Planet Rice on 2020

The Guardian editorialized, "The John Innes Centre should think about holding its next meeting at the HQ of the Deccan Development Society, which would love to play host. The scientists might raise their eyebrows at what has been achieved there in 10 years of 'sustainable' farming. The DDS works with more than 80 of the world's poorest villages on some of the most degraded soils in India. In 10 years they have massively increased their yields and incomes using updated traditional methods."

"What we have built up slowly and surely will collapse with new GM seeds" - Laxmi Begari of the Deccan Society
---

Planet Rice
http://www.planetrice.net/newspub/newstory.cfm?id=836

GM Crops: World Food Prize Laureate Proposes ''Third Way'' Swaminathan calls for new green revolution with both GM and organic foods by Tom Hargrove, PlanetRice Editor-in-Chief April 29, 2001 The "father of India's green revolution" has offered a third way compromise to warring proponents and opponents of genetically modified agricultural crops. Dr. M.S. Swaminathan has called for a new green revolution that includes both GM and organically grown foods. The growing world population will be fed, only if governments adopt "people friendly" farming methods that include GM technology, Swaminathan, who in 1987 became the first World Food Prize laureate, told industry scientists and academics. He spoke at an international conference "Global Agriculture 20/20: Which way forward?," held April 18-20 at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Britain's leading GM research organization. On April 25, The Guardian said the conference was "the epicenter of the international GM debate...bringing together scientists worldwide to debate how to feed the world. Most, unsurprisingly, were in favor of GM."

Meanwhile, environmental groups attracted 350 people to a parallel meeting which featured women from the Deccan Development Society of central India, who argued that GM was useless and harmful. Swaminathan introduced high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice to India, often credited with preventing famine, as director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, 1972-78. He was director general of the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines, 1982-88. Today, he is chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), southern India. The Foundation promotes "science in the service of sustainable agriculture and rural development."

Swaminathan called for governments and scientists to back sensible farming methods that will keep people on the land and avoid social or ecological harm, The Guardian reported on April 19. "Anything you do for the resource-poor small farmers will benefit all farmers. The reverse will not happen," Swaminathan told PlanetRice in an exlusive interview last September. GM crops "have a place" in the future, he said at the conference, pointing out that agriculture must feed 2 billion more people in the next 20 years. In fact, GM crops can be used with organic farming systems, the humanitarian scientist added. But Swaminathan also cautioned that, "Farming cannot be left to the control of a few multi-national companies. The poor, who are most of the world's population, need fair and free trade. There must be ethics and equity in farming. "If you want an inclusive society you must go to the poorest person and ask if they will gain anything from technological development," he told representatives of Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont, and other GM corporations. He also urged governments to provide more public funding of gene technology and called for community participation in science. The Swaminathan Research Foundation is developing mixed GM and organic farming methods. Scientists are going into the community and trying to develop rice, tobacco, and other crops that tolerate salt water--an experiment that governments and pressure groups have praised widely. "[Swaminathan's] comments will both please and worry corporations and anti-GM advocates," The Guardian wrote. "Most GM technology is in the hands of a few large companies who have been accused of trying to monopolize world agriculture--a situation which has prompted much of the anti-GM fervour around the world."

According to UN estimates, world food requirements will increase by 50% within 25 years and must be produced from less land with less water, fewer chemicals, and less labor. Many governments see no option but to follow the corporate GM route which promises extra yields. But several scientists at the conference said GM food production in developing countries was a more difficult issue than in Europe or the United States. "Tropical countries face more complex issues including patent rights, the freedom of companies to operate, and specific risk assessment," said Dr. Ana Sittenfeld, a University of Costa Rica geneticist.

The 3-day debate was the largest international conference so far on GM foods in developing countries, The Guardian said. At the Deccan Society "counter conference," poor farmers testified that GM foods had no place in feeding growing populations, and might even destabilize societies The Guardian reported on April 25. "What we have built up slowly and surely will collapse with new GM seeds," said Laxmi Begari of the Deccan Society. The Guardian editorialized, "The John Innes Centre should think about holding its next meeting at theHQ of the Deccan Development Society, which would love to play host. The scientists might raise their eyebrows at what has been achieved there in 10 years of 'sustainable' farming. The DDS works with more than 80 of the world's poorest villages on some of the most degraded soils in India. In 10 years they have massively increased their yields and incomes using updated traditional methods."

The conference was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation); The Gatsby Charitable Foundation {Lord Sainsbury's outfit], and the John Innes Foundation.

---

Paying the polluter

"If Monsanto can collect fees from farmers who find their fields contaminated with GM crops, should computer users pay licence fees to the writers of computer viruses?"

Thomas Ward, University of East Anglia

New Scientist April 28, 2001