Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet

[Guest guest]

Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet

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iants-in-fiercest-attack-yet-951

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In a provocative address to an Indian audience, the Prince echoes Gandhi

with a stinging attack on 'commerce without morality'. Geoffrey Lean reports

Sunday, 5 October 2008

 

It is less than two months since Prince Charles was on the receiving end of

a fusillade of scientific, political and commentariat criticism for voicing,

yet again, his concerns about GM crops and foods. He was widely accused of

" ignorance " and " Luddism " ; of being too rich to care about the hungry, and even

of trying to increase sales of his own organic produce. It was put about

that Gordon Brown was angered by his intervention.

Yet the Prince has responded by stepping up his campaign, making his most

anti-GM speech yet, in delivering – by video – the Sir Albert Howard

Memorial

Lecture to the Indian pressure group Navdanya last Thursday. And he made it

clear that he was going to continue. " The reason I keep sticking my

60-year-old head above an increasingly dangerous parapet is not because it is

good for

my health, " he said " but precisely because I believe fundamentally that

unless we work with nature, we will fail to restore the equilibrium we need in

order to survive on this planet. "

True to his word, he plunged straight into the most controversial and

emotive of all the debates over GM crops and foods by highlighting the suicides

of

small farmers. Tens of thousands killed themselves in India after getting

into debt. The suicides were occurring long before GM crops were introduced,

but

campaigners say that the technology has made things worse because the seeds

are more expensive and have not increased yields to match.

The biotech industry strongly denies this, but two official reports have

suggested that there " could " be a possible link.

Prince Charles expressed no doubts in his lecture, delivered at the

invitation of Dr Vandana Shiva, the founder of Navdanya, and one of the leading

proponents of the technology's role in the deaths. He spoke of " the truly

appalling and tragic rate of small farmer suicides in India, stemming in part

from

the failure of many GM crop varieties " .

Much of the controversy surrounds claims of failures by a Monsanto GM cotton

called Bollguard. The GM company says that " farmers in India have found

success " with it, and cites a survey in support. Its opponents produce evidence

of their own to show the opposite.

But Prince Charles did not stop there. Broadening his offensive, he said

that " any GM crop will inevitably contaminate neighbouring fields " , making it

impossible to maintain the integrity of organic and conventional crops. For the

first time in history this would lead to " one man's system of farming

effectively destroying the choice of another man's " and " turn the whole issue

into

a global moral question. " He quoted Mahatma Gandhi who condemned " commerce

without morality " and " science without humanity " . He added: " One must surely

ask the question whether – if only from a precautionary point of view – it

might be wise to keep some areas of the world free from GM-based agriculture. "

The Prince attacked the contention that " GM food is now essential to feed

the world " , saying that the evidence showed that modified crops' yields were

" generally lower than their conventional counterparts " . He called them " a wrong

turning on the route to feeding the world in a sustainable or durable

manner " and " a risky and expensive distraction, diverting attention and

resources

away from those real, long-term solutions such as crop varieties which respond

well to low input systems that, in turn, do not rely on fossil fuels. " There

was substantial evidence " to show that a growing world population can be fed

most successfully in the long term by agricultural systems that manage the

land within environmental limits " .

Recent research had shown, he added, that organic farming techniques had

increased yields in Brazil by 250 per cent and in Ethiopia were up fivefold,

while the world's biggest international agricultural study – headed by

Professor

Bob Watson, now chief scientist at Department for Food, Environment and

Rural Affairs – had backed organic farming, rather than GM to tackle word

hunger.

 

Kirtana Chandrasekaran of Friends of the Earth said: " Prince Charles is

right that GM crops and industrial farming are profiting big businesses, not

feeding the world's poorest. "

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Got to love this guy.

He is also pro homeopathy and natural medicine among other things.

You rock, Charles!

 

Maria

 

,

bestsurprise2002 wrote:

>

>

> Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet

> _http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/charles-

targets-gm-crop

> -giants-in-fiercest-attack-yet-951808.html_

> (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/charles-

targets-gm-crop-giants-in-fiercest-attack-yet-951

> 808.html)

>

>

> In a provocative address to an Indian audience, the Prince echoes

Gandhi

> with a stinging attack on 'commerce without morality'. Geoffrey

Lean reports

> Sunday, 5 October 2008

>

>> Kirtana Chandrasekaran of Friends of the Earth said: " Prince

Charles is

> right that GM crops and industrial farming are profiting big

businesses, not

> feeding the world's poorest. "

>

>

>

>