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Food production is an enormous, but necessary task for any society to carry out. Supplying food for millions can prove to be quite a difficult process: crops are routinely threatened by a number of issues, ranging from drought to pests. In recent years however, advances in technology are being put forward as a solution to mitigate many of these problems. One such technology based solution has been the widespread implementation of the genetically modified organism. Genetically modified organisms are organisms whose genetic material has been engineered for a number of reasons, ranging from a natural presence of pesticides, to technology which destroys the seeds after being used only once. Although genetically modified organisms have flourished throughout the United States, their success in other countries has been far more difficult. While American regulative bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration have declared their support for GMOs, many GMOs have been banned in Europe on the grounds of safety concerns. Both sides of the argument claim to have their stance rooted in firm scientific evidence, but have reached dramatically different conclusions. Why is there such a large difference in public policy involving GMOs between the US and Europe? To what extent are these differences driven by economic interests versus health concerns? The stark contrast in the treatment of genetically modified organisms between the United States and Europe has resulted in a heated debate. The charges of genetically modified organisms being a danger to public health require policy makers to analyze this policy carefully. It's important to study the basis of American law as compared to other areas such as Europe, because it can help policy makers shape a more effective policy for the future. Based on thorough research, I believe that public policy in the United States regarding genetically modified organisms is based more so on economic and corporate interests, extensive lobbying, and the cozy relationship which results between biotech firms and US politicians. A Questionable Record The Food and Drug Administration serves as the American consumer's first line of defense against questionable food products. Despite the FDA's claim on their website that they insure the "safety of all food products (except meat and poultry)", their stance on genetically modified organisms is quite odd. The FDA's policy concerning GMOs was passed in 1992, and it requires no special labeling for foods using biotechnology on the basis that as a group, GMOs present no special safety concerns different from the same foods developed from traditional methods (FDA). While the Food and Drug Administration doesn't seem to find much of an issue with the safety of genetically modified organisms, a number of independent studies have raised a number of concerns in this regard. The Institute for Responsible Technology has expressed numerous concerns with genetically modified organisms, including their safety record when tested on lab animals. In a study on the effects of GM foods on reproduction, more than half of the babies of rats fed GM soy died, a much higher rate than the group fed natural soy (Institute for Responsible Technology; pp. 1-2). The male rats who were fed the GM soy were also found to have changed testicles, as well as altered sperm cells. The same study tested a number of different variables regarding GMOs on these pregnant rats. It was found that when the rats were fed GM corn, they had fewer babies that weighed less, the longer they were fed the biotech food. Despite claims that the Food and Drug Administration's decision is based on a large pool of evidence, many independent studies claim otherwise. An independent review of the data presented to the FDA finds that the information which their decision was based on was insufficient. Most of the information was provided by the corporations being reviewed, and that the release of information was not compulsory. As a result, the review of these tests was largely criticized by both the FDA as well as biotech giant Monsanto. Although Monsanto passionately disagreed with the findings, the government of India warmly embraced these results. GMOs are legal in India, partially due to the many IMF programs of the 1980s, but the federal government is becoming increasingly suspicious of the high tech foods (de Vendemois, Cellier, et al; pp 596-597). India's suspicion of GMOs is based largely on their own mixed experience with them. An article in The Hindu, India's national newspaper, reported that a large number of sheep died shortly after feeding on a field of genetically modified cotton. While many tried to attribute the causes to isolated reasons, it was discovered that sheep died in four separate villages, with as many as 25% of those who ate the cotton dying. Autopsies on the sheep suggested high levels of foreign toxins in their bodies (Prasad). Despite original reports that attributed the deaths to the ingestion of the pesticides used on the cotton, a further review found that this was not the case. Dr. P.M. Bhargava, an appointee to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, conducted an internal investigation into the death of the sheep after