Oregon has a growing self-perception, and reputation, as being a leader in the local and natural food craze. While “local” may be easy to define, it is harder to define what we mean when we say “natural.”
A lot of the anxiety behind consumers’ demands for “natural” foods comes from fear of the unknown. Will genetically engineered organisms spread their modified genes to their formerly “wild” counterparts and irrevocably alter the “natural” world? Maybe it’s already happened. According to an article from Capital Press, “The West’s Agricultural Web Site,” there are as many as four million genetically improved Douglas Fir “super trees” growing in about 790 test plots in Washington and Oregon.
While that may sound like a lot of pollen blowing unchecked under the summer sun, one has to choose how to interpret the information. One could side with the official line, pushed by forest products companies like Weyerhaeuser that focus on the benefits that could be had by faster reforestation after clear cutting or fire. Or one could side with the anti-modification advocates who not only push a more sensational story, but in the past have backed up their views with vandalism and arson. One such case in 2001 actually helped U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken give Stanislas Meyerhoff a 13-year prison sentence, and qualified him as a terrorist.
In contrast to the dramatic measures used by some modification opponents, the corporate story, at least according to Weyerhaeuser, says that what is occurring in Oregon’s forests is quite natural and nothing to pay much mind to. Weyerhaeuser will tell the press that their trees that display remarkable disease resistance, rapid growth, and straight trunks are not actually “genetically modified,” but rather are just “genetic families” that have been bred for their desirable qualities. This is reassuring. As a discerning public we have generally acknowledged that breeding is acceptable, and a slightly controlled choice of which little fir tree gets to push its straight trunk into genetic futurity is just good business. Corporations will claim that breeding better, more disease-resistant organisms will also help with humanitarian problems, from hunger to global warming. It is, in short, inevitable, desirable progress.
The problem, however, begins to develop when Weyerhaeuser markets these same straight little trees as “genetically improved” stock for when “things are too important to be left to chance.” Just a little looking will reveal some of the steps that they have taken in order to assure high survivability and growth rates.
When the Tree Biosafety and Genomics Research Cooperative at Oregon State University was still known as The Tree Genetic Engineering Research Cooperative, they publicized their work with “Roundup