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"FRANKEN
FOODS" U.S. vs WORLD
by the WVA Environmental Committee |
A
battle to control the global foodchain is being waged,
with the United States attempting to `educate' governments
on the virtues of genetically modified foods and their
role in eradicating world hunger
The noose is slowly tightening. An all-out offensive has been launched,
using the three most important instruments of economic power -- the World Trade
Organisation
(WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- along with
the badly bruised but democratically elected governments. And this time the target
is not oil but to force the world to accept genetically modified foods and crops.
In reality, the battle to control the global foodchain has begun.
The American administration fired the first missile in May by formally launching
a complaint with the WTO against the European Union for its five-year ban on
approving new biotech crops, setting the stage for an international showdown
over an increasingly controversial issue. Interestingly, the US trade representative
Robert Zoellick says the European policy is illegal, harming the American economy,
stunting the growth of the biotech industry and contributing to increased starvation
in the developing world.
Coinciding with a 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 in Geneva in May to deliberate on how to bring about
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 eliminated safety
nets for rural agriculture, were not enough, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture
could be used very effectively to allow America -- 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. With the United Nations
no longer relevant, any such global offensive needs political allies. Therefore,
three ministers from each of the 180 invited countries -- and holding the portfolios
of trade, agriculture and health -- will assemble in downtown Sacramento in California
between June 23 and June 25. The invitation, which comes from US agriculture
secretary Ann Veneman, is essentially for educating (in reality, intimidating)
these democratically elected representatives on the virtues of GM (Genetically
modified) foods, and why they must back the US transnational corporations' fight
against
global
hunger.
If not, then they must remain quiet like they did when the US was searching for
'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq.
The three-pronged attack will force the European Union, to begin with, to either
alter its policy toward GM crops and foods, which some consumer groups call 'Franken
foods', or face economic sanctions across a range of sectors. For the US, the
European markets for genetically modified crops and seeds are potentially worth
several billion dollars a year. For the rest of the world, Ann Veneman will explain
the 'consequences' -- both economic and political -- of not accepting the fruits
of 'cutting-edge' technology, as genetic engineering is fondly referred to. The
first GM ministerial, therefore, is not open to the public.
The overt and covert machinations to push unhealthy and risky GM foods actually
began 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. Earlier, the US
had made every possible attempt to see that the Cartagena Protocol did not come
through. When it did, the US prefers to stay away.
Whether it is the Cartagena Protocol or the Kyoto Protocol, the US continues
to defy the international order. Since the US has still not ratified the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD), it has no need to follow the Cartagena Protocol
and therefore will try to force the GM food down the throat of every other country.
Moreover, the US continues to hold the world's largest collection of plant germplasm
-- some 600,000 plant accessions -- which actually belongs to the developing
world. These plant collections, forcibly held in custody, are the raw material
for the multi-billion-dollar American biotechnology industry. In addition, the
biotechnology industry has earned an estimated US $5.4 billion from biopiracy
alone.
With biotech patents coming into force, and the definition of micro-organism
extended to include genes and cell lines, the US has ensured that once the trade-related
intellectual property rights (TRIPs) agreement is internationally harmonised
in 2005, it will be the beginning of the end for public sector research in agriculture
in developing countries. In the words of a former chairman of the Consultative
Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), Dr Ismail Serageldin: "Whenever
the product and process patents in food and agriculture come into effect, it
will be a scientific apartheid against the third world."
Agricultural research, which has been instrumental in ushering
in food self-sufficiency in many third world countries
in the post-green revolution era, is being gradually
dismantled. The CGIAR itself is under tremendous pressure from agri-business
corporations, which see 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 only be a matter
of time before developing countries begin to return to the frightening days of
'ship-to-mouth' existence.
Food aid to starving populations is about meeting the urgent humanitarian needs
of those who are in dire need. Ideally, it should not be to push the commercial
interests of the biotechnology corporations or planting GM crops for export,
or indeed finding outlets for domestic surplus. After 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
Federation of the Red Cross to lift GM food as part of an international emergency
to feed the hungry in Africa.
It didn't work. Zambia led the resistance against GM foods saying that it would
prefer its poor to die than to feed them unhealthy food.
The US has finally found a way to circumvent and to force African countries into
submission. The US senate passed a bill entitled `The United States Leadership
Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003' (HR 1298) which, in
a diplomatic way (`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 United
States 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." The underlying objective is very
clear: the US can use the verdict to stop humanitarian aid for HIV/AIDS unless
the recipient countries first buy GM foods. Killing two birds with one stone.
This is not an isolated effort. The Rockefeller Foundation, in collaboration
with the US-based Madison Institute, had earlier launched a project called the
Madison Initiative. Under the guise of humanitarian aid and support, the Madison
Initiative was 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 on able-bodied rural males
in most parts of Africa. As a result, there is not enough manpower left in rural
areas to undertake agricultural operations like the spraying of pesticides. Therefore,
these countries must accept GM crops like Bt corn, which, they say, require less
chemical sprays! This wonderful (sic) initiative was to be executed by CGIAR as
an active partner. Such was the desperation that agricultural scientists actually
went and met former
President Moi of Kenya, who agreed to officially support the Madison Initiative,
subsequently to be extended to other African countries including South Africa,
and then India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and other parts of southeast Asia.
