The StarLink scandal made headlines and generated thousands of news articles and TV clips. These brought home the realization to American consumers that the nation s supermarkets are filled with an extensive inventory of untested, unlabeled, genetically engineered foods. Critics of genetically engineered food have warned for years that splicing foreign proteins, which in most cases humans have never eaten before, into common food products can set off dangerous food allergies. Symptoms ranging from fever, rashes, and diarrhea to anaphylactic shock and sudden death can result. The FDA admits that eight percent of all US children are now plagued by food allergies, and that the situation is growing worse.
Nutritionists warn of a suspected link between food allergies and asthma.
The appalling lack of US government regulation and the greed of corporations to rush untested and likely dangerous products to market has now become obvious, even in the United States, the heartland of agbiotech. US farmers, and even a number of large food corporations, have already begun cutting back on their use of GE seeds or food ingredients. Whether or not the StarLink debacle represents a mortal blow to the first generation of GE foods and crops remains to be seen. Certainly a review of recent global developments indicates that the crisis of credibility surrounding genetically engineered foods is steadily increasing. The Center for Food Safety and other public interest groups filed a major lawsuit in 1998 in US Federal Court to take GE foods and crops off the market.