I’ve been hearing talks about Monsanto offering some deals to local farmers here in town and having read some bad press about this multinational, I dug deeper for more information. What I found is a very informative hour-long documentary entitled “Life running out of control” dealing with the effects of genetically-engineered seeds on natural plant life. From Prof. Terje Traavic’s words in the documentary, we infer that tampering with the DNA of seeds causes genetic pollution that “replicates” indefinitely across species. Various resource persons in the video emphasize the impact of Genetically Modified (GM) seeds on natural seeds; there is inevitable cross pollination between GM crops that coexist (in adjacent farms or contiguous lands) with native/wild crop varieties until the native crops become so polluted that they lose their original genetic make-up, resulting to the extinction of natural/wild seeds. As winds carry pollen from GM crops across fields, there is similar impact on nearby organic farms. Though the video does not dwell much on the effect of GM crops on humans, it goes without saying that man, as the ultimate consumer, is affected, too, for as we can surmise from the video, the foreign genetic material introduced into the GM seed replicates itself as it moves up the food chain.

Proponents of GM crops, on the other hand, stress the importance of the technology in responding to world food shortage, citing the potential of GM seeds, such as corn, to double the yield of their wild counterparts. Bio-engineering is also producing crops that provide more nutrition to consumers. For instance, golden rice is reportedly infused with beta-carotene that “could save thousands of malnourished people each year from blindness and the other vitamin A–deficiency diseases prevalent in Southeast Asia.” The golden rice variety is expected to be commercially available in the Philippines in 2011, the first GM rice to be propagated in the country.

Attracted by the promised higher yields, many farmers around the world have embraced biotech seeds. Last year, areas planted with GM crops worldwide increased by 9.4 percent from 114.3 million hectares in 2007, and this figure is projected to reach 1.61 billion hectares by 2015. Monsanto has been testing GM corn in the Philippines since 2001 and in 2003, it got approval for the herbicide-tolerant Corn GA 21 from the Philippine government. While farmers in the south have opposed GM corn, farmers here up north have been more welcoming. There is no doubt that GM corn is here to stay. Now I realize that the cornfields I appreciatively wrote about in this post are potential dangers to biodiversity and to people.

There are also farmers that have been dismayed with the promised increase in yield. Soybean farmers in the US have observed no increase in yields since they adopted genetically-engineered soybeans, whereas they used to enjoy .45% annual increases from 1972 to 1993. They suspect a correlation between flat growth rates and the GM soybeans. In India, the second largest producer of cotton in the world, there is strong opposition to biotech cotton among farmers, so strong that allegations of a connection between farmer suicides and adoption of biotech corn prompted the International Food Policy Research Institute to investigate the issue, and eventually concluded the contrary. Conflicting reports on the productivity/failure of biotech cotton in India abound on the Internet, a clear indication of how divisive the issue is. The same is true worldwide, making it difficult to determine with certainty the success or failure of GM crops. In the Philippines, the Southeast Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment debunked a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications of an increase in area planted with biotech corn, claiming that farmers changed their minds after their first planting of such kind of corn owing to the high cost of seeds.

Biotech researchers have come up with an answer to the issue of cross contamination by rendering GM seeds sterile. However, this prevents farmers from being able to propagate the seeds they already have. Agro-chem companies are known for patenting their technology. In fact, I stumbled into a patent application for seed sterilization technology here. This means that agro-chems can monopolize seed banks and continuously make money off of farmers’ demand for new seeds. Patenting of genetically-engineered seeds by multinationals side by side gradual extinction of natural seeds that could be freely had by farmers will drive farmers poorer and companies richer, as the former will forever be dependent on the latter for GM seeds.

It is thus not surprising that many farmers distrust agro-chemical companies, claiming that GM crop varieties use chemical inputs sold by the companies themselves, just like the case of Monsanto, their biotech corn, and the herbicide Roundup. Farmers become even more suspicious when multinationals team up with biotech research establishments, as when the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) denounced the partnership between Dupont and the International Rice Research Institute. In support of anti-GMO farmers, anti-GMO activists are busy raising public awareness on the adverse effects of GM crops on the environment and potential adverse effects on consumers. And this activism is gaining foothold in the grassroots as evidenced by the confiscation of P18M worth of GMO corn by the provincial government of Negros Occidental recently.

Biotechnology is relatively new and researchers have not yet made conclusive studies on the health effects of the consumption of food made from GM crops. As such, researchers are not ignoring the possibility of genetically modified DNA having adverse impact on the human body: “GM crops may contain allergenic substances due to the introduction of new genes into crops, or that genetic engineering often involves the use of antibiotic-resistance genes as ‘selectable markers,’ which could lead to production of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains that are resistant to available antibiotics.” (Reminds me of the current swine flu scare.)

Granted that indeed, GM crops will provide enough food for mankind (and this is a strong moral argument given the hunger and poverty in most parts of the world), how much would food prices rise with companies monopolizing seed banks? Food will be aplenty, but will the world’s poor be able to afford it? Who will get richer: the farmers and the world’s poor in terms of bumper harvests and food abundance, respectively, or the agro-chemical multinationals in terms of profits? I’m certain these companies are not in this for charity. With the shortage of scientific studies that can prove either the safety or danger of consuming GM crop products, and given that the proliferation of foods made with GM crops, unlabeled at that, prevents consumers from making informed choices on which foods are safe and which are not, we need an addendum to our grace before meals: deliverance from the potential ills of GM foods.

Filed under: Environment, Health and food, May 2009, Technology | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.