he discovered contradictory paperwork from the original review (Prasad). Bhargava found that no actual research was done on the consequences of animals using the GM cotton as feed, and went on to recommend that the growing of GM cotton be suspended indefinitely (Prasad). Animals are not the only ones in India who have felt the wrath of GMOs. Once praised as being the cure for India's poverty, genetically modified organisms are proving to be a nightmare for Indian farmers. Foreign biotech giants sold the idea of GMOs to poverty stricken farmers on the basis that the high tech seeds would result in never before seen crop yields. Buying into the hype, many desperate farmers took out massive loans to buy the seeds. A substantial percentage of these farmers had entire crop failures, leading to no possible way to pay off the massive loans. In recent years, over 125,000 farmers have committed suicide, or over 1,000 each month (Malone). GMO critics have labeled the crisis the "GM Genocide", and an entire region of the South Asian country has become known as the "suicide belt" because of this (Malone). The UK's prince Charles has stepped in, labeling the issue of GMOs a "global moral question" (Malone). There are stories of husbands committing suicide and leaving their farms to their wives, only to have their wife commit suicide as well. Despite the fact that almost all of the victims of this wave of suicide were farmers who were in debt because of GMOs, pro GM groups say that the suicides are from other reasons such as poverty and alcoholism. Hungarian chemist Arpad Pustzai agrees with the assessment that there is a strong lack of information on biotechnology. He also states that the small amount of information present is of poor scientific quality, and is conducted by commercial rather than independent scientists. He adds that the different issues which have risen from GMOs should have eliminated before they were approved. Pustzai goes on to reiterate some of the concerns that others have had. Speaking of experiments which show drastic results in lab animals, such as internal bleeding, he states that the consequences for humans could be disastrous (Pustzai; pg 1). As the debate over GMOs rages on, the Food and Drug Administration constantly reasserts its position that there are no safety issues from biologically engineered crops. Documents released because of a lawsuit by the Alliance for Bio-Integrity show that there was heated disagreement among FDA scientists at the time of the 1992 decision. While political appointees expressed support for genetically modified organisms, the scientists investigating the issue were deeply concerned over a number of safety issues resulting from GMOs. The scientists pointed out that there may be a wide array of hard to detect side effects, as well as various allergies and toxins as a result (Smith). Despite the fact that a large percentage of the scientists involved with studying GMOs called for further safety studies before approving their use, the FDA went ahead and approved them. Health is a major concern, but it's not the only area in which many scientists, farmers, and consumers question GMOs. A large body of evidence finds that GMOs may be devastating to the environment in which they're grown. Sandra S. Batie investigated many of the questions over biotechnology and the environment. She found five different areas that GMOs would be a possible problem, consisting of gene flow, insect resistance, non target damage, pesticide use, and what she calls the paucity of knowledge (Batie; pp. 1107-1008). Gene flow is alarming, because of the possibility of some of the foreign genetic matter from GMOs leaping to native non GMO plants. It can last several generations and can be devastating to an ecosystem. Pesticide use is troubling for several reasons. GMOs that are resistant to herbicides like Roundup lead to the widespread use of such chemicals. Using herbicide on such a wide scale means large amounts of pesticides on crops as well as in local groundwater. Non target damage results due to the interference n the natural order of an ecosystem. As pests are refused their normal source of food, the food chain is broken down in unnatural ways. Unfortunately, these are not the only recorded environmental effects on the environment due to GMOs. Biologists find that the use of GMOs has a drastic effect on wild bee populations and their practices of pollination. Lora Morandin and Mark Winston find that while organic crop fields had large amounts of honey bees, GM crop fields had what they referred to as a "pollination deficit." This is largely due to the enormous amounts of herbicide spread among these crops. An artificial decline in the bee population can send ripples though out the ecosystem, and the plants and organisms which live there. It was found that due to the unattractiveness of feeding on the crop fields due to the abundance of herbicide, honey bees instead pollinated hedgerows and various weeds instead (Morandin and Winston; 879). Environmentalists are not the only opponents to genetically modified organisms. Despite the fact that the majority of seeds planted in the United States are the result of biological engineering, like biotech giant Monsanto has become extremely unpopular among many parts of the