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Frankenstein Falafel? Israeli Consumers at Risk from GM Foods

by · September 7th, 2009
GMO, Israel

Cross-posted from the Green Prophet

photo by The Rocketeer

Recent laboratory tests have discovered that consumers in Israel are eating Genetically Modified Organisms – whether they like it or not.

Tests by Milouda Quality Control Laboratories, which analyzes food destined for sale in the European Union, discovered GM soya in popular foods sold in stores across Israel, reports Haaretz. Food contaminated with GM included baked goods, packaged schnitzel and meat substitutes. Israeli favorites like falafel could also potentially contain GM if they are fried in soya oil.

Biotechnology research may be big business in Israel but, as far as I am aware, no GM crops are grown commercially in the country. However, it is clearly being imported and is entering the human food chain via processed foods or animal feed. In addition to denying consumer choice – and putting public health at risk – GM contamination could precipitate an economic disaster for the Israeli food industry.

EU law requires all food containing GM to be labeled and many retailers refuse to stock any GM whatsoever. If the Israeli food industry doesn’t take action promptly, it risks exports to the EU and elsewhere being wiped out overnight – a fate which already befallen non-GM farmers in north America.

Far from being a precise ‘science’, GM is a relatively new and unpredictable technology based on inserting a gene from one organism to another in the hope of transferring specific genetic traits. Despite attempts by GM proponents to persuade the public that their crops are safe to eat, the lack of reliable scientific studies, such as animal feeding trials, have led to a backlash by consumers and farmers in many countries. The small number of available scientific studies [PDF report] have found alarming health effects including:

  • High mortality rates in the offspring of rats fed Monstanto’s GM Roundup Ready soya in a Russian laboratory
  • Toxic effects on the liver and kidneys of rats fed Monstanto GM maize in Germany
  • Allergic reactions in mice after eating peas modified with a gene from the kidney bean found by Australian scientists.

Sources in Judaism and other Abrahamic Faiths stress that GM is an unkosher technology and runs counter to their religions.

So why is GM being sold in Israel without being labeled or adequately tested?

Take action: If you are concerned and want the choice to eat GM-free food in Israel, then email the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour <click for webform>, Ministry of Environmental Protection <pniot@sviva.gov.il> and Ministry of Agriculture <pniot@moag.gov.il> to demand the following:

  • An immediate moratorium on all GM imports into Israel
  • The introduction of mandatory labeling of all food containing GM
  • A full and open public debate over the Genetic Modification of food in Israel.

:: Genetically enhanced food sold unmarked, Haaretz.
:: GM crops – the health effects, Soil Association [PDF report].
:: Treif Tomatoes,Teva Learning Centre.

Photo credit: The Rocketeer.

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11 Responses to “Frankenstein Falafel? Israeli Consumers at Risk from GM Foods”

  1. Lawrence Says:
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:52 pm

    While I’m open to discussions of food safety and genetic diversity concerns, the sources cited regarding the supposedly forbidden nature of GM foods within halakha really don’t hold up to casual scrutiny. (Actually there’s only one source, since the Chronicle cites the Teva Learning Center article.) Jews are not supposed to take an active role in cross-breeding, but we may benefit from it and may grow organisms that were hybridized before they came into our hands.

    If you’re not willing to consider hybridized food kosher, you’ll have to abandon virtually all produce and animal products grown commercially, anywhere. Hybridization has been going on ever since the advent of agriculture—it’s the reason our fruits are so palatable, our domestic animals so docile and productive. Are any of us willing to spend the rest of our lives eating only foraged food?

  2. Michael Says:
    September 9th, 2009 at 6:12 am

    Hi Lawrence, my post was talking about the modern technology of Genetic Modification (inserting a gene from one organism into another) and not the centuries old practise of cross-breeding of similar varieties/species.

    My hunch is one of the reasons that big guns like the OU haven’t got involved in the GM debate is that if they looked deeper into it – and found that GM goes against Judaism – then Jews eating processed hecshered products (esp in N America) would find that most of their favourites are potentially GM-contaminated.

