By Nathan B. Batalion
Published by Americans for Safe Food. Oneonta, N.Y.

Page 5 of 6 (Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4)

Organic Farming Losing Purity

At the present rate of proliferation of GM foods, within 50-100 years the majority of organic foods may no longer be organic.

Mixing A Texas organic corn chip maker, Terra Prima, suffered a substantial economic loss when their corn chips were contaminated with GM corn and had to be destroyed.

Losing Natural Pesticides

Organic farmers have long used "Bt" (a naturally occurring pesticidal bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis) as an invaluable farming aide. It is administered at only certain times, and then sparingly, in a diluted form. This harms only the target insects that bite the plant. Also in that diluted form, it quickly degrades in the soil.

By contrast, genetically engineered Bt corn, potatoes and cotton, together making up roughly one-third of US GM crops, all exude this natural pesticide. It is present in every single cell, and pervasively impacts entire fields over the entire life span of crops. This probably increases Bt use at least a million fold in US agriculture.

According to a study conducted at NYU, BT residues remained in the soil for as long as 243 days. As an overall result, agricultural biologists predict this will lead to the destruction of one of organic farming's most important tools. It will make it essentially useless. A computer model developed at the University of Illinois predicted that if all US Farmers grew Bt resistant corn, resistance would occur within 12 months.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina have already discovered Bt resistance among moth pests that feed on corn. The EPA now requires GM planting farmers to set aside 20 to 50 percent of acres with non-BT corn to attempt to control the risk and to help monarch butterflies survive.

Terminator Technology

Plants are being genetically produced with no annual replenishing of perennial seeds so farmers will become wholly dependent on the seed provider. In the past Monsanto had farmers sign agreements that they would not collect seeds, and even sent out field detectives to check on farmers.

Traitor Technology

Traitor technologies control the stages or life cycles of plants (when a plant will leaf, flower, and bear fruit). This forces the farmer to use certain triggering chemicals if he is to yield a harvest -- again causing much deeper levels of economic dependence. These technologies are being developed and patented at a furious pace.

Less Diversity, Quality, Quantity and Profit

One of the most misleading hopes raised by GM technology firms is that they will solve the world's hunger. Some high technology agriculture does offer higher single crop yields. But organic farming techniques, with many different seeds interplanted between rows, generally offer higher per acre yields. This applies best to the family farm, which feeds the majority of the Third World. It differs from the large-scale, monocrop commercial production of industrialized nations.

Even for commercial fields, results are questionable. In a study of 8,200 field trials, Roundup Ready soybeans produced fewer bushels of soy than non-GM (Charles Benbrook study, former director Board of Agriculture at the National Academy of Sciences). The average yield for non-GM soybeans was 51.21 bushels per acre; for GM soybeans it was 49.26.

This was again confirmed in a study at the University of Nebraska's Institute of Agricultural Resources. They grew five different strains of Monsanto soya plants in four different locations of varied soil environments. Dr. Elmore of the project found that on average GM seeds, though more expensive, produced six percent less than non-GM relatives, and 11 percent less than the highest yielding conventional crops.

"The numbers were clear," stated Dr. Elmore. The yield for Bt corn, however, in other studies was higher. But this did not lead to greater profit because GM related costs, in terms of insecticides, fertilizer and labor, were nearly $4 more per acre.

Fragility of Future Agriculture

With loss of biological diversity there inevitably develops a fragility of agriculture. During the Irish potato famine of the 19th century, farmers grew limited varieties of potatoes. This allowed a crop blight to spread throughout. By contrast, there are thousands of varieties of potatoes in Peru that provide adaptability and thus a constant resource for blight resistance.

Farm researchers have tapped into this treasure chest for the benefit of the rest of the world. Reminiscent of the Irish potato catastrophe of the 1840s, Cornell Chronicle reports a still more virulent strain than ever, known as potato late blight, is presently attacking Russian potato crops and threatening regional food shortages. The new strain can survive harsh winters.

In January 2000, the NY Times reported a citrus canker blight in Southern Florida -- one seriously threatening the state's entire $8.5 billion citrus fruit industry. Coca plants, monocropped and nearly identical, are also endangered by an international blight. Thus the destruction rather than preservation of alternative, adaptable seed stocks by GM companies, follows a dangerous path for the future of all of agriculture.

