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Starving People for Profit: GM Foods the Problem, Not The Solution 5-23-08
The food crisis has prompted some looks towards genetically modified food
production as a solution. That in turn has led to stronger warnings over the
consequences of such food for health and the environment.
These concerns have been raised in Bonn again as more than 3,000 delegates from
147 countries met for the UN conference on biosafety. The conference has sought
to ensure safe use of modern biotechnology.
Feeding the debate, scientists, farmers and environmental activists in many
countries continue to warn that genetically modified agriculture presents a
risk, and not a contribution, to food production.
In France, organic farmers are complaining that genetically modified (GM) plants
are poisoning their plantations. Julien and Christian Veillat, two farmers who
grow organic maize in the Breton locality of Villiers-en-Plaine some 400
kilometres west of Paris, say their fields have been contaminated with GM maize,
even though the nearest GM crops field is 35 kilometres away.
The contamination was established during a routine analysis late in April by an
organic agriculture cooperative near the Veillats' village. Following the
detection, the organic maize was diverted for use as cattle fodder.
The Veillats have now filed a legal complaint against the central government in
Paris. "The contamination could only have come from the GM maize," spokesperson
for the local association against GM agriculture Georges Castiel told IPS. "At
the organic cooperative, they control the seeds very carefully."
Jean-Pierre Margan, producer of organic wine in the Provence in the south told
IPS that contamination of organic farms is a constant problem. "Particles of
GMOs are transported by wind and water, and can be carried very far away, and
contaminate your plantation even if you have worked hard to protect it from
every risk," he said.
Serge Morin, deputy president of the local government in the province of Poitou
Charentes said it is necessary that "the French state revises all procedures
concerning GMOs, including the immediate stop of all open air GM plantations. In
addition, all organic farmers whose plantations are contaminated should be paid
indemnities."
Such instances have led renowned chefs and wine producers in France to launch a
public campaign to prevent the spread of GMOs in food and beverages.
"We don't have the scientific competence to intervene in the debate on the
health consequences of GMOs," they wrote in a public letter addressed to the
French parliament. "But we consider that, in accordance with the precautionary
principle in questions of food and health, GMOs must simply remain banned from
our tables." Similar campaigns are under way in other European countries.
Several scientists and environmental activists say that apart from the health
concerns, GMOs are not a solution for food scarcity either.
"Most of the genetic modifications introduced in crops aim at making them
resistant to pests or weed killing, but not to increase yields," says Hans-Joerg
Jacobsen, biologist at the University of Hanover in Germany.
Jacobsen told IPS that "modern cultures, free of any genetic modification, have
higher yields than genetically modified seeds."
"The idea that GM agriculture could help feed the world is part of the
propaganda that the biochemical industry has used for years, but it is false,"
Arnaud Apoteker, who heads the campaign against GMOs for the French branch of
the environmental organisation Greenpeace, said in an interview.
Some representatives of the biochemical industry acknowledge this. "Genetically
modified agriculture will not solve the world's hunger problem," Hans Kast,
managing director of the plant science branch of the chemical giant BASF told
the German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Take Africa, the only continent that does not produce enough food to feed its
own population, even though some 70 percent of African people work in
agriculture.
"By applying conventional agricultural methods, free of any genetic
modification, you can substantially increase agricultural productivity in
Africa," Hans Joachim Preuss, managing director of the German non-governmental
food organisation Welthungerhilfe told IPS. "What African agriculture mostly
needs is better, more efficient irrigation systems, and not genetically modified
seeds."
According to figures released in Bonn by CropLife International, a global
federation representing the biochemical corporations, last year "biotech crops
were grown on 114.3 million hectares in 23 countries by over 12 million
farmers."