  3. Lawrence Says:
    September 9th, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Michael, I understand that you are talking about genetic modification rather than simple cross-breeding. What you fail to understand is that legal prohibition to which you’re referring is the same one whose violation has resulted in most modern agriculture, and that said prohibition has an extremely limited scope within rabbinic Judaism.

    As I said above, the consensus is that Jews are not allowed to engage in the acts of crossing species and grafting, but are allowed to benefit from (i.e., eat) the eventual results of those processes. Were that not the case, life in the modern world would be nigh unto impossible. Even if you were to consider only GM to be forbidden but grafted apples allowed (and I don’t know how you would reach that conclusion logically), it still would threaten more than just processed foods. Think about the Monsanto effect, in which fields of traditional crops are contaminated with GM pollen and produce offspring with some artificially introduced genes. Are we now to require genetic testing before we determine an ear of corn to be kosher?

    The only question that remains is whether genetic modification of food crops falls under the category of species mixture from a halakhic perspective, in which case Jews shouldn’t actively be involved in the process. Clearly the OU have issued their ruling; I don’t know enough about hilkhot kil’ayim to comment on it either way.

    I hope you understand that I’m trying to be a friendly voice. JCarrot’s readership is a sympathetic one to concerns like this, but if you take these arguments to a broader audience you’ll find that many of them point out the same problems that I did, which will only reduce your authority within the observant world. My perspective is that not every bad idea is necessarily forbidden by Jewish law. That’s fine—it’s only relevant to the sorts who don’t consider anything forbidden to them unless the Torah says so, and I don’t think that particular crowd is too big on environmentalism anyway. Your best bet is to argue that GM and like technologies violate certain Torah *values*, such as respecting the natural world and being zealous about guarding one’s own safety (given allegations that the long-term effects of GM are not well understood).

  4. Mrs. Rosenfeld Says:
    September 9th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    How are GM foods identified in other countries?

  5. Michael Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 5:42 am

    Mrs Rosenfeld – In the EU, which has the toughest (but by no means tough enough) GM laws, any product containing >0.09% GM must be labelled as ‘GM’. In the UK, for example, supermarkets refuse to sell GM in response to consumer demand. In N America, alas, shoppers are denied the choice.

    Imported crops, mainly soya and maize, are generally labelled GM on the packaging. Non-GM varieties have to be tested by a licensed certification body before being given the ‘GM-free’ stamp.

    The main loophole is animal feel – GM is fed to millions of farm animals whose meat and dairy products are sold to the unwitting consumer.

  6. Frederic Kuzyk Says:
    September 24th, 2009 at 7:36 am

    Great news for us on the GMO front! Federal Judge rules against Monsanto’s GM sugar beets, mentioning USDA failures. Read http://twitter.com/fredkzk/status/4320223934 or http://bit.ly/9KD6v

  7. Yosef Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Lawrence, you are talking crazy! Anything that can kill you if you eat it, like this Genetically Modified Monster Food, is not Kosher on any level! And I don’t need a reading from a Rabbi to tell me that! Please use common sense!
    Monsanto is a criminal corporation setup to destroy the food supply and kill off Jews and the rest of the human race, if we let them. We have to take action against these mass-murderers, now!

  8. Lawrence Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 9:21 pm

    Yosef, you don’t know the half of it. GMO farming is actually part of the International Jewish Conspiracy. We’re going to kill off all the competition! Unfortunately we’ve had to revise our timetables; feeding people food with a slightly longer shelf life and slightly lower vitamin content turns out not to be a very efficient method of mass murder.

  9. Yosef Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    Lawrence, who is we? You are a jerk, just like I thought.

  10. Lawrence Says:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    Yosef, I may have misinterpreted something here. Was your previous comment (“Lawrence, you are talking crazy!”) meant to be hyperbolic satire, or do you actually believe that Monsanto’s primary objective is to destroy the human race? If the former, which is what I initially thought, then I really don’t understand your response to my own comment, which was just an expansion of what I perceived as your line of humor. If the latter, then I’ll be happy to explain to you the many problems with your theory.

    Which is it?

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