agricultural community. Although these companies constantly stress that their products are bound to help most farmers, these companies are currently in the process of taking their business partners to court. One of Monsanto's more controversial practices is that of prohibiting farmers who use their seeds from saving any over for the next season. Saving seeds over from season to season is a common practice among farmers around the world. The biotech giant specifically forbids its farmers from doing so by contract. Since 1997, the St Louis corporation has filed 90 lawsuits in 25 states against 147 farmers and 39 agriculture companies (Elias). Most of Monsanto's lawsuits have simply resulted in farmers being forced to stop saving seeds, but there are exceptions to the rule. Tennessee farmer Ken Ralph was found guilty of saving a truckload of cotton seeds and was ordered to 8 months in jail. Despite the fact that Monsanto makes several billions of dollars in profit each year, the court ordered Ralph to pay $1.7 million in reparations (Elias). Monsanto has taken initiative to prevent the need for any future lawsuits against such farmers. Their recent, yet controversial "terminator" technology only produces plants which are sterile. A crop such as tomatoes, for example, would not produce seeds capable of growing future tomato plants (Shand and Mooney). While Monsanto itself did not invent the technology, they do indeed own the patents. Most people would be surprised to find out who the inventor of the technology is no other than the USDA. Invented by molecular biologist Melvin Oliver, the USDA stands to make 5% in royalties off of all sales of the technology (Shand and Mooney). Experts say that the terminator seed technology could hit the American South extra hard. Up to 1.4 million poor farmers in the South depend on the tradition of saving/sharing seeds among other farmers. This method has a wide range of positive effects. Sharing and saving seeds enables farmers to hand select the best strains of seed for future use. While the seeds sold to farmers by Monsanto are often foreign to the area that they're going to grow in, saved and shared seeds are often local strains that are better adapted to that specific region (Shand and Mooney). This news is especially troubling considering that the technology means that biotech firms will most likely spread their area of influence to other crops. Wheat and rice, the two most fundamental crops for roughly three fourths of the world's population, is expected to soon be "up for grabs". Seed companies traditionally avoided these crops because companies had little way of controlling their reproduction. This terminator technology is predicted to be a "foot in the door" for large corporations to control the most important crops around the world (Shand and Mooney). Practices such as "terminator" seed technology has led many, including other biotech firms to accuse Monsanto of attempting to gain a monopoly on the industry. Rival chemical and biotech giant Dupont has filed a complaint against Monsanto which alleges that their practices have resulted in an unfair monopoly. Dupont points out that Monsanto controls 98% of all American soy beans and 79% of all corn (Gutierrez). Not only does Monsanto control the majority of crops themselves, but it then induces farmers into becoming almost entirely reliant on Monsanto's other products. Dupont criticizes the fact that many of Monsanto's products are engineered to be resistant to only one type of herbicide, Roundup (Gutierrez). This method results in a cyclical process which only reinforces Monsanto's position as the dominant company in the industry. As a result of many of these complaints, the Departments of Justice and Agriculture have five separate hearings planned to investigate the company's practices (Gutierrez). Policy in the United States Despite the claims of the Food and Drug Administration that genetically modified foods are completely safe and beneficial to farmers, consumers, and the environment, the studies on the subject prove otherwise. Although the United States government has made strong attempts in most other industries to prevent the formation of monopolies, the field of biological engineering of crops has been relatively immune to this. Given that there are still so many question marks in regard to GM food and the large companies which produce them, the United States' policy in this area seems a bit odd. While they claim that the public's safety is the true cause of the government's stance on GM foods, is this really so? The deregulation agenda of the 1980s set the stage perfectly for the introduction of genetically engineered foods in the United States. While many pro free market reformers claim that consumers would decide what was in the best interest of the country, this outlook has turned out to be very flawed. Unlike in other countries around the world, foods that contain GMOs are not required to have labels stating so in the United States. Consumers are left uninformed as to what they're actually purchasing, and can't protest products that they disapprove of due to a lack of the relevant information. This lack of labeling is extremely different from the approach of countries like Brazil, Argentina, Israel, and many in Europe. GMOs