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ISIS on GM - When Corporations Rule the World

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ISIS on GM - When Corporations Rule the World

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 01:35:54 +0100

 

 

 

No 27 Autumn 2005

Edited by Mae-Wan Ho

Institute of Science in Society

www.i-sis.org.uk

ISSN: 1474-1547 (print)

ISSN: 1474-1814 (online)

[HOME][sIS INDEX]

 

 

 

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PDF document from the ISIS members area, or the first few pages here.

Hardcopies are available from our online store.

 

 

Science in Society

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis27.php

 

 

From the Editor

When corporations rule the world

 

Health, Human Rights, and GM crops

 

In 1978, the governments of the world gathered under the aegis of the

World Health Organisation to sign the Alma Ata Declaration promising

" Health for All by 2000 " . But this promise was never taken seriously,

and was sidelined in subsequent health policy discussions.

 

In December 2000, 1453 delegates from 75 countries, representing

people's movements and other non-government organization across the

globe, came together in Savar, Bangladesh for the world's first

People's Health Assembly, to reiterate the pledge of " Health for All " ,

declaring health as a basic human right, including the environmental,

social and economic conditions that guarantee health. The Assembly

documented the adverse impacts of the structural adjustment programmes

(SAPs) on people's health, and roundly condemned the international

financial institutions - the World Bank, the International Monetary

Fund and the World Trade Organisation - for pushing SAPs, the

governments for imposing the policies on their people, and the big

transnational corporations for putting profit before people.

 

SAPs are supposed to help poor indebted nations restore their balance

of payments, reduce inflation and create the conditions for

" sustainable growth " . Typical measures include devaluation of local

currencies, spending cuts in the public sector, privatisation of

public services, elimination of subsidies and trade liberalization

(removal of all barriers to trade, finance and procurement). In

practice, SAPs deprive poor people of basic healthcare, education and

other essential services, and leave poor countries wide open to

economic exploitation, especially through transnational corporations -

based in rich countries in the North operating in the South - that

have scant regard for human health or the environment. As a result,

peoples' health worsens while the environment is destroyed at an

ever-accelerating rate, and the poor countries sink deeper into

poverty and indebtedness.

 

The People's Health Assembly met for the second time this July in

Cuenca, Ecuador, when " Health for All " seems even more remote than in

2000. Nevertheless, thirteen hundred delegates from 80 countries came

to reaffirm the Alma Ata vision amid deteriorating conditions of

health for most of the world's people, which are blamed unequivocally

on " neo-liberal policies that transfer wealth from the South to the

North, from the poor to the rich, and from the public to private sector. "

 

The delegates were unanimous in opposing the signing of the Free Trade

Agreements imposed by the United States government and the

international financial institutions that can only further worsen

people's health prospects.

 

Invited to speak on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), I explained

to the Assembly why GM food and feed are proving unsafe, because

genetic modification goes against the grain of the new science of

genetics. I also exposed all the lies and half-truths told by certain

scientists that genetic modification is perfectly safe and very

precise; and makes environmentally friendly GM crops that improve

yield, reduce pesticide use, improve nutrition and so on.

 

Among the most important conditions for health is people's right to

food and adequate nutrition. The People's Charter for Health calls on

governments to implement agricultural policies attuned to people's

needs, and not to the demands of the market, in order to guarantee

food security and equitable access to food. GM crops guarantee neither

food security nor equitable access to food, quite the opposite.

 

In fact, GM crops usurp people's right to food by imposing licence

fees on patented seeds and by preventing farmers from saving and

exchanging seeds, a practice going back for thousands of years. GM

crops are industrial monocultures, only worse. They are more

genetically uniform than conventional monocultures, and hence more

prone to disease. They are more dependent on external inputs,

particularly pesticides; and according to the latest reports by

farmers across the world, GM crops require more water and are less

tolerant of drought.

 

Delegates were right to fear that the Free Trade Agreements will mean

forced imports of GM seeds and GM food and feed into Latin America,

especially as " food aid " . The US' agricultural exports are worth more

than US$ 50 billion each year, and rejection of GM food and feed

across the world is hurting exports.

 

War on world food rights fought over GM crops

 

A war on food rights is being fought over GM crops with big

agribusiness - supported by the US and US-friendly governments

(including the Blair administration) - against the rest of the world;

and it is taking place at all levels from the international arena to

local communities.

 

The US government has sued the European Union (EU) at the World Trade

Organization (WTO) for restricting import of GMOs, and wants the WTO

to override the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety - which gives

countries the right to regulate and reject GMOs - in order to force

GMOs on the world in the name of free trade. The European Commission

responded to the WTO complaint by urging European countries to lift

their national bans on GMOs. But EU member states stood firm with a

clear majority vote in June in favour of keeping the existing national

bans.

 

The US administration is pushing GMOs both officially and through

unofficial channels. In July, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

announced a " second generation of India-US collaboration in

agriculture " . This, after Monsanto's Bt cotton has proven to fail, as

reported by both independent and Indian government scientists.

Monsanto's Indian subsidiary, Monsanto-Mahyco has shamelessly hyped

the GM-cotton seeds, even enlisting a Bollywood star and dancing girls

to go on promotional tours in Punjabi villages.

 

GM crops are also aggressively promoted in Africa. Earlier in July, a

team of " international food scientists " was reported complaining that,

" regulatory hurdles are preventing African farmers from reaping the

benefits of genetically modified foods " , but nonetheless the African

farmers " have been adopting this technology rapidly " . The team's

spokesperson, Joel Cohen of the International Food Policy Research

Institute, was formerly with USAID, and worked with Monsanto to fund

Florence Wambugu to head Monsanto's GM sweet potato project in Kenya,

generating fantastic PR for GM crops, although the project turned out

to be a total flop at a cost of millions. Florence Wambugu is

regularly featured and quoted in top scientific journals including

Nature as a scientist speaking on behalf of Africa and in favour of GM

crops, despite having been exposed by fellow African scientists on

many occasions.

 

Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded US$ 3.3

million to the Monsanto-backed Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in

Ohio, USA, to genetically engineer cassava; and $16.9 million to

Wambugu's African consortium to genetic engineer sorghum for African

farmers, also at a US company, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont

based in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Within the US, repressive bills have been passed in at least 10 states

to block local communities and regions declaring themselves GM-Free,

and are clearly targeted at the grassroots uprising against GM crops

that has been gaining momentum over the past year.

 

A Sustainable World is possible

 

Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Minister for the Environment,

Ethiopia, supported the first public action against commercial GMOs in

Germany with the following statement: " Badly informed governments and

corrupt members of governments everywhere in the world are the main

obstacle to an objective discussion of the true problems of world food

supplies. The merciless forces of the free market, which in the wake

of globalisation is taking on a cynical, inhuman character, deprive

the poorest of the poor of any basis for making a living. "

 

Alan Simpson, Member of UK Parliament, similarly declared at our

Sustainable World International Conference in London that,

" irreverence, heresy, and the breaking of rules were necessary to

raise awareness in the face of deepening water, energy and food

insecurity. "

 

Adopting GM crops when oil and water are both rapidly depleting under

global warming, and when industrial monoculture is showing all the

signs of collapse is a crime against humanity and our planet;

especially when we have all the knowledge at our disposal to build a

truly sustainable and equitable world.

 

All SiS issues and articles can be accessed at

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php

 

 

forwarded by

Zeus Information Service

Alternative Views on Health

www.zeusinfoservice.com

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