feeding the world?
genetic engineering and the struggle for the seed

Who says GE’s the answer ?

In 1998 the big seed and chemical company Monsanto launched an advertising campaign to promote Genetic Engineering to Europe, with the slogan:“Slowing
itsacceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford.”

Later that year, delegates from 18 African countries, who were representing their governments at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, responded to the adverts with a statement to the press:

“We strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, nore conomically beneficial to us.We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. On the contrary,we think it will destroy the diversity, the local
knowledge and the sustaiinable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed over millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves..””

• According to to the UN, we are already producing one and a half times the amount of food needed to feed the world, but one in seven people suffers from hunger.
• 78% of all malnourished children under the age of five lives in countries with food surpluses.
• In 1984 at the height of the famine in Ethiopia, oilseed rape, linseed, and cottonseed was being grown on prime agricultural land to be exported as feed for livestock to the UK and Europe.
• For every £1 that the West gives in aid to third world countries, £6 is paid back by these same countries in debt repayments.
• Countries in debt are effectively forced to grow cash crops like coffee and sugar rather than feeding their own populations. These exports are used to repay loans taken out by governments for things like dam projects, pipelines and weapons purchases (often tied to deals with British companies).

“There are still hungry people in Ethiopia, but they are hungry because they have no money,no longer because there is no food to buy..We strongly resent the abuse of our poverty to sway the interests of the European public”
Tewolde Egziabher, Africa’s spokesperson at UN Biosafety negotiations.

• A recent survey of 4.42 million farmers around the world found that when they switched to sustainable agriculture (mostly organic and small scale) average food production per household increased by 73%.

“Seeds have to stay in womens hands, I don’t want the companies seeds”
Anjuman Ara, Chakaria farmer

Most genetically engineered seeds are designed to be herbicide resistant. Some even
have ‘traitor genes’ which make ‘junkie plants’ that are only able to grow when sprayed with the companies own brand chemical.

‘Terminator’ seeds are designed to be infertile, so farmers cannot save some seeds from their crop to plant again next year, but must go back to the company to buy more.

Such products will only benefit massive farms with more machinery, that need fewer labourers, thus increasing unemployment.

GM ‘controlled ripening’ coffee beans are engineered so that the whole crop can be picked at once by a machine. This would threaten the jobs of at least half of the worlds 60 million coffee workers.

Many farmers are already suffering from tough contracts with seed companies. Trapped by impossible personal debts after the failure of the cotton harvest in ‘97 at least two hundred smallholders in Andhra Pradesh committed suicide.

Letting corporations take control of the food supply will always mean that profits are seen as more important than people.

GM gives multinationals total control.

What they did

All over the world people are standing up to the threats against their land and food.
Over twelve hundred Brazilian farmers responded to Monsanto’s activities in their country by occupying it’s research station and pulling up GM corn and soya trials.
They remained for several days, decorating its walls with “these seeds trick farmers and create dependency on seeds produced by a big multinational” and “Monsanto is the end of farmers”

And on August 29th 2001 eight hundred farmers, church people, students and other members of civil society in the Philippines uprooted 1,700 square meters of experimental
GM maize.

In Jan 2001 three hundred Indian farmers pulled up and burnt a trial of GM cotton as part of their ‘cremate Monsanto’ campaign.

what you can do

The biotech industry spends millions of pounds on public relations, but it only works if people don’t challenge it. Talk to your friends about the issue, hold a stall in your highstreet, write to the papers, get the message out.

GM food is still entering the food chain through animal feed. Most dairy and meat products come from animals fed on GM crops, and this backdoor route supports well over half of the GM industry. Profits from these foods go directly to the big biotech companies. Put pressure on supermarkets and other suppliers to ban GM feed.

All organic produce is guarantee GM free, but better still try and get on a local veg box scheme. For details of suppliers in your area look up www.bigbarn.co.uk (many libraries now offer free internet access) Growing your own food is an amazing way to cut out the corporations altogether. Contact your local council for information on how to get hold of an allotment- they’re very cheap to rent.

To ensure that products you purchase aren’t exploiting people, always buy fair trade goods. GM crops are being tested all over Britain. Holding up their development here has already sent a strong message to the rest of the world about how much we want to resist this technology too. For more information on how to campaign against crops growing near you contact the; Genetic Engineering Network on 0207 272 1586 or www.geneticsaction.org.uk

This is just a very brief introduction to a really complex issue. For more detailed information contact Action Aid on 020 7281 4101 www.actionaid.org,
www.jubilee2000.uk.org and Christian Aid: www.christian-a aid.org.uk.

This was produced by the Totnes Genetics Group, and references for the statistics given here are available from them on 01803 840098.

Question everything.