U.S. food crops widely contaminated by genetically modified seed.

A study by the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has found evidence that DNA sequences from genetically modified (GM) crops have found their way into many of the country's conventional food crops. GM crops have been developed to produce proteins for healing wounds and treating diseases, or to manufacture industrial chemicals, but are supposed to be kept out of traditional food. However, in tests of traditional varieties of corn, soybeans, and canola conducted for UCS by two commercial laboratories, DNA sequences from GM crops were found in up to 1 percent of individual seeds and in more than half of the batches of seeds.

UCS microbiologist Margaret Mellon, who directed the study, commented, "This study shatters the presumption that at least one portion of the seed supply--that for traditional varieties of agriculture--is truly free of genetically engineered elements." A loose interpretation of the findings, widely disseminated by major media, is that two-thirds of U.S. food crops have now been contaminated by genetically modified seed and that this essentially irreversible dissemination could doom organic farming and bring what the UCS scientists described as a potentially "serious risk to human health," as well as possible disruptions to U.S. agricultural trade.