The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

scientists suppressed 169Reading this document makes it easier to understand why the WHO andthe FAO organized a “consultation,” like the one described in the report, inGeneva from November 5 to 10, 1990. Titled “Strategies for Assessing theSafety of Foods Produced by Biotechnology,” it brought together representativesfrom international health authorities as well as “experts,” including JamesMaryanski as a member of the secretariat.* Oddly, although no GMO had yetseen the light of day, this “consultation” produced the following peremptory diagnosis:“The DNA from all living organisms is structurally similar. For thisreason, the presence of transferred DNA in produce in itself poses no healthrisk to consumers.” The reference cited in the appendix was the article publishedby Monsanto scientists a short time earlier in Nature on the transgenicgrowth hormone, which, as I have noted, had been strongly challenged. 31From then on, it is very clear that Monsanto played a major role in imposing,internationally and with no scientific data, the principle of “substantialequivalence.” It appeared, for instance, in 1993, in an OECD documententitled “Safety Evaluation of Foods Derived by Modern Biotechnology:Concepts and Principles.” This seventy-one-page document begins with along argument designed to establish that “biotechnology” has existed eversince humanity learned how to select plants and hence that the techniquesof genetic manipulation are only a modern extension of ancestral knowledge.On that basis, it argues: “For foods and food components from organismsdeveloped by the application of modern biotechnology, the mostpractical approach to the determination of safety is to consider whether theyare substantially similar to analogous conventional food product(s), if suchexist.” To back up this new concept, which came out of nowhere, the reportrelies on the example of GMOs such as Calgene’s long-shelf-life tomato(which was, of course, withdrawn from the market) and Monsanto’s RoundupReady tomato (which remained at the experimental stage).Among the authors of this founding document was the ubiquitous JamesMaryanski as well as a representative of the President’s Council on Competitiveness.In an appendix, the document lists ten publications to consult,including one from the International Life Sciences Institute (established, itwill be recalled, by agribusiness companies), the notorious document from*According to his CV, James Maryanski served as an expert for WHO and FAO, then as a U.S. delegateto the Codex Alimentarius Committee and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD).