GMW: The Global Spread of GMO Crops

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GMW: The Global Spread of GMO Crops

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Sun, 8 Jan 2006 17:50:43 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

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The Global Spread of GMO Crops

Inherit the Wind

By PETER MONTAGUE

CounterPunch, January 7 / 8, 2006

http://www.counterpunch.org/montague01072006.html

 

Felix Ballarin spent 15 years of his life developing a special

organically-grown variety of red corn. It would bring a high price on the

market because local chicken farmers said the red color lent a rosy

hue to

the meat and eggs from their corn-fed chickens. But when the corn

emerged from the ground last year, yellow kernels were mixed with the

red.

Government officials later confirmed with DNA tests that Mr. Ballarin's

crop had become contaminated with a genetically modified (GMO) strain of

corn.

 

Because Mr. Ballarin's crop was genetically contaminated, it no longer

qualified as " organically grown, " so it no longer brought a premium

price. Mr. Ballarin's 15-year investment was destroyed overnight by what

is now commonly known as " genetic contamination. " This is a new

phenomenon, less then 10 years old -- but destined to be a permanent

part of

the brave new world that is being cobbled together as we speak by a

handful of corporations whose goal is global domination of food.

 

Mr. Ballarin lives in Spain, but the story is the same all over the

world: genetically modified crops are invading fields close by (and some

that are not so close by), contaminating both the organic food industry

and the " conventional " (non-GMO and non-organic) food industry.

 

As a result of genetically contamination of non-GMO crops in Europe,

the U.S., Mexico, Australia and South America, the biotech food industry

had an upbeat year in 2005 and things are definitely looking good for

the future. As genetically modified pollen from their crops blows

around, contaminating nearby fields, objections to genetically

modified crops

diminish because non-GMO alternatives become harder and harder to find.

A few more years of this and there may not be many (if any) truly

non-GMO crops left anywhere. At that point there won't be any debate

about

whether to allow GMO-crops to be grown here or there -- no one will have

any choice. All the crops in the world will be genetically modified

(except perhaps for a few grown in greenhouses on a tiny scale). At that

point, GMO will have contaminated essentially the entire planet, and the

companies that own the patents on the GMO seeds will be sitting in the

catbird seat.

 

It is now widely acknowledged that GMO crops are a " leaky technology "

-- that it to say, genetically modified pollen is spread naturally on

the wind, by insects, and by humans. No one except perhaps some officials

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture were actually surprised to learn

this. GMO proponents have insisted for a decade that genetic

contamination could never happen (wink, wink) and U.S. Department of

Agriculture

officials want along with the gag. And so of course GMO crops are now

spreading everywhere by natural means, just as you would expect.

 

It couldn't have turned out better for the GMO crop companies if they

had planned it this way.

 

Growers of organically-grown and conventional crops are naturally

concerned that genetic contamination is hurting acceptance of their

products. Three California counties have banned GM crops. Anheuser-

Busch Co.,

the beer giant, has demanded that its home state (Missouri) keep GMO

rice fields 120 miles away from rice it buys to make beer. The European

Union is now trying to establish buffer zones meant to halt the unwanted

spread of GM crops. However, the Wall Street Journal reported November

8 that, " Such moves to restrict the spread of GM crops often are

ineffective. Last month in Australia, government experts discovered

biotech

canola genes in two non-GM varieties despite a ban covering half the

country. 'Regretfully, the GM companies appear unable to contain their

product, " said Kim Chance, agriculture minister for the state of Western

Australia, on the agency's Web site.

 

For some, this seems to come as a shocking revelation -- genetically

modified pollen released into the natural environment spreads long

distances on the wind. Who would have thought? Actually, almost anyone

could

have figured this out. Dust from wind storms in China contaminates the

air in the U.S. Smoke from fires in Indonesia can be measured in the

air half-way around the world. Pollen is measurable in the deep ice of

antarctica. No one should ever have harbored any doubt that genetically

modified pollen would spread everywhere on the Earth sooner or later.

(We are now exactly 10 years into the global experiment with GMO seeds.

The first crops were planted in open fields in the U.S. in 1995. From

this meager beginning, global genetic contamination is now well along.)

 

Who benefits from all this? Think of it this way: when all crops on

earth are genetically contaminated, then the seed companies that own the

patented seeds will be in a good position to begin enforcing their

patent rights. They have already taken a test case to court and won. In

2004, Monsanto (the St. Louis, Mo. chemical giant) won a seven-year court

battle against a 73-year-old Saskatchewan farmer whose fields had been

contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified plants. The Supreme

Court of Canada court ruled that the farmer -- a fellow named Percy

Schmeiser -- owed Monsanto damages for having Monsanto's patented crops

growing illegally in his field.

 

Armed with this legal precedent, after genetically modified crops have

drifted far and wide, Monsanto, Dow and the other GMO seed producers

will be in a position to muscle most of the world's farmers. It is for

cases exactly like this that the U.S. has spent 30 years creating the WTO

(world trade organization) -- to settle disputes over " intellectual

property rights " (such as patents) in secret tribunals held in Geneva,

Switzerland behind closed doors without any impartial observers

allowed to

attend. Even the results of WTO tribunals are secret, unless the

parties involved choose to reveal them. Let me see -- a dirt farmer from

India versus Monsanto and Dow backed by the U.S. State Department and the

U.S. Treasury. I'm struggling to predict who might win such a politico-

legal dispute conducted by a secret tribunal in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

During 2005, it was discovered that GMO crops have not lived up to

their initial promise of huge profits for farmers and huge benefits for

consumers. It was also discovered that the U.S. Department of Agriculture

has not enforced its own strict regulations that were intended to

prevent experimental GMO seeds to accidentally contaminating nearby

fields.

GMO crops were supposed to produce important human health benefits -

and the be developed under super- strict government control - but all

these promises have turned out to be just so much eye wash.. GMOs were

supposed to reduce reliance on dangerous pesticides -- but in fact they

have had the opposite effect. Monsanto's first GMO crops were designed to

withstand drenching in Monsanto's most profitable product, the weed

killer Round-Up -- so farmers who buy Monsanto's patented " Round- up

ready " seeds apply more, not less, weed killer.

 

But so what? Who cares if GMO seeds don't provide any of the benefits

that were promised? Certainly not the seed companies. Perhaps benefits

to the people of the world were never the point. Perhaps the point was

to get those first GMO crops in the ground -- promise them the moon! --

and then allow nature to take its course and contaminate the rest of

the planet with patented pollen. The intellectual property lawsuits will

come along in good time. Patience, dear reader, patience. Unlike

people, corporations cannot die, so our children or our grandchildren may

find themselves held in thrall by two or three corporations that have

seized legal control of much of the world's food supply by getting courts

(backed by the threat of force, as all courts ultimately are) to enforce

their intellectual property rights.

 

The Danish government has passed a law intended to slow the pace of

genetic contamination. The Danes will compensate farmers whose fields

have

become contaminated, then the Danish government will seek recompense

from the farmer whose field originated the genetic contamination,

assuming the culprit can be pinpointed. This may slow the spread of

genetic

contamination, but the law is clearly not designed to end the problem.

 

Yes, it has been a good year for the GMO industry. None of the stated

benefits of their products have materialized -- and the U.S. government

regulatory system has been revealed as a sham -- but enormous benefits

to the few GMO corporations are right on track to begin blossoming. For

Monsanto, Dow and Novartis, a decent shot at gaining control over much

of the world's food supply is now blowing on the wind and there's no

turning back. As the Vice-President of plant genetics for Dow

Agrosciences said recently, " There will be come continuing bumps in

the road, but

we are starting to see a balance of very good news and growth. The

genie is way out of the bottle. "

 

Peter Montague is editor of the indispensable Rachel's Health and

Democracy, where this essay originally appeared. He can be reached at:

peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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