February 4, 2012
Take Action / Resources / Topics / Environmental Impacts
Environmental Impacts
Contamination
Once genetically engineered organisms are released into the environment, they cannot be recalled and they cannot be controlled.
- Canadian farmers are currently suffering through a crisis of GM contamination of flax - Click here to read about the case of GM flax contamination.
- You can also take action to stop the introduction of GM alfalfa and read about how inevitable contamination will impact conventional and organic farmers.
- Article and videos about how contamination is affecting communities around the world - and what people are doing to stop and reverse it. GRAIN 2009 "Fighting GMO contamination around the world"
- Worldwide Contamination Registry: Click here to see the on-line registry of GE contamination incidents. See details of all the known cases of GM contamination of food, feed, seed and wild plants that have taken place worldwide (hosted by GeneWatch UK and Greenpeace). The Register has documented more than 216 cases of GM contamination in 57 countries over the past 10 years, including 39 cases in 2007.
Non-Target Effects
The Nature Institute has established a project called "Nontarget Effects of Genetic Manipulation" to "make evidence about the wide-ranging and never wholly predictable effects of genetic engineering readily accessible to concerned citizens, policy makers, and scientists." Click here to read their introductory paper "Understanding the Nontarget Effects of Genetic Manipulation."
"When foreign genes are introduced into an organism, creating a transgenic organism (commonly called a genetically modified or genetically engineered organism), the results for the organism and its environment are almost always unpredictable. The intended result may or may not be achieved in any given case, but the one almost sure thing is that unintended results - nontarget effects - will also be achieved...Nontarget effects within the host organism are not necessarily due only to the gene directly related to the intended effect. There are numerous ways in which the genetic manipulation can affect changes in the host organism. Although the genetic intervention may seem simple, in reality one is dealing with a complex web of relations that can be altered in manifold ways."
Aquatic Organisms
2007 Study Shows Genetically Engineered Corn Could Pollute Aquatic Ecosystems - pollen and other plant parts containing toxins from genetically engineered insect resistant Bt corn are washing into streams near cornfields and lab trials show that consumption of Bt corn byproducts produced increased mortality and reduced growth in caddisflies, aquatic insects that are related to the pests targeted by the toxin in Bt corn.
Other Resources
June 2009: CBAN Briefing Note: Genetically Engineered Crops: Irreversible harm to natural ecosystems
"Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years" by Charles Benbrook, November 2009.
Links
Third World Network Biosafety Information Centre for accurate news and detailed reports from around the world.
Union of Concerned Scientists (United States) for background
