GM and the Third World 

Will GM Crops Feed The Third World? 
Should We Stop Agricultural Progress in The Third World ? 
Will The "Next Generation" Of GM Crops (Such As Rice With Vitamin A Genes) Benefit The Poor? 
Who Benefits From GM Foods? 
LET NATURE'S HARVEST CONTINUE Statement from all the African delegates (except South Africa) to FAO negotiations on the International Undertaking for Plant Genetic Resources, June 1998 
Farmers Storm Monsanto as 3rd World denounces GM Food Myths, Feb. 2001

 

WILL IT FEED THE THIRD WORLD? 
To answer this question we need to ask why many people in the Third World are hungry and malnutritioned. 
Traditionally villages were self-reliant, grew a diversity of foods in a sustainable manner and kept large reserves of food (eg in granaries) to cover lean years. 

In colonial times these traditional economies were destroyed so that the people would produce goods primarily for export to the West.  Small diverse collectively- owned farms were replaced with large plantations with an absentee landlord which grew only a single crop. The people became dependant upon an unpredictable international market - and their entire income could be wiped out by a problem with a single crop.  Food had to be imported at high cost in exchange for exports and so the quality and diversity of their diet (and the quantity of fresh fruit and vegetables) declined. 

After independence, Third World nations were unable to escape from this export-based economic system and most of the land remained in the hands of large landowners.  Dependant upon the West for their income these nations were forced to adopt technologies imposed upon them by the West.  The main transformation in agriculture, which was initiated by multinational chemical and seed companies,  was known as the Green Revolution.  Thousands of traditional varieties of crops, such as rice, which were adapted to their specific environment, were replaced by a very few varieties of crop that were designed to  produce high yields only in response to high inputs of fertilisers and pesticides (which the seed companies also sold). 
This revolution did temporarily increase yields for export to the West, but it is proving unsustainable because ultimately it exhausts the land. The largest landowners probably benefited; smaller landowners - who had to borrow money to buy the expensive seeds and chemicals - usually became permanently trapped in debt, as did their nations; most of the people, who had long ago lost their land and become employees, lost their jobs because of mechanisation, and had to move to the shanty towns or survive on occasional labour - in both cases they became poorer and hungrier. 

For the Third World the biotech revolution promises to be similar but even worse than the Green Revolution - which is why Third World nations are uniting to resist its imposition. They are fighting the same chemical and seed companies that destroyed their economies in the Green Revolution. 
GM crops are designed to generate a continuous high income for their creators.  Roundup Ready soya  beans are resistant to the herbicide Roundup, that wipes out all other plants. Purchasers of these seeds will have to buy this herbicide every year from the company that makes the seeds.  GM seeds incorporating terminator genes are designed to be sterile so that new seeds must be bought from the same company every year. 
The consequences of the use of these crops would be to further exacerbate poverty by trapping more farmers and nations in debt, by causing further mechanisation of agriculture and so more rural unemployment.  It would virtually wipe out any diversity of crop types and would further reduce the natural diversity of plants and animals on which the few remaining traditional peoples survive. 

 

SHOULD WE STOP AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE THIRD WORLD? 
Of course not!  - but the reality is that Western multinationals are forcing unsuitable technologies on an unwilling Third World - technologies that will keep the Third World permanently indebted to the West.  The Third World is now resisting and many nations are seeking appropriate technologies - such as modern organic farming and renewable energy sources - instead. 

Whilst the biotech companies argue that they developed GM crops to help the Third World poor, the reality is that the Third World has now seen through this lie.  In 1998 Monsanto wrote to Third World leaders asking for their support - their joint response condemning these crops is highly revealing.  In India millions of farmers demonstrated against genetic engineering by burning crops as part of the 'Cremate Monsanto' campaign - and their union leaders even toured Europe to help destroy crops there. 

Realising that the Third World would not voluntarily accept these crops the biotech companies then planned to use the World Trade Organisation to remove the right of these nations to refuse imports of GM seeds and foods. 

 

WILL THE "NEXT GENERATION" OF GM CROPS (SUCH AS RICE WITH VITAMIN A GENES) BENEFIT THE POOR ? 
Well, we need to ask why vitamin A deficiency now occurs in Third World countries.  The answer, of course, is that the imposition of monoculture and the production of crops for export has destroyed traditionally healthy and diverse diets and created an underclass of landless poor who cannot afford a healthy diet.  The answer to this problem is not for these nations to buy more expensive and untested seeds from the West but to increase the diversity of their crops and grow more of the many vegetables rich in vitamin A, give more land back to the people and to increase national and local self-reliance - and if it were not for the interference of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (and the corruption of some governments) this is exactly what many poor nations would choose to do. 


