GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
        • Notícias em Português
        • Nieuws in het Nederlands
        • Nachrichten in Deutsch
      • Archive
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Donations
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
SUBSCRIBE TO REVIEWS

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

INTRODUCTION TO GM

GMO Myths and Facts front page.jpg

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE EDITING MYTHS AND REALITY

A guide through the smokescreen

Gene Editing Myths and Reality

ON-TARGET EFFECTS OF GENE EDITING

Damaged DNA

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

News Archive

  • 2022 articles
  • 2021 articles
  • 2020 articles
  • 2019 articles
  • 2018 articles
  • 2017 articles
  • 2016 articles
  • 2015 articles
  • 2014 articles
  • 2013 articles
  • 2012 articles
  • 2011 articles
  • 2010 articles
  • 2009 articles
  • 2008 articles
  • 2007 articles
  • 2006 articles
  • 2005 articles
  • 2004 articles
  • 2003 articles
  • 2002 articles
  • 2001 articles
  • 2000 articles

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

Monsanto offers false promises in Asia

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Published: 28 November 2003
Twitter
"The position of the Thai government must be clear: if the GMO field trial ban does not suit Monsanto's business plans, then it is Monsanto's plans that must be thrown out, not common sense. "
---
Monsanto offers false promises
By Varoonvarn Svangsopakul
The Nation (Thailand) / Asia News Network
Editorial/Op-ed, 29 November 2003
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/11/29/200311290019.asp

Earlier this month, the U.S. genetic engineering and agrochemical giant, Monsanto, announced plans to make Thailand a regional base for its genetically engineered Round-Up Ready corn and Bt corn by 2006. For this plan to be realized, the company insists that Thailand's ban on GMO crop field trials must be lifted by the end of the year.

So that's the deal: lift the ban in the next few weeks and benefit from a strategic position in Monsanto's GMO push into Asia. Once again Monsanto - responsible for 91 percent of the world's GMO crops - is saying, "Trust us!" Yet the Thai public has every reason to distrust Monsanto and its supporters.

The ban that Monsanto is now challenging was imposed in April 2001 precisely because field trials of Monsanto's Bt cotton caused contamination of farmers' fields. When the field trials were initiated, Monsanto and key officials in the Agriculture Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry guaranteed that these experimental GMO crops would be carefully controlled. They weren't.

Just as scientists had warned for more than a decade, once released into the environment these GMOs were out of control, contaminating non-GMO cotton and ending up in places they should never have been.

It was in this context of Bt cotton getting out of control that the Cabinet imposed a ban on any further field trials. Yet the Thai public is now told that Monsanto ready to conduct more field trials and wants the ban lifted. While this may suit Monsanto's business plans, does it make sense for the Thai government to once again put the environment and farmers' interests at risk? Added to this is a significant risk of GMO corn getting into the food chain and contaminating people's food.

While Monsanto and its supporters in the Thai government see the ban merely as a barrier to business, the Bt cotton scandal is a potent reminder that there was a very good reason for the ban to be imposed in the first place. Moreover, in the 31 months since the ban was imposed, new studies by overseas scientists, agronomists and economists have provided critical new insights into the negative impact of GMO crops on the environment and on farmers. This includes a broad consensus in the scientific community that "outcrossing" (GMO contamination of non-GMO plants) is the norm rather than a freak occurrence, and new evidence concerning damage to soil ecology and the proliferation of herbicide-resistant weeds.

Only a week after Monsanto announced its GMO corn plans for Thailand, a new report by Charles M Benbrook, "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Eight Years" (BioTech InfoNet, Technical Paper Number 6, November 2003) was released in the United States, exposing the impact of GMO crops on pesticide use.

The report said: "Contrary to the often-heard claim that GE technology has markedly reduced pesticide use, today's GE crops have modestly increased the overall volume of pesticides applied in the production of corn, soybeans and cotton from 1996 through 2003. There is now clear evidence that the average pounds of herbicides applied per acre planted to herbicide tolerant (HT) varieties have increased compared to the first few years of adoption. This is no surprise, given that scientists have warned that heavy reliance on HT crops might lead to changes in weed communities and resistance, in turn triggering the need to apply additional herbicides and/or increase rates of application."

Increased use of Monsanto's pesticide products, particularly Round-Up herbicide, is a key part of its business plan. And as the U.S. experience shows, farmers soon find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of dependence on Monsanto's patented GMO seeds and increased use of its pesticides.

The new study on pesticide use and GMO crops in the U.S. has a broader significance in Thailand. It is only one example of new research released over the past 31 months that must be discussed and debated before any decision is taken to release GMO crops into the environment - a move that ultimately risks turning Thailand into Monsanto's "GMO colony." One of the primary reasons for the ban on field trials was to give government agencies an opportunity to undertake a comprehensive review of GMOs and examine their environmental risks. This means that Thai government agencies must recognize new evidence and assess the implications.

However, instead of providing critical, new information to the Thai public, the Science and Technology Ministry's National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) appears to be simply promoting public acceptance of GMOs, while waiting for the ban to be lifted. Instead of questioning the ecological risks of GMOs, Biotec's failure to engage in an objective and transparent assessment of new scientific research merely raises questions about the agency's own interest in lifting the ban on field trials and casts doubt on its ability to serve the Thai public.

The position of the Thai government must be clear: if the GMO field trial ban does not suit Monsanto's business plans, then it is Monsanto's plans that must be thrown out, not common sense.

Menu

Home

Subscriptions

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

Non-GM Successes

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

Donations

Content 1999 - 2022 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design