asthma, itching, skin eruptions.

Your institute is conducting the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, which is aimed at creating a tipping point here, similar to what happened in Europe. Tell us more about it.
If companies believe they are losing market share and they sense it is a trend, they will change. Just 5.6 million people could change it. We are in a situation where it should be very easy to reach the tipping point. We’re already seeing it happen with rGBH, the bovine growth hormone. Starting about three years ago, consumers said they didn’t want to eat anything from cows injected with rBGH. So one by one, companies have been jettisoning it, including Wal-Mart, Safeway, Starbucks and now Dannon. We’re going to nail the coffin shut on that one. And this was done because people were educated about the health risks. GMOs are successful in the United States only because of consumer ignorance.

If you’re effective in killing the market for transgenics in America, will that serve to increase pressure on developing nations to buy these crops and seeds? The corporations behind them have invested more than $220 billion in this technology. Can we expect they’ll just roll over and give up if they lose the American market?
No, we can’t expect them to roll over. But ending the demand for GMOs in the U.S. will reduce the pressure on developing nations in two ways: A lot export into Europe and they don’t grow GM because their customers won’t buy it. If GMOs are rejected by Americans, it would double their reason for not growing it. Another reason GMOs have survived is because of bullying by the U.S. government. We fund the State Department to push GMOs into African nations.

And if the industry isn’t stopped?
They have over 100 products waiting in the wings, and that includes virtually every fruit, vegetable and grain you might want to eat. And the “terminator technology,” which prevents a plant from making seeds, has not yet been deployed.

Much of the transgenic crop is used in animal feed. Are eggs and meat from these animals tainted?
No studies have been done on the effects of eating animals that have eaten genetically engineered grain. In our campaign to get President Obama to make good on his promise to label GMO products in the U.S., we are trying to close the loophole in Europe’s labeling law, which does not require labeling of animals fed GMO feed.

How can people avoid eating genetically engineered foods?
Junk food is going to be GMO foods. In restaurants, ask what kind of oil they use, as GMOs are often hidden there. Blue corn, red corn and popcorn are not GMO. In the store, you can buy organics, products that are labeled non-GMO and the items in our shopping guide, which can be downloaded for free at www.responsibletechnology.org.

Smith will be speaking on “the dangers of eating genetically engineered foods” at the Waialua Community Association in Haleiwa on 2/22 and Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu on 2/23. Both talks run from 6 p.m.–7:30 p.m.