A Greener Revolution: a baker's perspective on genetically engineered wheat.

The Green Revolution, which peaked in the early 1980s, is now on the decline and emanating a hue of gray. We see increased use of petro-chemicals due to lack of plant diversity, increased use of chemical fertilizer due to poor soil nutrition, soil erosion at its worst, with 25 billion tons of topsoil lost a year worldwide, and increases in crop yield greatly diminished to a rate lower than population growth. But not to worry, agrochemists have been hard at work (didn't Dr Suess refer to these guys as the "men in the back room" in his ominously profound The Butter Battle Book?) and genetically engineered crops--basically animals or plants whose genetic makeup, or DNA, has been altered with genetic material from another variety or species--are here to save the day.

Perhaps a brief look back at the birth of the Green Revolution will shed some understanding of the course "progress" has offered us. The year was 1944, in northwest Mexico. Test plots of hybridized wheat produced dramatically increased yields, varieties that were more responsive to controlled irrigation and to petrochemical fertilizer, resulting in an efficient conversion of industrial inputs into food production ... and a petro-dependent farmer.

Things looked pretty good for a while. Oil was cheap and crop yields were incredible, but this revolution did not prove to be ecologically sustainable. The decline began to happen for the above-mentioned reasons, yet the Green Revolution II also known as the Gene Revolution plows ahead.

According to the USDA, last year genetically engineered seed produced one-third of all corn and three-quarters of all soybeans grown in the United States. Sixty to seventy percent of all processed foods in an American supermarket contain some genetically modified ingredient. Corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola are all suspect, and on December 23, 2002, amidst the distraction of the holiday season, biotech company Monsanto applied for regulatory approval of Roundup Ready (RR) wheat.

Arguments against the approval of RR wheat are numerous, ranging from health to environment to economic, the latter of which is by far the strongest. Currently over 80% of Canadian wheat' and 44% of United States wheat (2) is exported to European and Asian markets; markets that have stated definitively that they will not accept GMO (genetically modified organism) wheat. Unlike the corn and soybean growers who found out the hard way with lost markets, the wheat industry has been forewarned that world buyers do not want, nor will they buy GMO (Roundup Ready) wheat. Says one major European grain buyer, "If GMO wheat comes out, then I have to immediately find another supplier and that will not be a difficult problem.... other wheat producing countries say, 'Fine, let the USA produce GMO wheat. We'll take their market.'

Another economic liability to the farmer is the fear of cross-pollination contamination with a neighbor's crops. Genetically modified seed blowing over from a neighbor's field cross-pollinating with non-GMO crops would not only produce a crop they don't want, but also make the neighbor liable for theft of patented property. (3)

Also, GMOs and seed patents prevent farmers from exercising their right of saving seeds, a right that farmers have maintained for centuries.

Ecologically, RR wheat does not look any better. Roundup Ready (glyphosate-tolerant wheat) wheat, like Roundup Ready corn and soybeans, allows the farmer to spray his fields with Roundup herbicide (glyphosate) without affecting the wheat crop. It is feared that cross breeding could occur and weedy relatives could acquire herbicide tolerance from the GE crop and thus result in unmanageable weeds. Dan McGuire, policy chairman of the American Corn Growers Association states, "Corn and soybean farmers found that a number of weeds have become resistant to Roundup and they are having to use two and sometimes three applications on their RR soybeans to control those weeds. They are also finding that they have to go back to using herbicide mixes as well." A possible increase in pesticide use weighs heavily on both the farmers checkbook and the environment.

The health effects of consuming genetically modified wheat? This is a big unknown. Unlike the European Union, the U.S. and Canadian governments refuse to require mandatory labeling, so there is no comprehensive way to monitor for long-term health effects of GE food consumption. However, the over-application of herbicides to GMO crops is only one of the many potential hazards.

An economic and ecological menace, RR wheat leaves only Monsanto (4) to surely profit.

But there is another side of the coin--a greener revolution. Farmers markets are on the rise and the Slow Foods Movement, a rediscovery of the traditional ways of food preparation, is spreading. Naturally-leavened breads, artisan cheeses, the search for old seed varieties, gristmills, wood-fired ovens ... the culinary world recognizing the value of local and organic: this wave toward sustainability is gaining momentum. The sense of connection, both to the people who grow our food and to those who prepare it, is becoming ever more important to people who see through the veil of our industrial society.

So get political (please). Contact Ann Venemen, Secretary of Agriculture. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Washington D.C., 20250; and our senators and congressperson (for Western NC readers: John Edwards-S and Elizabeth Dole-S, Charles Taylor-R.) Share with them your concerns, and demand labeling of GMO food. Continue to educate yourself. (The internet is a wealth of info: check out www.thecampaign.org.) Share this article with a friend. And please, support your local farmers markets; these farmers and craftspeople stand quietly at the forefront of a greener revolution.

Jennifer Lapidus owns Natural Bridge Bakery, specializing in healthy, GMO-free naturally-leavened desem breads. Jennifer sells her breads in Asheville, NC at the French Broad Food Co-op Tailgate Market and at natural food stores. Contact her at 828-649-9511 or [e-mail]

(1.) Canada exports a full 75% of its wheat. The Canadian Wheat Board estimates that 82% of exports go to countries that have stated that they do not want GM wheat.

(2.) Montana sends about 60% if its wheat crop to Asia

(3.) A Canadian farmer is currently in court with the biotech company Monsanto for allegedly growing their genetically engineered corn without paying for it, although he argues that pollen must have drifted over from another farm.

(4.) Monsanto had a $1.69 million loss last year compared with the $205 million profit in the same period a year earlier. Sales of Monsanto's Roundup are down and the patent has expired.