Way back in 1986 the US had similarly 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,
American support for research and development of crops that competed with those
grown in the United States was stopped. No wonder, the FAO, the CGIAR and numerous
other agricultural programmes in developing countries continue to remain starved
of financial support. With national research programmes closing down due to lack
of funds, the field is now open for the biotech industry to take over.
Never in the past has any government stepped in to force the world into accepting
what it produces. Never before has the world been forced to accept risky technologies,
and that includes nuclear power, in the name of the poor, the 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 for
the sake of commercial growth and profits.
The tragedy is that while 'good' science has been given a quiet burial, the party
for the biotechnology industry has only just begun. The realities of hunger and
malnutrition are too harsh to be even properly understood. Hunger cannot be removed
by producing transgenic crops with genes for beta-carotene. Hunger cannot be
addressed by providing mobile phones to rural communities. Nor can it be eradicated
by giving the poor and hungry an `informed choice' of novel foods. Somehow, the
international community misses the ground realities, misses the wood for the
trees in an effort to bolster the commercial interests of the biotechnology industry.
In its over-enthusiasm to promote an expensive technology at the cost of the
poor, what has been overlooked is that biotechnology has the potential to further
the great divide between the haves and the have-nots.
While the political leadership is postponing the monumental task of halving the
number of the world's hungry, the scientific community too has found an easy
escape route. At almost all genetic engineering laboratories, whether in the
North or in the South, the focus of research is on transgenic crops that add
to profits, edible vaccines and bio-fortification to address the problems of
malnutrition or `hidden hunger' by incorporating genes for vitamin A, iron and
other micro-nutrients. But what has been forgotten is that unless hunger is removed,
'hidden hunger' cannot be eradicated. In other words, if the global scientific
and development community were to aim at eradicating hunger in the first place,
there would be little `hidden hunger'.
Much of the existing hunger in the world is a result of lopsided trade and economic
policies that keep the farmers in rich countries plump with massive subsidies,
the resulting impact of which creates more hunger, malnutrition and destitution
in the majority world. Much of the world's hunger and the crisis on the farm
front are because of the massive subsidies that continue to be paid out in the
richest trading block -- the OECD. Let us not forget that subsidies are paid
not only to keep the minuscule population of farmers on either side of the Atlantic
happy, but also to keep the elected governments in the saddle. The US Farm Security
and Rural Investment Act (FSRIA), for instance, was signed at the beginning of
May 2002, bringing in an additional US $180 billion to its farmers in the next
10 years. This was a small price (and that too from the state exchequer) to pay
for the sparsely populated but agriculturally frontline mid-west region. George
Bush badly needed a Republican majority in the US senate. Senatorial elections
took place in 2002 and the promise of a Farm Act delivered it.
As a result of the subsidy hike in America, millions of small and marginal farmers
in the developing world will be driven out of agriculture and forced to move
to the urban slums in search of a menial living. Highly subsidised agriculture
in America, and for that matter in the OECD, is the root cause of growing hunger,
destitution and poverty in the majority world. GM foods, produced by the biotechnology
corporations, will further exacerbate the food crisis -- eliminating, in the
process, not only hunger but also the hungry.
The freedoms we strive for are:
Seed freedom - We are committed to keep our seeds free. We are committed to conserving
our diverse seed varieties. We reject genetically engineered seeds. We reject
patents on seeds and patents on life.
Food freedom - We will defend our food rights and food freedom. We will defend
our diversity of foods. We will defend our right to nutritious and
safe food.
Biodiversity and Water freedom - We believe that biodiversity and water are community
resources of the people and cannot be owned as private property.
Knowledge freedom - We will defend and rejuvenate our indigenous knowledge. We
reject the patenting and piracy of our intellectual heritage.
We demand the revocation of all biopiracy patents. We demand an amendment of
western style patents.
Nature's freedom - We reject the imposition of plastic wastes from food packaging
that leads to the destruction of our environment. We will fight
to defend our local small-scale agro processing systems so that both nature's
freedom and people's livelihood are protected.
Future's freedom - We want to leave for our children a world of culture as biologically
diverse as the one we inherited.
Source: Devinder Sharma & MONSANTO QUIT INDIA campaign, 1999
Related Links:
•
Global
Resistance
Against Monsanto & GE
•
Vandana
Shiva on THE BASMATI BATTLE
• Monsanto
sends Seed-Saving Farmer to Prison
Editor's Note:
The material universes are full in themselves. There is no scarcity for maintenance
in the material world. Because of their poor fund of knowledge, the materialists
are disturbed when there is an apparent increase of population on the earth.
Whenever there is a living being on the earth, however, his subsistence is immediately
arranged by the Lord. The other species of living entities, who far outnumber
human society, are never disturbed for maintenance; they are never seen dying
of starvation. It is only human society that is disturbed about the food situation
and, to cover up the real fact of administrative mismanageement, takes shelter
in the plea that the population is excessively increasing.
If
there
is
any scarcity in the world, it is the scarcity of God consciousness, otherwise,
by
the grace
of the Lord, there is no scarcity of anything.
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, Ch. 5, Text 5,
Purport |
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In
December 1998, Indian farmers burn cotton plants that
had been genetically modified using knowhow provided
by the U.S. multinational Monsanto. |
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