Probably not, but there is now little you can do to prevent it. Genetically modified food plants are already being grown outdoors to provide pharmaceuticals, and their dispersal is governed by wind, water, insects and birds – forces all pretty much beyond the control of man.

Pharming, or the insertion of genes into living organisms to produce pharmaceuticals, or medicines, is a fairly new science, and has only been regulated since 1986. By splicing genes into living plant or animal tissue, scientists can create edible plants – or even milk from goats and cows – that deliver medicine. All one has to do is eat or drink the product to receive a dose of insulin, anti-diarrhea medication, or an influenza vaccine.

These GM remedies are currently present – in either actual or experimental form - in flax, corn, tobacco, safflower, barley, rice, potatoes, goat’s and cow’s milk. Some projects have been abandoned, but more are instituted daily, even though both the manufacturers and the governments of the world recognize that the danger of these GM pharmaceutical crops reseeding themselves, or cross-pollinating with food crops (called “volunteerism”) is high.

This continued push is the result of a single factor; GM pharmaceuticals are cheaper for producers because they don’t require expensive infrastructure – a vacant field is sufficient – production can be scaled to demand, and the ratio of skilled to unskilled workers drives costs even lower. To a pharmaceutical giant, this means cheaply-produced insulin that will show profits 70-percent greater than current methods of production. The big pharma argument, that small farmers will benefit, is invalid; historically, these farmers have lacked the power to negotiate for better returns because market forces, foreign competition, and the fewer acres needed for GM pharmaceuticals all imply that farmers will receive as little as big pharma is willing to pay. Which is, historically, very little indeed.

Financial benefits aside, the danger of these pharma crops spreading in the environment raises serious questions. Some groups, like the Union of Concern Scientists (UCS) are attempting to address them. In the spring of 2003, the UCS convened a panel of six experts who delivered a decisive warning - that corn and soybeans could not be used as pharma crops without contaminating the food supply. In fact, the UCS stated that contamination had likely already occurred. It also issued a recommendation to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) to halt outdoor production of GM pharma crops until more stringent controls were put in place. What these might be - since wind goes everywhere, and birds and insects don’t apply for interstate transport licenses – is anyone’s guess.

In any case, the genie is already out of the bottle, and the lax standards and even more inefficient monitoring policies of the USDA have led to a situation where you, the consumer, will be getting a dose of insulin, anti-diarrhea medicine, a vaccine against Hepatitis C, or even a dose of blood thinners or anti-cancer antibodies in your potato chips, cornflakes or rice cakes.

Further Reading:

• Biotech Companies Try to Hijack Agreement on GM Contamination
• Seeds of Destruction: the Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation Part I
• Seeds of Destruction: the Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation Part II
• Seeds of Destruction: the Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation Part III
• Horizontal Gene Transfer from GMOs Does Happen