A disaster just hit Chris, the owner of a large soy processor facility. A consumer has called to report that the organic soybean products that are being produced by his factory tested positive for GMO (Genetically modified organism). The contamination level is very high; it is in excess of 20%. After extensively tracing the origins of the GMOs it is found that it came from a well-trusted supplier who is oblivious to the contamination. This major outbreak of GMO contamination is just a single event out of countless others.

The debate over the concern of the safety and effects of GMOs on people is something that I feel is not going to be ending anytime soon. The more pressing issue is the threat of GMO contamination on the non-GMO farms. Non-GMO farmers have lost entire fields of crops to cross-pollination with genetically modified plants from neighboring farms. Products that are not labeled as “Containing genetically modified organisms” have been tested and shown that they do indeed contain GMOs.

There are several identifiable sources of the cross-contamination. Pollen drift is a factor that contributes to the majority of accidental cross-contamination. However other factors such as selling genetically modified products as organic to gain more profit are not as accidental as pollen drift. Although testing non-GMO products for genetically modified material prevents some of the contamination from making it’s way into the public, it is just logistically impossible to test all of it. Due to these uncontrollable factors I believe that it is impossible to keep cross-contamination from happening.

It’s a fact that pollen from a neighboring genetically modified farm can prove devastation to nearby non-GMO farmer’s crops. The pollen from the GMO plants contains the genetically modified DNA. So when that pollen with the DNA pollinates a non-GMO plant the genetic modification will be present in the new plant. Now the field of plants that were once GMO free are genetically modified and can only be sold on the conventional market. But how does somebody like a non-GMO farmers go about stopping literally millions of pollen that are only micrometers wide from entering his fields?

This issue is so large that Billy Hunter, who is an independent organic inspector, said, “Corn is so highly susceptible to pollen drift that he estimates that 25 percent or more of organic feed corn available is GMO contaminated… and about 6% of organic and conventional soybean feed also contains GMOs.” (GMOs in agricultural inputs pose risks to organic, non-GMO farms) In a situation where a neighboring farm is growing GMO crops next to a farm that is non-GMO there are few options. To stop the GMO pollen from pollinating the non-GMO plants a very large barrier would have to be constructed. Of course, this task would require a monumental budget that is out of the price range of most farmers. Another approach would be to use different seeds after each harvest.

If plants had been cross contaminated a little then it might be possible to use new non-GMO seeds to start with no cross contamination next season. With this approach the risk is reduced. Of course this plan of action would cut into the budget and would only work if the farm were receiving low levels of genetically modified pollen from neighboring farms. Also it is said, “Growing organic corn from such seed (non-GMO) will probably result in a crop that will have over 2% contamination” (Should Organics be Tested for GMOs?).

Although cross-contamination from pollen drift is accidental the same is not true for some other leading causes of cross-contamination. “According to the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, in 2004, 45 percent of corn, 85 percent of soybeans and 76 percent of cotton being grown in the United States were GMOs.” (A “modified” debate over GMOs) Because of the lower supply of non-GMO crops the cost of these crops is greater.The fact is that farmers can make more money if they sell their crops on the organic food market rather than the conventional food market where GMO crops are sold. Because of this, some farmers decide to sell their conventional GMO crops into the organic market to gain more profit. By testing alleged non-GMO crops some of the contamination could be stopped.

Testing products to confirm that they are non-GMO is a very effective way to ensure that products are indeed non-GMO. Unfortunately, testing the products is left up to the farmers and the buyers. Testing crops for genetically modified material is very expensive for the farmers, and because of it, they usually ignore testing. Also, as in some cases, farmers may knowingly be selling their genetically modified crops as non-GMO, for extra profit. For David Vetter, a farmer whose crops had been cross-contaminated in previous years, testing proved to be very expensive. “One year he spent $1500 to test a corn crop worth $4000.” (Organic proponents say coexistence won’t work) This took away over 37% of his profits just to test them for genetically modified material something that I’m sure most farmers would not like to have pay for.

When the crops leave the farm they are usually bought by processing factories that turn the crops into products that will be sold in stores. There is a problem when it comes to the processors testing the crops. “Companies don’t want to test because there is no pressure for them to do so.” (Should Organics be Tested for GMOs?). They feel that it is unnecessary for them to test the crops for GMO material and like the farmers they do not want to spend a lot of the money on something that is not required. Even if more testing were to be done, it would still be impossible to test all of the massive quantities of crops and products and so some genetically modified material would still slip through and contaminate non-GMO products.

Because of nearly uncontrollable factors like pollen drift, farmers selling genetically modified crops into the organic market, and the unwillingness to test the products due to financial setbacks, cross-contamination is an issue that is unavoidable. In my personal opinion, instead of trying to avoid GMO products, people are going to have to learn to live with them because they are inevitable. As with Chris the organic processor who found out his products had been contaminated with GMOs, it ended up costing his company over $100,000 and in need of a safer supplier of soybeans.