Gm
Foods: Towards An Apocalypse
By Devinder Sharma
20 July 2003
After
taking control over one-third of the world's crude oil supplies and
that too after a futile search for 'weapons of mass destruction', American
President George Bush appears ready to take over the world's food market
and that too by emotionally misleading the world in the name of removing
hunger.
Accusing Europe
of undercutting efforts to feed starving Africans by blocking the use
of genetically modified crops which could 'dramatically' boost productivity,
the American administration fired the first missile by formally announcing
to launch a complaint with the WTO against the European Union for its
five-year ban on approving new biotech crops. This has set the stage
for an international showdown over an increasingly controversial issue.
"Our partners
in Europe are impeding this effort. They have blocked all new biocrops
because of unfounded, unscientific fears," Bush said. "This
has caused many African nations to avoid investing in biotechnologies
for fear that their products will be shut out of European markets. European
governments should join -- not hinder -- the great cause of ending hunger
in Africa."
The US Trade Representative
Mr Robert Zoellick added that the European policy is illegal, harming
the US economy, stunting the growth of the biotech industry and contributing
to increased starvation in the developing world.
Coinciding with
the frontal attack through the dispute panel, is a seemingly harmless
exercise to close ranks around flawed economic policies. Senior officials
of the WTO-IMF-World Bank met at Geneva in May to deliberate on how
to bring greater `coherence' in their policies through ``liberalisation
of trade and financial flows, deregulation, privatisation and budget
austerity'. As if loan conditions of the IMF/World Bank that have forced
developing countries to lower their trade barriers, cut subsidies for
their domestic food producers, and eliminate safety nets for rural agriculture
were not enough,
the WTO Agreement on Agriculture could be used very effectively to allow
the US - and 12 other food exporting countries - to dump unwanted genetically
altered foods, thereby destroying food self-sufficiency in developing
countries and expanding markets for the large grain exporting companies.
Trade and financial
manipulations alone are not enough. Already with the mainline science
-- and this includes almost the entire agricultural science research
infrastructure in North America -- under the captive control of the
corporate world, the industry is now getting restless at the way the
developing country governments are throwing in impediments in the fast-track
destruction of food self-sufficiency. After all, as long as developing
countries remain self-sufficient, GM crops will not have an opening.
The focus therefore is not on how to strengthen the food self-sufficiency
movement in the developing world but on how to make these countries
dependent on the GM food produced in the technology-rich countries.
Mounting food subsidy and the resulting dumping of grains has already
forced millions of small and marginal farmers in the developing world
to be driven out of agriculture to move to the urban slums in search
of menial living. Highly subsidised agriculture in America and for that
matter in the OECD is the root cause for growing hunger, destitution
and poverty in the majority world. GM foods, produced by the biotechnology
corporations, will further exacerbate the food crisis -- eliminate in
the process not hunger but the hungry.
Ironically, it is
famine, hunger and accompanying lies that has become the normal campaign
route to push unwanted and highly risky genetically altered crops and
foods. In India where hunger co-exists with over-flowing food stocks,
the entire scientific community (and the industry) is busy diverting
the national attention from the more pressing problems of food insecurity
to promoting biotechnology. unwanted crops -- like Bt cotton and GM
Mustard -- are therefore being promoted by hoodwinking the gullible
farmers with lies and damn lies. The secretary of the Department of
Biotechnology has gone on record saying that Bt cotton increases the
yield by as much as 80 per cent. She has even said that GM potato (which
is still under trials) will contain 40 per cent protein.
In reality, Bt cotton
does not increase crop yield (not even in China which has a huge area
under genetically modified crops and where the negative impacts have
begun to show) and GM potato contains only about 2.5 per cent proteins.
At the international
level, the global offensive is being built around coercion. Therefore,
three ministers from each of the 180 invited countries - and holding
the portfolios of Trade, Agriculture and Health - will assemble at downtown
Sacramento in California from June 23-25. The invitation, which comes
from the US Agriculture Secretary, Ms Ann Veneman, is essentially for
educating (in reality, intimidating) these democratically elected representatives
on the virtues of GM foods, and why they must back the US multinational
corporations fight against global hunger. If not, then why must they
remain quiet. Ann Veneman will explain the consequences -- both economic
and political -- of not accepting the fruits of cuting-edge technology,
as genetic engineering is fondly called.
The overt and covert
machinations to push unhealthy and risky GM foods had actually begun
a decade ago. The US has so far opposed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety,
which has been signed by over 100 countries and was intended to ensure
through agreed international rules and regulations that countries have
the necessary information to make informed choices about GM foods and
crops. With the WTO appearing on the scene, the Cartagena Protocol has
become meaningless. Since the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
has not been ratified by the US, it is not under any obligation to follow
the Biosafety Protocol.