are legal in these countries to different extents, but the consumer is notified of the ingredients of his or her purchase because of federally mandated labels. Despite the federal rules stating that the labeling of these foods is unnecessary, US consumers are shown to be supportive of mandatory labeling of GM foods. Both Harris and Pew polls show that as many as 84% of American respondents in 1999 and 86% in 2000 support the idea of labeling GM foods (Shanahan, Scheufele, and Lee; 272). The Food and Drug Administration states that mandatory food labels are unnecessary because of the "proven" safety record of genetically modified organisms. There could be some other possible reasons for this though. In the notorious documentary "The World According to Monsanto", president George HW Bush was filmed touring one of Monsanto's many facilities with corporate staff. When one of the corporate heads expresses frustration at the difficulties that the biotech firm was having with federal legislation, Bush offers up some support. "Call me. We're in the de-reg business. Maybe we can help," says the 41st president (Smith). This scene took place during the 1980s when Bush was Ronald Reagan's vice president. President George HW Bush held true to his pledge to Monsanto, as the monumental decision on genetically modified foods was passed in 1992 during his presidency. This wasn't the only help that he provided for Monsanto, however. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto attorney, to the Supreme Court in 1991. Thomas was confirmed and has been on the court ever since. His Supreme Court career has not been without controversy, however. In 2010, Thomas heard the case of Monsanto v. Geerston Seed Farms, which overturned a lower court's ruling that banned the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa (Stohr). While Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer felt it would be a conflict of interest for him to hear the case, being that his brother Charles was the judge who made the previous ruling, Thomas saw no issue (Stohr). Even though Clarence Thomas had worked personally with Monsanto, he heard the case and voted in favor of the biotech firm. The controversial sweetener aspartame, produced by Searle (the pharmaceutical branch of Monsanto), was originally banned for use by the Food and Drug Administration. Following many reports of aspartame poisoning, the FDA felt it was best that aspartame be sidelined until further research. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld played an instrumental role in the legalization of this shaky product. As the former head of Searle during the period of time in which aspartame was banned, it is suspected that Rumsfeld called into use political favors in an attempt to have the controversial sweetener legalized (Page). While many scientific journals have published studies which have supported the use of chemicals such as aspartame, Rumsfeld's employment in high levels of the United States government is simply further proof that all too cozy of a relationship exists between the United States government and former/current biotech executives. President Bush Sr. wasn't the only president to openly support Monsanto. Although he campaigned as a progressive in 2008, President Obama has appointed several people with ties to Monsanto to key positions within the federal government. Michael Taylor, a former lobbyist for Monsanto, was appointed to the position of deputy commissioner of foods at the Food and Drug Administration (Harris). The position is new, and is meant to consolidate the overseeing of 13 separate programs and departments. The intention of this position is to improve food safety in the United States among a recent streak of high level food recalls (Harris). Taylor is set to become one of the most powerful men involved with the production of food in the United States. Taylor's appointment as the head of food safety is ironic, considering his close ties to one of the most questionable corporations in the world in regard to food safety. Many people have protested the appointment of Taylor on terms that it would be a conflict of interest (Harris). Obama's ties with Monsanto don't end there. His next appointment, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, is one of the leading supporters of Monsanto and biotech engineering in the country. Vilsack notoriously supported one of the most controversial forms of genetically engineered foods known as "pharma-crops", which are plants designed to produce pharmaceuticals (Organic Consumers). This process has been known to contaminate the land that it takes place on, and there have been several high level court decisions requiring biotech firms to clean up areas that they have polluted (Organic Consumers Association). Prodigene is perhaps the most famous of these firms, which was once ordered to compensation after farmers had to burn 155 acres of non GM corn which was contaminated by their product. Prodigene eventually went out of business, but not before they had received a $6 million investment from the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership, which was chaired by Tom Vilsack himself. Obama also appointed Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto funded Danforth Plant Science Center, as