 

WHO BENEFITS FROM GM FOODS? 
The most immediate benefit is to the biotech companies that sought to impose GM food and crops on us.  Financial institutions and the governments of wealthy nations who, through the World Bank, lend money to poor countries to use these specific technologies obtain a continuous income from interest payments when these countries become trapped in debt and they benefit from a guaranteed supply of cheap crops (mainly used for animal feed) when these nations become trapped in an export-oriented economic system. The result is that Western governments and multinational companies have conspired to force GM crops and foods on western and Third World farmers and consumers without considering the environmental, health or socio-economic consequences. 

see also: 
Crops and Robbers report from Action Aid, reveals 62 examples of new patents and GM that could help giant companies including Mars gain control of the very crops poor people need to survive. Requires Acrobat Reader, available here

 

LET NATURE'S HARVEST CONTINUE 
Statement from all the African delegates (except South Africa) to FAO negotiations on the International Undertaking for Plant Genetic Resources, June 1998 
[published in the European media in late July 1998] 

During the past few weeks European citizens have been exposed to an aggressive publicity campaign in major European newspapers trying to convince the reader that the world needs genetic engineering to feed the hungry. Organised and financed by Monsanto, one of the world's biggest chemical companies, and titled "Let the Harvest Begin", this campaign gives a totally distorted and misleading picture of the potential of genetic engineering to feed developing countries. We, the undersigned delegates of African countries participating in the 5th Extraordinary Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources, 8 - 12 June 1998, Rome, 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, nor economically beneficial to us. 
It is time to look at some of the facts about the company behind this campaign: Monsanto is one of the world's largest pesticide companies. During the past two years only it spent over US$6000 million to take control over other seed and biotechnology companies and is now the major industrial player in this field. Its major focus is not to protect the environment, but to develop crops that can resist higher doses of its best-selling chemical weedkiller "Roundup". 

Rather than stretching a helping hand to farmers, Monsanto threatens them with lawsuits and jail. In the USA, the company employs detectives to find and bring to court those farmers that save Monsanto soybean seeds for next year's planting. Backed by patent law, the company demands the rights to inspect the farmers' fields to check whether they practise agriculture according to Monsanto conditions and with Monsanto chemicals. 

Rather than developing technology that feeds the world, Monsanto uses genetic engineering to stop farmers from replanting seed and further develop their agricultural systems. It has spent US$18000 million to buy a company owning a patent on what has become known as Terminator Technology: seed that can be planted only once and dies in the second generation. The only aim of this technology is to force farmers back to the Monsanto shop every year, and to destroy an age old practice of local seed saving that forms the basis of food security in our countries. 

In "Let the Harvest Begin" the Europeans are asked to give an unconditional green light to gene technology so that chemical corporations such as Monsanto can start harvesting their profits from it. 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 sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves. 

In particular, we will not accept the use of Terminator or other gene technologies that kill the capacity of our farmers to grow the food we need. We invite European citizens to stand in solidarity with Africa in resisting these gene technologies so that our diverse and natural harvests can continue and grow. We agree and accept that mutual help is needed to further improve agricultural production in our countries. We also believe that Western science can contribute to this. But it should be done on the basis of understanding and respect for what is already there. It should be building on local knowledge, rather than replacing and destroying it. And most importantly: it should address the real needs of our people, rather than serving only to swell the pockets and control of giant industrial corporations. 

