Genetically Engineered Foods Produce Flourishing Crop of Resistance in Third World

by Jonathon Hurd

This article originally appeared in the Freedom Socialist newspaper.

One of the boldest claims made by the biotech industry is that genetically modified (GM) foods can wipe out hunger in the developing world.

But GM crops have never resulted in reduced prices for consumers and have in fact produced lower yields. They are developed primarily to feed livestock, not people. And most poor countries lack the technological and financial resources to regulate GM foods.

Moreover, the introduction of genetically engineered crops do not address the main problems faced by Third World farmers, such as drought, substandard soils, and local pests and diseases. In cases where less developed countries have attempted themselves to develop GM crops that do deal with these issues, the control of multinationals over the patent process has frustrated their efforts.

Says Kathleen McAfee of the Food First Institute, "Crop biotechnology has not 'fed' anyone but the biotech industry itself."

Hunger comes from poverty

In the first place, world hunger is not caused by lack of food, but by poverty, politics and the inequities of a global capitalist economy. The world already produces 50 percent more food than what is needed to feed the population.

Ethiopia, at the height of its famine in the 1980s, was still exporting grains to pay off its national debt. The most severe epidemic of hunger and malnutrition in the 1990s was in Iraq, a direct consequence of the US sanctions and military blockade.

The roots of hunger in the Third World are embedded in colonialism, which transformed self-sustaining communities into huge plantations producing cash crops for export. Industrial agriculture compounded the problem by driving small farmers into bankruptcy, unable to keep up with the costs of new machinery and chemicals. GM technology now threatens to repeat the pattern.

Terminator technology vs. sustainability

Among the greatest perils to Third World farmers are the new "terminator" seeds.

The crops grown from these seeds produce no fertile seeds of their own, requiring farmers to purchase new seeds every year. Others of these seeds remain infertile until costly chemicals are applied.

Currently, more than 80 percent of seeds used by farmers in developing countries are grown from seeds from last year's crop. Millions of farmers depend on saved seeds to survive. And, although Monsanto promised years ago to abandon terminator technology, new patents are filed every year.

World's poor reject GM dumping

In Western countries, opposition to "Franken-foods" because of health and environmental concerns is gaining momentum. As it does, the biotech industry is looking to dump their products on the Third World, with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the forefront of a GM marketing campaign.

But it is well understood in poor and post-colonial countries that GM crops do not offer any real solutions to the problems of hunger and starvation, and resistance is strong.

The government of Mexico fought without success to keep GM corn out of the country in order to protect the diversity and lineage of the plant in its original home. GM crops, including the dangerous Starlink species, have contaminated fields of maize throughout the country. Starlink is banned in the US because it carries new allergens.

In India, millions of farmers have burned GM fields in what is known as the "Cremate Monsanto" campaign. Farmers' union leaders from India have also toured Europe to help destroy crops there.

Brazil's landless movement called for mass protests against the Workers' Party government when it decided to allow GM crops into the country last year. In Bangladesh and the Philippines, thousands have demonstrated at biotech industry meetings.

Despite coercion, Africa holds the line

Studies in Africa have shown conclusively that GM crops offer no answers to soil fertility, pest resistance or drought. They are also no answer to corruption, declining commodity prices, inequality in land distribution, income disparities, and armed conflicts, which are the major causes of poverty and hunger in Africa.

Many countries in Africa have pushed for an international agreement to regulate trade in GM foods. The result is the Car-ta-gena Protocol on Biosafety. This agreement has been so watered down by the US that it offers no real protection. The loopholes written into it are big enough to drive a truck through, loaded with dangerous Frankenfoods.

The delegates of African countries to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly signed a statement opposing the importation of GM foods in 1998. Angola and Zambia have refused to allow genetically altered foods across their borders even when it meant turning down desperately needed food aid.

The Bush administration now hopes to force African countries to accept GM crops by threatening to cut off support in fighting AIDS.

Biotechnology devastates Argentina

The introduction of GM foods in Argentina has had disastrous consequences.

Argentina was once known as the grain barn of the world, producing enough food to feed eight times its population. After the deregulation of the economy imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the 1990s, US agribusiness giants moved in.

Today, many foods have to be imported, prices have increased, and hunger and extreme poverty are common sights; 54 percent of the people live below the poverty line.

Farmers have lost access to seeds, and tens of thousands have gone into debt trying to keep up. Over 500 rural towns have disappeared as farmers, unable to compete, were pushed off the land and into the cities. Agriculture is dominated almost entirely by the production of Monsanto-brand Roundup Ready soya, designed to withstand massive doses of the herbicide glyphosate.

Argentina's use of glyphosate has increased almost fourfold. The chemical is often sprayed from airplanes, leading to wide-scale ecological harm. Studies from a maternity hospital in Buenos Aires found pesticide residue in the breast milk of over 90 percent of the patients.

Cuba's example

No country has made greater progress than Cuba in fighting hunger and malnutrition. Despite a US embargo that has severely strained the economy, Cuba today is one of few post-colonial nations that meet the nutritional standards set by the UN FAO.

Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of hectares have been put into cultivation: small neighborhood plots, community and patio gardens, and fields that were unused. Organic composting and beneficial insects and microorganisms have done what GM crops have failed to do elsewhere. Sustainable farming practices, based on local knowledge, have in some cases raised yields by 100 percent or more.

In 2003, Cuban agriculture used less than 50 percent of the diesel fuel, less than 10 percent of chemical fertilizers, and less than 7 percent of synthetic insecticides used in 1989. Revamping the agricultural system has been accomplished through the direct involvement of local communities and farmers.

Other countries like Venezuela are now beginning to follow Cuba's example. However, as long as the world's richest nations are able to threaten Third World countries with heavy economic and political penalties for rejecting GM foods, real solutions to world hunger will mainly be passed over and the profits of big business will win out.

What's needed is stronger solidarity among GM resisters internationally, with anti-corporate activists in the most developed countries demanding that their governments cease and desist the force-feeding of GM fare around the world. The goal: democratic control of the food supply everywhere.

Electrician's assistant, nursing student, and veteran environmentalist Jonathon Hurd can be reached at jonathon_hurd@yahoo.com.