the head of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Cummins). Not only did Beachy head the Danforth Plant Science Center, but he's actually credited with discovering a form of biotech engineering himself. Beachy found a way to engineer the cassava plant to resist things like mosaic virus, which stunts the plant's growth as well as destroying its leaves (St. Louis Post) This position is new, and is rare, because it is one of the few that does not require Congressional approval (Organic Consumers). Beachy's future position would place him in charge of the US government's research into food safety, a controversial position and possible conflict of interest. Policy in Europe While the United States claims to have its laws and practices of genetically modified organisms rooted in strong scientific evidence, the countries of Europe passionately disagree. As the United States has become a free market of sorts for the proliferation of GMOs, Europeans have been doing everything in their power to prevent the controversial seeds and food products from finding their way to the continent. These attempts have taken root in the form of popular opinion, government policy, and consumer decision making in the supermarket. The differences in the regulation of food between the United States are numerous. The regulation of food in the United States is done mostly by the Food and Drug Administration as well as the USDA. Europe takes a different approach, however. Formal food policy in the European Union is dictated by the European Food Safety Authority. The EFSA is subdivided further, with a specific group called the GMO Panel. This difference alone is worth noting, as the United States makes no difference whatsoever between GM and non GM food. Just as the US system is defined by a total lack of regulation, the EU's system is the complete opposite. Food producers regularly complain of a complicated network of burdensome regulations. Approval of GM foods often takes over two years (Davison; 95). Many say that the American system is geared towards bending over backwards for biotech giants like Monsanto and Dupont, but the European system is far more democratic. Environmental groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are regularly consulted when making decisions regarding genetically modified organisms (Davison; 95). The structure of the food approval process in Europe is different than that of the United States for many reasons. Many experts feel that Europe's different outlook on GMOs is based on a series of unfortunate events regarding their food supply. This has led to people becoming more suspicious in general of the various ingredients that they ingest. Throughout the 1990s, Europeans had to deal with a long streak of food scares, including rumors of food contamination due to mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, food contaminated with asbestos, the discovery of dioxin in animal feed, as well as several high level cases of HIV contamination (Bonny; 53). The United States has been very fortunate in this sense, and has helped play down the need for strong regulation concerning the food supply. The United States has had several scares associated with things like salmonella contamination, but the contamination was fairly isolated. Due to this isolation, the recall process of contaminated food was fairly efficient and effective. This history of food scares has translated into a number of important regulations for Europeans opposed to genetically modified organisms. The labeling of foods that contain GMOs is by far the most important. While the United States has no laws forcing manufacturers to place labels on GMOs, Europe has the strictest food labeling laws in the world. Any food which contains higher than 0.9% GMOs must have a label stating so (Davison). The result of this mandatory labeling campaign is that Europeans tend to be more educated of the ingredients of what they're consumer, while many Americans simply don't even realize that they're eating the genetically modified products. Another explanation for the difference in genetically modified foods' laws is that the differences lie within the different countries' political systems. Research finds that the practice of lobbying is vastly different between the United States and Europe. Lobbying does indeed exist in Europe, but nowhere near the extent that it occurs in the United States. A review of these practices finds that since many of the policy makers in the EU are not elected, they don't need to raise enormous amounts of money from special interest groups just to keep their jobs (Mahoney). Despite the fact that these policy makers are not elected, the resulting policies are often more representative of the population as a whole. This review found that European Union policy was more balanced, with more compromise occurring between the various groups. The review characterized American policy instead as "winner takes all", with large corporations winning out more often than other groups (Mahoney). It was found that citizens' groups failed in almost 60% of the policies they supported, but large corporations succeeded in 89% in policies that they found favorable (Mahoney). Romanian lobbying critic Liliana Mihut agrees with the argument that there are