NAME: 
Jean Marie Fodoun, Cameroun 
George A. Agbahungba, Benin 
Paul Therence Senghor, Senegal 
Koffi Goti, Cote d'Ivoire 
Mokosa Madende, Congo Democ 
Jean Jacques Rakotonalala, Madagascar 
Juvent Baramburiye, Burundi 
Worku Damena, Ethiopia 
Gietaturn Mulat, Ethiopia 
M.S. Harbi, Sudan 
Eltahir Ibrahim Mohamed, Sudan 
Maria A. Calane da Silva, Mozambique 
Kohna Nganara Ngawara, Tchad 
Nkeoua Gregoire, Congo 
Mugorewera Drocella, Rwanda 
H. Yahia-Cafrif, Algeria 
Abebe Demissie, Ethiopia 
G.P. Mwila, Zambia 
Dr S.H. Raljtsogle, Lesotho 
Naceu Hamza, Tunisia 
Hambourne Mellas, Morocco 
Elizabeth Matos, Angola 
Tewolde Berhane Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia 

Additional statement by Zimbabwean delegate: 
"Africa should not be used as a testing ground for technologies and products which have been developed elsewhere. We reserve our sovereign right to test these technologies ourselves, examine their effectiveness and compatibility to the environment in our region."

 

see also: 
Christian Aid's reports on Can Biotech Feed the Third World ?


 
 

Farmers storm Monsanto as 3rd World denounces GM Food Myths

As the West tries to bully Third World governments into using GM crops, peasant farmers around the world are denouncing products that would increase economic dependency, destroy the livelihoods of all but a privileged few farmers and replace locally-controlled food production with corporate-controlled monoculture for export.

On the 29th November Filipino farmers held massive demonstrations outside Monsanto's offices in Mindanao at the end of the Continental Caravan 2000 - a series of protests by many farmers unions across India and Bangladesh.  They were joined by farmers from Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Korea.  Habibur Rahman, a farmer representing Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agriculture Movement), stated: "the Bangladeshi farmers reject genetically engineered rice and I am pleased to learn about the strong resistance here in the Philippines."

On the 3rd January Indian farmers relaunched their "Cremate Monsanto" campaign as 300 volunteers of the newly-formed 'Hasiru Sene' (Green Brigade) - the youth wing of the Karnataka State Farmer's Association - pulled up and burned Monsanto's trial crops of GM cotton.

And on the 26th January over 1200 Brazilian farmers stormed Monsanto's research centre and pulled up GM corn and soybean trials at the start of an ongoing occupation. ``We're staying here indefinitely,'' said Solet Campolete, a local Landless Workers Movement (MST) leader. ``We want to make a statement ... these seeds trick farmers and create dependency on seeds produced by a big multinational.'' The MST families took over the research center and warehouses, hanging hammocks and setting up mattresses and boxes of food.  The protesters scrawled on the walls, ``The seed of death!'' and ``Monsanto is the end of farmers!''

As Third World governments finally see through western propaganda, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Saudi Arabia have joined the growing group of nations rejecting GM food and crops.  A senior Sri Lankan health ministry official, S. Nagiah said, "The government wants to wait until the controversy surrounding GM foods has cleared.”  He added that the government wished to avoid health risks and added that there were no price advantages to be gained from importing GM foods.

Meanwhile suspicion grows that the US Government is subsidising its agbiotech industry by buying up unsellable GM crops from Cargill and ADM to dump as 'food aid'.  This concern was voiced by the US-based development agency, Food First, as groups from cyclone-devastated Orissa, famine-struck Ethiopia, Burundi, the Philippines and Equador complained about the high levels of GM products  (around 30%) in food aid. 

The USDA has admitted that its 'Food for Peace' program is a 'concessional sales program to promote exports of US agricultural commodities' and USDA Secretary, Dan Glickman explained that he encouraged multinational agribusinesses to donate transgenic food through food aid programs, stating, "If they took the longer view they might see the benefit of focusing on the developing world not just as a gesture of corporate citizenship, but because such an investment will ultimately pay dividends as developing countries mature into reliable customers."

Rafael Mariano, chair of the KMP Farmers Union (Philippines), condemned these deals, saying "the agricultural monopolies are very cruel, knowing that starving people have little choice but to accept the food and be grateful even if our biological future is being slowly corrupted with dangerous technologies."  India's Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), which is carrying out relief work in Orissa, stated in a press release that "Emergency situations should not be used for dumping untested and unethical foods on vulnerable sectors" and Dr Tewolde Gebre Egziabher, agriculture spokesman for Ethiopia said "Countries in the grip of a crisis are unlikely to have the leverage to say, 'This crop is contaminated, we're not taking it'," he said. "They should not be faced with a dilemma between allowing a million people to starve to death and allowing their genetic pool to be polluted."

Genetic Food Alert 4 Bertram House, Ticklemore St, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5EJ Tel: 01803 868523 info@geneticfoodalert.org.uk