Fact Sheets: Food Safety

Roundup herbicide. Agent Orange. PCBs. Genetically engineered seeds. These may not seem related, but they all have something in common: Monsanto.

The agriculture and food sector is unusually concentrated, with just a few companies dominating the market in each link of the food chain. In most sectors of the U.S. economy, the four largest firms control between 40 and 45 percent of the market, and many economists maintain that higher levels of concentration can start to erode competitiveness. Yet according to data compiled by the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2012, in the agriculture and food sector, the four largest companies controlled 82 percent of the beef packing industry, 85 percent of soybean processing, 63 percent of pork packing, and 53 percent of broiler chicken processing.

Since the first genetically engineered (GE) crops were introduced in the United States in the 1990s, consumers have not been able to tell whether they are eating these controversial new ingredients. And whenever the subject of mandatory labeling of GE foods comes up, the food industry claims that labeling will be prohibitively expensive.

When it comes to labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods, the United States lags behind nearly 50 developed nations, including all European Union member states, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The European Union requires all food, animal feeds and processed products with biotech content to bear GE labels.

Roundup, an herbicide produced by Monsanto that contains the active ingredient glyphosate, has been vigorously applied to crops for years. Most genetically engineered (GE) crops are designed to be tolerant of specially tailored herbicides. Farmers can spray the herbicide on their fi elds, killing the weeds without harming the GE crops. With the development of Roundup Ready crops, the application intensity of Roundup has only increased.

The biotechnology industry is aggressively promoting the environmental sustainability of genetically engineered (GE) crops. The industry claims that GE crops can reduce herbicide use, increase yields to feed a hungry planet, and develop new crops that are adapted to climate change.

With the rise of GE crops, coexistence between organic, non-GE and GE production has become more diffi cult due to the potential for gene flow and commingling of crops at both the planting and harvesting levels.

Genetically engineered (GE) crops are created by transferring genetic material from one organism into another to create specific traits, such as resistance to treatment with herbicides or to make a plant produce its own pesticide to repel insects. Unlike traditional plant and animal breeding, which tries to develop better varieties by selecting traits from the same species, genetic engineering techniques can insert specific genes from any plant, animal or microorganism into the DNA of a different species.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its latest attempt to create a national animal traceability program, despite close to a decade of widespread opposition from ranchers and $100 million allocated on a previous, failed attempt.