strong differences in lobbying practices between the United States and the European Union for several reasons. Mihut points out that the lobbying tradition in the United States is far more developed than in the European Union, with lobbying originating in the US in the 1830s, compared to the mid-1980s in Europe (Mihut; pg 9). Lobbyists have traditionally had a much more difficult time spreading influence in Europe as opposed to the US. The different cultures of Europe have led to contrasting interests among the nations of the EU. Nations like France and Germany may not necessarily share interests, and this often leads to lobbyists being less influential among important European Union decisions. Perhaps most importantly, the European Union lacks the presence of Political Action Committees, also known as PACs, which are an important and influential aspect of American politics (Mihut; pg 10). Lobbying practices are only one area in which the United States and Europe area different. Patent laws in Europe are extremely different from those in the United States. European patents are far easier to challenge than those in the United States (Harhoff, Regibeau, et al; 291). In the European Parliament, anyone is allowed to challenge a patent within nine months from when it was originally passed (Harhoff, Regibeau, et al; 291). This results in broad based coalitions to oppose a certain patent. In the United States, patents can only be disputed in civil courts, where large corporations like Monsanto and Dupont can easily defend themselves with a high priced team of attorneys that the average farmer or consumer could never reasonably defeat. European citizens and governmental groups have taken advantage of this process, as a full 25% of all GM food patents were challenged, which is an astound rate. The next highest level of opposition to any industry was that of the pharmaceutical industry, with only 8.6% of patents being challenged (Harhoff, Regibeau, et al; 291). The result of this intense opposition to the patenting of life in Europe is that the actual genes of plants cannot be patented. The few patents that are given out in regard to genetically modified plants took on average 20% longer to be approved than their American counter parts (Harhoff, Regibeau, et al; 291). Social scientist Rachel Shurman attributes the differences in laws to the history of the United States in the 1980s. Shurman describes the decade as one in which Keynesian welfare state policies were under attack. The country underwent a drastic period of economic liberalization and deregulation (Shurman; 247). Although the UK followed along with many of these policies, the majority of Europe did not. As GMOs began to make their way into Europe in the early 1990s, a strong wave of protests drew a large amount of attention to the new biologically engineered foods. Polls showed that most Europeans strongly opposed the genetically modified foods. In an attempt to make a compromise, the head of Monsanto's European division arranged a deal with Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro in which they would voluntarily label their first product (GM tomato paste) with a label that told the consumer of the presence of GMOs. Although Monsanto agreed, they eventually ignored the requests for labels. This was perceived by many in Europe as a sort of American "food imperialism" which triggered an extremely emotional response among many European citizens (Shurman; 261). These feelings came to a peak in 1998 when the United States was viewed as declaring a trade war over Europe's refusal of American hormone treated beef exports (Shurman; 261). Shurman states that from the public's perspective, European's perceived this as an attempt by the United States to dictate what and how Europeans would eat (Shurman; 262). Concern for the environment may be another reason for the controversy of GMOs in Europe. Although the United States has had a long conservationist history, care for the environment among Europeans is far more institutionalized and widespread. The constitutions of France, Germany, and several other European nations spell out their support for the environment explicitly. The United States Constitution grants its citizens negative rights, but makes no mention of the environment whatsoever. The deliberate mention of caring for the environment in these national constitutions makes it more likely that the average citizen is more conscious of degradation of national resources, the quality of clean air and soil, and other important characteristics of a healthy and properly functioning environment. The reduced role of both lobbying and the patenting of life in Europe are two key reasons as to the difference between American and European Law regarding genetically modified organisms. Because lobbying is less relevant in Europe, the friendly relationship that often characterizes the United States government and the biotech industry simply does not exist in the EU. Large corporations located in the United States often have tremendous "pull" within the government, but the simple fact that these corporations are not located in Europe, do not pay taxes, cannot transition back and forth between the private sector and government, and cannot contribute to the campaigns of European politicians