"The great and the good who assemble for the conference at the government-funded John Innes research centre will need to demonstrate more 20:20 vision than just talking among themselves. Global power brokers in particular must heed the voices of the poor, not impose unilateral prescriptions under the guise of huamnitarian aid or succour. Otherwise, the way forward will be paved with good intentions, but may end in a road to market ruin for poor farmers everywhere. " -- ActionAid
"Far from a solution, GM crops extend all the worst practices of industrial agriculture. Perversely, its widespread adoption would lead to more hungry people - not fewer." -- see 'Looking for real answers' below
"What we have built up slowly and surely will collapse with new GM seeds." -- Laxmi Begari of the Deccan Development Society in central India
"For some, talk of 'sustainable agriculture' sounds like a luxury the poor can ill afford. But in truth it is good science, addressing real needs and delivering real results... It is time for the major agricultural research centres and their funding agencies to join the revolution." -- New Scientist, 3 February 2001
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*final excerpt from the excellent new Greenpeace briefing, "The future of farming"
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Looking for real answers
There is a fundamental conflict within agricultural research and development -- between an agenda that caters to private industry demands and one that addresses the real needs of the poor and the environment.
The argument that GM technology is vital to feed the world is based on the assumption that hunger is the result of too little food.The truth is that although about a third of the world ’s children suffer from malnutrition, nearly 80% of them live in countries with food surpluses. In India (which accounts for more than a third of the world ’s hungry and where 53%of children are undernourished), grain silos overflowed with nearly 50 million tonnes of surplus grain in 2000.In a world where free trade has higher priority than people ’s right to food,the existence of 1.1 billion undernourished people is inevitable.
Solutions lies not in feeding the world but allowing the world to feed itself.
Food security -- the ability of a community to feed itself consistently on a diverse diet -- is a complex problem that will not be solved overnight:it depends on people having access to land and money. GM provides neither.
Not only do GM crops not provide the solution,they also pose a threat of irreversible harm to the environment ? the real basis of people’s food security. GM technology, and the industrial system it maintains, increases dependence on expensive farm chemicals and single food crops, denying people a balanced diet and destroying the environment on which we all depend. It increases dependence on the companies that supply the technology and the countries that supply the loans to pay for it. Far from a solution, GM crops extend all the worst practices of industrial agriculture. Perversely, its widespread adoption would lead to more hungry people ?not fewer.
The time has come to reject the false promise of GM and the agriculture industry and to support the real revolution in farming that meets the many needs of local communities and the environment, restores the land degraded by the agriculture industry, and helps the poor to combat their own poverty and hunger.