Science, international policy and law bumped heads Tuesday night
at the UCLA School of Law as a group of panelists debated issues
related to genetically modified foods.
A panel of genetic, environmental and international law experts
visited UCLA as guests of the Evan Frankel Environmental Law and
Policy Program and the UCLA Institute of the Environment.
The aim of the panel was to discuss issues related to GM foods,
such as food safety and the role of international organizations in
regulating GM foods.
The panel began with an introduction by Norman Abrams, interim
dean of the law school, who talked about the contentious nature of
issues surrounding GM foods.
The following debate centered on the scientific validity of the
safety of GM foods.
A GM food is food with genetically altered makeup. Usually the
alteration results in an enhanced characteristic, such as
resistance to pesticides.
Robert Goldberg, UCLA professor of cell, molecular, and
developmental biology, said he favors producing and consuming GM
foods.
Over the 20 years that Goldberg has worked with GM foods, he has
constructed thousands of genetically modified plants in his
laboratories.
Goldberg said as the world’s population increases, only an
effective means of producing large amounts of food, such as
bioengineering food, can sustain the population.
“In the next 50 years we will need to produce more food
than in the whole of human history,” he said.
Goldberg added that society should not worry about the safety of
GM foods, as genetic engineering is a 20-year-old technology and GM
foods are the most tested plants in history.
In contrast to the views Goldberg presented, UC Berkeley
Professor Miguel Altieri argued that GM foods are unsafe to humans
the environment.
Altieri has worked in the field of agroecology for many years
and spent time working with and learning from rural farmers in
South America.
The expansion of monolithic agriculture ““ where farmers
use all of their acreage to farm a single crop ““ has led to a
decrease of biodiversity.
Corporate farmers who can afford to utilize genetic engineering
technology and farm just one crop do so at the expense of rural
farmers who cannot afford it, Altieri added.
“Two hundred nineteen farmers lose their jobs every day
because they can’t compete,” Altieri said.
Legal battles between Europe and the United States over trade
restrictions of GM foods and the extent of the World Trade
Organization’s obligation to regulate the food were also
discussed by the panel.
While some audience members walked away from the event saying
they found it informative and worthwhile, others said they were
disappointed.
“I came away with a highly disturbed feeling since four
out of five panelists were pro-GM foods … it was not
balanced,” said Tom Francis, a member of the audience and
surrounding community.