GRAIN on GM crops in 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

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GRAIN on GM crops in 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

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Mon, 10 Jan 2005 23:02:41 GMT

 

 

 

 

GRAIN on GM crops in 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Many thanks to GRAIN for this incisive contribution to our REVIEW OF

THE YEAR series.

 

For an html version of this article with more links than those below:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4784

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Some thoughts from GRAIN on GM crops in 2004:

 

GM Contamination was at the centre of the push for and resistance to GM

crops last year (http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=280 ). There's

little doubt that industry is deliberately pursuing contamination to make

the global acceptance of GM a fait accompli. It wants people to believe

that the only option left is to 'manage' the co-existence of GM and

non-GM agriculture -- turning non-GM agriculture into a tightly regulated

system governed by onerous contracts that leaves farmers more vulnerable

to the power of agribusiness. But the inevitability of GM

contamination is clarifying things for the resistance against GM

crops. We've seen

how GM canola has wreaked havoc in western Canada

(http://www.grain.org/research/contamination.cfm?id=172 ). We've seen

what's happened to the maize of the indigenous peoples and peasants of

Mexico (http://www.grain.org/research/contamination.cfm ). We've seen how

GM soya has devastated Argentina and forced the GM door open to

neighboring countries. We've seen GM cotton spread out of control in

India and

we shudder at the looming introduction of GM rice. We increasingly

understand where the biotech industry is taking us: to a two-stream

system

of global food and agriculture - a GM free niche market for the very

rich and a GM polluted supply for the rest of us - with the same small

number of corporations controlling both streams, from seed to

supermarket.

 

The very science behind GM is increasingly being questioned for being

too simplistic, reductionist and outdated. In direct contradiction of

industry propaganda, studies from last year confirmed that " junk DNA " is

essential to biological function

(http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2003/Junk-GenomeNov03.htm ), that shooting

genes into cells does more harm than good and causes many unintended

consequences (http://www.econexus.info/publications.html#genome ) and

that the promised yield increases and pest tolerances from GM crops are

empty (http://www.grain.org/research/btcotton.cfm?links ). Desperate to

get their technology pushed into the farmers fields anyway, governments

and companies turn to ever more unscrupulous tactics: bribes, threats

of trade sanctions, bilateral and multi-lateral arm-twisting, smear

campaigns, etc. (http://www.grain.org/research/btcotton.cfm?id=252 )

 

But the good news is that in the face of mounting aggression from the

biotech lobby and the complicity of national governments and

international agriculture organizations, people are organising to

reject GM. In

2004, GM-free zones continued to expand across Europe and around the

world. Small farmers in Kenya and Mali took clear stands against the

heavy

GM push in their countries

(http://www.grain.org/research/contamination.cfm?id=212 ). Indigenous

peoples in Mexico have taken matters into their own hands and are

building long-term strategies for decontamination and the survival of

their

traditional agriculture (http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=292 ).

More than 650 civil society organisations and 800 individuals from more

than 80 countries came together to denounce the FAO for its " war on

farmers not on hunger " in its pro-GM annual report on the state of food

and agriculture (http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=180 ). The past year made

it clear that there is very little " middle of the road " left between

those pushing GM and those opposing it. The emperor has no clothes:

co-existence isn't possible; the costs of the technology vastly

outweigh the

benefits; and the only way to get it accepted is by force. 2005 will

see more of this, and the challenge to all of us is to further strengthen

the resistance from the bottom up.

 

For all the links:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4784

 

 

 

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