GMW: Directing our food future.

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GMW: Directing our food future"GM WATCH" <info Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:26:05 +0100GM WATCH daily http://www.gmwatch.org---1.Re: Why Is Africa Hungry?2.Consumers have power to direct food future3.Sustainable highlights---1.Re: Why Is Africa Hungry?from the GM Free Africa list, April 16 2006After 35 years experience in Zambia I am convinced that the way toincrease agricultural production and improve the livelihoods ofsmall-scalefarmers is to promote organic agriculture and small or appropriatetechnologies.Open pollinated varieties should be emphasized rather than hybrids. Lowexternal input agriculture will

double to quadruple production andleave more profit in the farmers pocket.Organic agriculture does not mean not using any inputs. There is a needto improve the soil fertility. That is done with green manures,manuring, etc. A deliberate effort has to be made to improve thefertility ofthe soil. Indigenous Knowledge is another tool that is often ignored.The older people know a lot about trees, plants, etc. that are helpfulmedicines for humans and animals. Let us encourage the use of thisknowledge by doing more research and promote this knowledge amongst ouragricultural students.Paul Desmarais S.J.DirectorKasisi Agricultural Training CentreP.O. Box 30652Lusaka, ZAMBIA---2.Consumers have power to direct food futureThe Guardian (Charlottetown, Canada), April 19 2006http://allshanadian.blogspot.com/2006/04/tonight-i-wrote-letter-to-editor.htmlRe: Mr Lank's comments as published in Monday's edition (GM crops awin-win for all).While I agree that pesticide use on crops should be eliminated, I donot believe that adopting genetic modification of our foods is a viablealternative.Pesticide use and genetic modification are two sides of the same coin -they are both products of continued efforts to industrializeagriculture. This intense indulstrialization of food production hasbecome thedomain of big business and the demise of family farms and local markets.It is multi-national companies that will 'win' if we allowgenetic-modification to go ahead, for they are the ones that arepatenting thesenew cropsI question the foresight of accepting genetic modification of our foodsbased on the suggestion there is only a remote possibiliy that

problemscould emerge. Pesticides have been used in agriculture for over a halfa century and we continue to debate the health implications ofintroducing these toxins to our diet, whilst spraying more and moreeach year.One need only recall the enthusasim with which DDT was marketed andaccepted by the general public to realise the inherent dangers inaccepting a new science simply on the basis that it's not yet provento beharmful. Aside from the potential health risks from GM foods (somedocumented and some yet to be determined), I believe the greatestthing westand to lose is biodiversity. The importance of diversity within anyspecies cannot be overlookedThere is a viable alternative to spraying our crops with pesticides,but it is not GM foods. We need to trust nature's ability to protectcrops from disease, to maintain biodiversity and to provide us with foodthat is rich in taste and

nutrients. As consumers we have the power todirect the future of our food. Buying organically and locally, supportinglocal farmer's markets, eating in-season foods and encouraging ourgovernments to support sustainable agriculture are some of the simplewaysthat we can take back control of what we eat, where we shop and how wesupport our local economy.Shannon CourtneyCornwall, PE---3.Sustainable highlightshttp://ngin.tripod.com/article2.htm* some 223,000 farmers in southern Brazil using green manures and covercrops of legumes and livestock integration have doubled yields of maizeand wheat to 4-5 tons/ha;* some 45,000 farmers in Guatemala and Honduras have used regenerativetechnologies to triple maize yields to some 2-2.5 tons/ha and diversifytheir upland farms, which has led to local economic growth that has

inturn encouraged re-migration back from the cities;* more than 300,000 farmers in southern and western India farming indryland conditions, and now using a range of water and soil managementtechnologies, have tripled sorghum and millet yields to some 2-2.5tons/hectare;* some 200,000 farmers across Kenya who as part of various governmentand non-government soil and water conservation and sustainableagriculture programmes have more than doubled their maize yields toabout 2.5 to3.3 t/ha and substantially improved vegetable production through thedry seasons;* 100,000 small coffee farmers in Mexico who have adopted fully organicproduction methods, and yet increased yields by half;* a million wetland rice farmers in Bangladesh, China, India,Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam whohaveshifted to sustainable agriculture, where group-based farmer-fieldschoolshave

enabled farmers to learn alternatives to pesticides whilst stillincreasing their yields by about 10%.-------------------------- "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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