GM Crops threaten world food production, why are they still allowed?

Over 1500 Farmers committed suicide in India last year when their expensive Monsanto crops failed twice in succession.





Now we hear that South African farmers also suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside.


The following is part of a GM-Free Ireland Workhop given by Pavitra Chalam on 26 April 2004. A link to the gm-free Ireland and the complete article is given.





鈥業n studies carried out by leading plant physiologists in India,it has been demonstrated that GM crops transfer their genes to soil fungi and bacteria. The affected fungi and bacteria then behave in abnormal ways and diminish their function in breaking down organic material, which makes nutrients available to plants. The soil will become progressively (and uncontrollably) less fertile. After a few seasons of planting, the GM crop the soil will not be able to host any other conventional crop. If farmers wish to switch back to conventional crops it could take a whole season to rehabilitate the soil. The economic consequences are clearly unfavorable. There is also the added cost of nutrients and fertilizers necessary to regenerate the soil. However the most dangerous threat is that after many seasons it could be impossible to revert back to the planting of any conventional crop, because by then the soil could be completely infertile.





Some GM crops are genetically manipulated so that they die after one season and cannot reproduce. This is the result of the Terminator gene. It is promoted as a means of preventing transgenic contamination to other crops. This has proved to be false. It actually spreads not only male sterility but also herbicide tolerance in other crops. The pollen from the crops carrying the Terminator will infect the fields of farmers who either reject, or cannot afford the technology.





Any farmer whose crops are contaminated will then have to label all their produce as "GM contaminated". Monsanto can also sue them for the theft of genes.





This spread of transgenes has been found in maize landraces in remote regions of Mexico. In Canada, 32 out of 33 commercial seed stocks have been found to be contaminated. Pollen can remain airborne for hours. As a result, there can be no co-existence of GM and non-GM crops


It has already been shown by studies that nearly half the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies died when fed on pollen genetically modified with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). Some varieties of GM oilseed rape have been found to destroy the ability of bees to detect flower smells. A major seed dealer in the United States has said that there is evidence that earthworms are dying from the effects of Bt maize鈥︹€?br>

http://www.gmfreeireland.org/events/work鈥?/a>





I would urge everyone to read the full article.





My question is in three parts:: Has any commercial organisation the right to threaten or control the food production of the world?


Should the politicians who pour scorn on fears over GM Foods be force fed them for a couple of years, to justify their claims?





GM Crops, Aspartame鈥?Why is Monsanto still in business?|||1) No, Natural farming to my mind is the only type of food production, messing about with our food supply is a big mistake, The apple is a prime example of interference to our food chain, the superior apples that were here on sale before the 'EU' idea are now practically extinct.





Messing about with the worlds food chain is an even bigger mistake,. genetically interfered foods should be banned and our farmers should be given the resources to bring back the quality of food of previous times.





2) Yes, that's one way to instill common sense into their small brains.





3) Because they are probably handing out bribes left right and centre.





Great question I am totally on your wave length on this issue.





ATB Red|||NO! YES! and I dont know but I will guess at big business, corruption and sheer lunacy.|||A pre GM example of an engineered crop would be the Gros Michel banana. This was the grocery store banana of the 50's and earlier.





Essentially there was a mutation where the seeds did not develop leaving the banana edible without the nuisance of large woody seeds and the Gros Michel could be easily shipped over the entire world. As it did not produce any seeds, it was propagated by cloning so all Gros Michel banana plants had the same DNA such that when the Panama Wilt disease started, there was no stopping it and it would wipe out entire plantations. The Panama Wilt disease also infected the soil so you could never grow Gros Michels in the soil ever again.





The United Fruit company (now Dole) responded to this threat by lobbying the US government into invading central american countries to install dictatorships friendly to the company so that they could start new plantations with access to cheap labour. This is where the term "Banana Republic" came about and is why all these Dictatorships had constitutions that were verbatim copies of the US constitution.





The Gros Michel eventually went extinct and the Vietnamese Cavendish banana which was considered less tasty and was more difficult to ship was adopted as the cash crop. Recently, the latest mutation of the Panama Wilt disease known as race 4 has attacked the Cavendish banana so it's just a matter of time before the Cavendish would be extinct.





When this started to occur, there was no suitable replacement banana with the closest being the red banana. If you remember, the grocery stores carried red bananas for a few years, that was Dole test marketing and working out the logistics of shipping red bananas.





You don't see so many red bananas anymore, that's because they've had success in crossing a Gros Michel with an Amazonian apple banana which is a difficult feat as only 1 in 10,000 Gros Michel would have a viable seed, the result is the Gold Finger banana which has a slight apple taste. In a few decades time, you won't be able to find a Cavendish banana unless you find someone with a dwarf Cavendish in their backyard (someone who didn't put banana peels into their compost) and all grocery store bananas will be gold finger bananas.





They rejected GM as a solution because Panama Wilt disease would overcome the relative small change in genes made by GM very quickly so cross breeding was the best option.|||There's absolutely no lies in your stated facts and if you care to dig deeper, you will find a lot more examples. If GM material gets into the water table, there's absolutely no telling where it will pop up and with what effects. Hence the trials are all carried out by poor farmers in badly regulated countries.





Monsanto is still in business because there is a demand for the product. The argument against organic farming is it doesn't have a high enough yield. Those that choose to buy the product are inflating the food bills of those that can't afford it and at the same time the conventional yield isn't enough especially when you compound that with the half baked idea arable land can be used to grow rape seed for bio diesel. The environmental movement has created its own nemesis.





People have to eat and there isn't enough land to support the global population with self choice vegetarians compounding the problem with a selfish demand fo more land.





When the deer population exceeds its natural resource we cull deer. Applying this solution to humans isn't going to win votes,so GM crops are political desperation.





Wait until the oil runs out and it is physically impossible to transport the crop to market. A suitable pandemic might well be the only answer?