Genetically Modified (GM) crops are neither needed nor beneficial. They are a dangerous diversion from the real task of providing food and health around the world.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
The same GM crops have already given rise to herbicide-tolerant weeds and bt-resistant insect pests. Worse still, the broad-spectrum herbicides not only decimate wild species indiscriminately, but are toxic to animals. One of them, glufosinate, causes birth defects in mammals, while another, glyphosate, is now linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. GM crops with bt-toxins kill beneficial insects such as bees and lacewings, and pollen from bt-maize is lethal to monarch butterflies.
According to the UN food programme, there is enough food to feed the world one and a half times over. World cereal yields have consistently outstripped population growth since 1980, but one billion are hungry. It is on account of corporate monopolies operating under the globalised economy that the poor are getting poorer and hungrier. Corporations already control 75% of the world trade in cereals. The new patents on seeds will intensify corporate monopoly by preventing farmers from saving and replanting seeds, which is what 85% of the farmers still do in the Third World. Christian Aid, a major charity working with the Third World, concludes that GM crops will cause unemployment, exacerbate Third World debt, threaten sustainable farming systems and damage the environment. It predicts famine for the poorest countries.
What about GM crops with enhanced nutritional value, such as putting soya protein into rice, or incorporating genes to increase iron content? The major cause of malnutrition worldwide is the substitution of industrial monocultures for the varied diet provided by traditional farming/foraging systems. Moreover, intensive agricultural practices deplete and leach nutrients from the soil, thereby changing the nutritional values of all food crops for the worse within the past 40 years. No amount of genetic engineering can reverse this trend, which can be achieved only by re-introducing sustainable farming methods and recovering agricultural biodiversity.
<snip>
Another hazard is that the transgenic DNA can jump into the genomes of cells, resulting in harmful effects which include cancer. In its interim report (May 1999), the British Medical Association called for an indefinite moratorium on the release of GM crops pending further studies on new allergies, on the spread of antibiotic resistances and on the effects of transgenic DNA. These concerns are shared by at least 100 scientists from 20 countries who have signed a World Scientists' Statement calling for a 5 year moratorium and a ban on patents of life-forms.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/jaguar.php
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