Lower Yields and More Pesticides Used With RR Seeds

Contrary to claims, a Rodale study shows that the best of organic farming techniques -- using rich natural compost -- can produce higher drought resistance as well as higher yielding plants than current technological attempts. Dr. Charles Benbrook, a consultant for the Consumer's Union, published a summary of a report revealing Roundup Ready soybeans actually used two to five times more pounds of herbicides per acre than conventional soybeans sprayed with other low-dose pesticides.

Monopolization of Food Production

The rapid and radical change in the human diet was made possible by quick mergers and acquisitions that moved to control segments of the US farming industry. Although there are approximately 1,500 seed companies worldwide, about two dozen control more than 50 percent of the commercial seed heritage of our planet.

The consolidation has continued to grow. In 1998 the top five soy producers controlled 37 percent of the market (Murphy Family Foods; Carroll's Foods, Continental Grain, Smithfield Foods, and Seaboard). One year later, the top five controlled 51 percent (Smithfield, having acquired Murphy's and Carroll's, Continental, Seaboard, Prestige and Cargill). Cargill and Continental Grain later merged.

With corn seed production and sales, the top four seed companies controlled 87 percent of the market in 1996 (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Holden's Foundation Seeds, DeKalb Genetics, and Novaris). In 1999, the top three controlled 88 percent (Dupont having acquired Pioneer, Monsanto having acquired Holden's and DeKalb, and Novaris. In the cotton seed market, Delta and Land Pine Company now control about 75 percent of the market.

The concentration is staggering.

National farming associations see this dwindling of price competition and fewer distribution outlets as disfavoring and threatening the small family farm. Average annual income per farm has plummeted throughout the last decade. Almost a quarter of all farm-operating families live below the poverty level, twice the national average, and most seek income from outside the farm to survive. A similar pattern is developing in Europe.

Impact on Long-Term Food Supply

If food production is monopolized, the future of that supply becomes dependent on the decisions of a few companies and the viability of their seed stocks. Like the example of Peru, there are only a few remaining pockets of diverse seed stocks to insure the long-term resilience of the world's staple foods.

All of them are in the Third World. Food scientists indicate that if these indigenous territories are disturbed by biotech's advance, the long-term vitality of all of the world's food supply is endangered.

Biocolonization

In past centuries, countries managed to overrun others by means of fierce or technologically superior armies. The combined control of genetic and agricultural resources holds a yet more powerful weapon for the invasion of cultures; for only when a person loses food self-sufficiency do they become wholly dependent and subservient. That is why 500,000 farmers in India staged a protest on October 2, 1993 against GATT trade regulations and now oppose GM seed products.

Dependency

Under the new regulations of WTO, the World Bank, GATT, NAFTA, the autonomy of local economies can be vastly overridden. Foreign concerns can buy up all the major seed, water, land and other primary agricultural resources -- converting them to exported cash rather than local survival crops. This is likely to further unravel the self-sufficiency of those cultures, as with the past failures of the "green revolution."

Rights

"The FDA's failure to require labeling of genetically altered foods is effectively restricting Americans from exercising this right and subjects individuals to foods they have sound ... reasons to avoid. FDA policy thus appears to violate the First Amendment of the Constitution ... .the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which requires that added substances to food be labeled ... and mandates disclosure of material facts."

For Health/Environmental/Socio-Political Reasons

The lack of labeling violates the right to know what is in our foods given the list of health, environmental, and socio-political reasons to avoid GM ingredients. Even if GM foods were 100 percent safe, the consumer has a right to know such ingredients due to their many potential harms.

For Religious Dietary Reasons

Previously if someone wanted to avoid foods not permitted in certain religions, the process was simple. With transgenic alterations, every food is suspect, and the religious and health-conscious consumer has no way of knowing without a mandated label.

Contradiction in Terms

The term bioengineering is a contradiction in terms. "Bio" refers to life -- that which is whole, organic, self-sufficient, inwardly organizing, conscious, and living. That consciousness of nature creates a web that is deeply interconnecting. The term "engineering," on the other hand, refers to the opposite -- to mechanical design of dead machines, things made of separate parts, and thus not consciously connected, to be controlled, spliced, manipulated, replaced, and rearranged.

Imposing a Non-Living Model onto Nature

"The crying of animals is nothing more than just the creaking of machines," wrote the philosopher René Descartes in the 17th century. This powerfully expressed an inhumane and mechanical view of nature that does not respect life. The genetic model is derivative of this mechanistic way of relating to nature.

Continue to page 6 of this article

[ Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 ]