in the same way that they can to Americans reduces the influence that many biotech firms have in European government. The nature of the European Union and the various issues of sovereignty that accompany it also mitigate the importance and influence that large biotech corporations have due to the fact that each nation is less likely to accept legislation which it perceives to be an intrusion on its national sovereignty. Solutions The United States' policy on genetically modified foods is based largely on the interests of large corporations, rather than the safety of American consumers. Given the drastic consequences facing consumers, farmers, and the environment in which these questionable crops are grown, it is in the United States' best interest to reform its policies towards genetically modified organisms. The few benefits of GMOs mostly go to a small percentage of the corporate elites, while the rest of the country suffers immensely. There are a few key areas which the United States government must make reforms in order to solve this problem. Opponents of genetically modified organisms could tackle this issue on several grounds. The passing of the new healthcare bill may make it easier to address the issue of GMOs. Given the questionable safety record of genetically modified organisms, it would be much easier to implement or change laws that would restrict and regulate the use of GMOs. The new federal healthcare laws require food labels for a variety of different places of business such as restaurants. These labels require restaurants to provide facts concerning the fat and calories that exist in any given meal. Whether or not a food contains genetically modified organisms could be an additional fact presented to the consumer in these labels. Taxpayer funded healthcare would be best served by the implementing of any label system. It would be in the best bet of the government to have as cheap of healthcare costs as possible. There's good reason to believe that many of the different health problems in this country, such as increased rates of cancer, could be fueled by the enormous quantities of "Frankenfoods" that the average American eats. Another possible approach is to follow that of the tobacco industry. The fight against cigarette companies was also a troublesome and difficult battle that bares many parallels to the issue of genetically modified foods. Cigarettes were rumored to have many health issues, but a lack of firm scientific data prevented much from changing. Lawsuits against the tobacco industry brought about a massive wave of change, resulting in several key pieces of legislation. The Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act consists of several key provisions that could be applied to the concerns surrounding genetically modified organisms. Sub section 1333 of the act sets out the requirements for the labeling of cigarettes. This section makes it clear that cigarettes are to be labeled with some of the possible dangers associated with them, such as increased risk of cancer, heart disease etc. A system of labels like this could point out the large numbers of negative side effects of genetically modified organisms on lab animals. Sub section 1341 of the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requires that the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services conduct research on the effect of cigarettes on consumers. The issue of genetically modified foods is almost defined by a complete lack of official research by government bodies. This subsection has led to an enormous amount of research in regard to the effects of tobacco on humans (Cornell). Government action is not the only way that the issue of genetically modified organisms can be addressed. Due to grassroots support, stores like Whole Foods have become a successful alternative to the highly processed food in mainstream supermarkets. Despite the fact that supermarkets like Whole Foods are on average more expensive than traditional supermarkets, many Americans have embraced the rapidly growing chain. If Americans as a whole decide to support businesses who embrace the idea of organic food, a message will be sent to other businesses in the form of economic warfare. No laws currently exist forcing companies to label the presence of genetically modified foods. Stores like Whole Foods however, proudly label their GMO free foods with a voluntary label system. Measures such as the voluntary labeling of GMO free foods could force an industry standard as alternative supermarkets like these become more and more popular. While these are only a few suggestions, it's clear that something must soon be done. A wide range of independent scientific research should at the very least be alerting government authorities to the concerns surrounding GMOs. As Americans become more aware and informed of the measures taken by various governments around the world, the current status quo which serves the interest of the corporate elite will not be able to sustain itself for much longer. Works Cited A failure of hope :[Third Edition]. (2006, December 13). St. Louis Post - Dispatch,p. C.12. Retrieved December 10, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1179481841). Batie, Sandra S. 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