At the same time
agricultural research, which has been instrumental in ushering in food
self-sufficiency in many of the developing countries in the post-green
revolution era is being gradually dismantled. The Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) itself is under tremendous
pressure from the agri-business corporations, which sees it as the main
obstacle in the process of control and manipulation. With research priorities
shifting from national requirements to servicing the biotechnology industry,
like in India, it will be a matter of time before developing countries
begin to return to the frightening days of 'ship-to-mouth' existence.
Even food aid is
being used to push GM foods. It is no longer about humanitarian needs
of starving populations but about the commercial interests of the international
corporations. First finding an outlet for its mounting food surplus
through the mid-day meal scheme for African children (force fed through
the World Food Programme), the US then literally arm-twisted four African
countries to accept GM food at the height of the food scarcity that
prevailed in central and southern Africa in 2002. It even tried forcing
the International Red Cross Federation to lift the unwanted GM food
as part of an international emergency so as to feed the hungry.
It did not however
work. Zambia and Zimbabwe led the resistance against GM foods, saying
that it would prefer its poor to die than to feed them with unhealthy
food. Meanwhile, Sudan too has decided not to accept GM food aid.
The US has therefore
found a way out to force the African countries into submission. The
US Senate has passed a Bill "the United States Leadership Against
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003," (HR 1298)",
which in a diplomatic way (calling it as `sense of Congress') links
financial aid for combating HIV AIDS with GM food acceptance. Section
104A states that "individuals infected with HIV have higher nutritional
requirements than individuals who are not infected with HIV, particularly
with respect to the need for protein. Also, there is evidence to suggest
that the full benefit of therapy to treat HIV/AIDS may not be achieved
in individuals who are malnourished, particularly in pregnant and lactating
women."
The next sentence
reads: "It is therefore the sense of Congress that the US food
assistance should be accepted by countries with large populations of
individuals infected or living with HIV/AIDS, particularly African countries,
in order to help feed such individuals."
This is not an isolated
effort. Way back, in 1986, the US had enacted a legislation, called
Bumper's Amendment, that prohibited "agricultural development activities,
consultation, publication, conference, or training in connection with
the growth and production in a foreign country of an agricultural commodity
for export which would compete with a similar commodity grown or produced
in the United States". As a result, the American support for research
and development for crops, which competed with those grown in the US
were stopped. With national research programmes closing down for paucity
of funds, the field is now open for biotech industry to take over.
For pushing GM crops
another outlet has now been created. The Rockefeller Foundation, in
collaboration with the US-based Madison Institute, has launched a project
called the "Madison Initiative'. Under the guise of humanitarian
aid and support, the "Madison Initiative' is aimed at pushing GM
crops to tide over the increasing food insecurity arising from the growing
vulnerability of HIV/AIDS affected economies. The basic premise
being that HIV/AIDS has taken a heavy toll of able-bodied rural males
in most parts of Africa. As a result, there is not enough manpower left
in the rural areas to undertake agricultural operations like spraying
of pesticides. Therefore, these countries must accept GM crops like
Bt cotton which they say require less chemical sprays !
This wonderful initiative
is being executed by CGIAR as an active partner. Such was the desperation
that agricultural scientists had met former President Moi of Kenya who
had agreed to officially support the 'Madison Initiative' subsequently
to be extended to other African countries, including South Africa, and
then to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and to other parts of
Southeast Asia, to push their case.
Never in the past
history has any government stepped in to force the world and that too
literally down the throat into accepting what it produces. Never before
has the world been forced to accept technologies (howsoever risky these
might be) and that includes nuclear power, in the name of poor, hungry
and sustainable development. Never before has any country tried to force
feed a hungry Continent by creating a false scenario of an impending
famine, which never happened. Never before has science and technology
been
sacrificed in such a shameful manner at the altar of commercial growth
and profits.
The world has been
made to forget the age-old Chinese adage, "if you want to feed
a man for a day give him fish. But if you want to feed him for life
teach how to catch fish." The ability to catch fish or in other
words to produce food locally has been gradually destroyed. The hungry
are now expected to buy food produced by biotech companies. And therein
lies a grave danger.
(Devinder Sharma
is an Indian writer, author, commentator and thinker. An agricultural
scientist by training, he has been the Agriculture Editor of the Indian
Express, before quitting active journalism to research on policy issues
concerning trade, genetic engineering and food security. He also chairs
the New Delhi-based Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security. Contact
email: [email protected])