Have you heard of Seminis? Probably not; I had not heard of it before seeing this movie. This is from Wikipedia: "Seminis is the largest developer, grower and marketer of fruit and vegetable seeds in the world. Seminis' hybrids claim to improve nutrition, boost crop yields, limit spoilage and reduce the need for chemicals. Their retail line includes over 3,500 seed varieties. ..... On March 23, 2005, Monsanto Company announced that it had completed its acquisition of Seminis."
Those are hybrid seeds, which means that the growers must buy them from Seminis/Monsanto every year. Hybrids don't produce seed that reproduces the parent plant. Hybrids have some advantages, which is why growers are willing to pay for them each year, as long as the cost is not high. As long as there is competition, the cost will not be high. The competition comes from other hybrid seed companies, and from non-hybrid seeds that are in general circulation. Unfortunately, the current trend is for both of those sources of competition to decline, year after year.
Then there is GMO seed, which has been genetically engineered, and patented. The use of such seed is growing rapidly in the U.S. Corn and soybeans are the leading crops using GMO seeds, but they are rapidly growing in use for many other crops. The "Red Herring" that I refer to in the title of this article is the idea that these GMO crops may be unhealthful in some way. I call this a red herring because I'm convinced that none of the current GMO crops are directly harmful to anyone's health. The danger that I see is to the diversity of our food supply. If we were to have only one variety of wheat, one variety of corn, one variety of potatoes, etc., there is a real danger that a fungal or viral disease could wipe out the entire crop. This has happened many times in the past. The Irish potato famine is the most famous example. (Google it!)
The courts have allowed GMO seed to be patented, in spite of the fact that pollen from GMO crops can be transferred by wind or insects to the fields of farmers that are not growing GMO crops. These crops are then contaminated by genetic material that is patented, usually by Monsanto. This is harmless to the consumer's health, but it allows Monsanto to threaten to sue farmers, and thereby coerce them into contracting with Monsanto to use Monsanto's seed. This is a complicated issue, and it is an active one in the courts of America, and foreign nations.
But perhaps there is nothing wrong with a few giant corporations controlling the world's food supply?
I can't agree with your final sentence. Check out the suicide rate among rural farmers in India forced to buy GMO and/or hybrid seeds that are not self-propagating. These farmers are put in the paradoxical situation that in order to afford seeds they have to sell their land...to afford seeds for which they no no longer have land to plant. Living in another developing country, I know that the same factors are forcing peasants off the land, here, into extremely low-paying jobs in the cities. I have no stats on suicide but on other forms of pathology the results are not good...
ReplyDeleteDS
Read my last sentence again. It's a question, a sarcastic one, and my answer is the same as yours, Dave. (Why do you post as Unknown? Readers would take you more seriously if you used a name or a handle.)
DeleteHave you read my article about Corporate Control of America:
http://earthchurch.blogspot.com/2009/09/corporate-control-of-america-couple-of.html
ReplyDeleteIndian Farmers Committing Suicide as a Result of Monsanto's GM Crops
Monsanto’s GM crops were supposed to feed the world hunger and starvation but instead the diverse sustainable organic agriculture was replaced with globalization, GMO crop failures and its threat to environment and human’s health, monopoly, farmer’s suicide and world wide control of seeds. Every 30 minutes an Indian farmer commits suicide as a result of Monsanto’s GM crops. In the last decade more than 250,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves because of Monsanto’s costly seeds and pesticides. Globalization and monopoly have forced farmers to buy GM seeds and since GM crops have become pests’ resistance, the farmers have no choice but to purchase Monsanto’s pesticide. Sometimes GM crops fail over and over again; GM crops also do not grow back again next year and every year farmers have to buy new seeds.
Indian-farmers-suicide-GMO-crops
In 2008 Daily Mail called the continuous suicide of Indian farmers a “genocide” in human history. What’s really disturbing is that often time farmers commit suicide by drinking the insecticide shipped to them by Monsanto.
Read "The Windup Girl" by China Mieville.
ReplyDeleteActually The Windup Girl is by Paolo Bacigalupi! China Mieville wrote "The City and the City"; the two books tied for the 2009 Hugo award. Read 'em both!
DeleteCan farmers still grow unaltered foods and make a profit and not be destroyed by a fungal or viral disease? maybe the reason for the farmers in switching to GMO is that they don't have much choice either way.
ReplyDeleteGreat question! I think the answer is yes though. There are many small farms (mostly organic) that do just this. It's been shown that sustainable practices without the use of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticide have equal or greater yields than "conventional" practices. Although I would argue that the monoculture/GM/chemical methods aren't really conventional, being only 50 or so years old! However, all of the organic farms I know of are pretty small scale, I don't know how the practices would work at the large corporation scale - not well I think. But that's another argument for moving to smaller-scale farming in general.
DeleteCommodity crops are grown using conventional methods precisely because the yields are exponentially greater than can be obtained without conventional fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide and fungicide.
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