Why it’s a no to GMO
Joanna Blythman
The biotech lobby makes
swaggering claims,
presenting genetic
modification (GM) as a
magic bullet that will
feed the world, without
a n y d o w n s i d e
whatsoever. It assures us that
GM is entirely safe, for both humans and animals.
It promises that it will increase crop yields and
reduce pesticide use. What’s not to like?
Fairy stories can be entrancing, but never confuse
them with the truth. It has long been clear that GM
is substantively and radically different from
traditional methods of improving plants and
breeds. GM is a relatively crude technique - think
of cut and paste - that moves genetic material
across species barriers. As such, it is
unprecedented, capable of triggering
unpredictable, and irreversible, changes in the
DNA, proteins and biochemical composition of
food.
And the case against GM has only become more
persuasive and authoritative since the 1990s
when informed consumers first fought to keep
food with GM ingredients off
shelves in Europe. Mounting
evidence shows that GM has not
delivered on its bragging
promises.
2. GM impoverishes farmers
In India for example, many states are cancelling
licences for GM crops because they have proved
a dismal failure, aggravating rural poverty and
spurring suicides among farmers. Last month,
Indian MPs visited so-called Monsanto model
villages to meet the farmers’ widows and see for
themselves the grim truth behind the big biotech
companies’ marketing spin.
3. GM means more pesticide, not less
In the US, for instance, herbicide-tolerant GM
cotton, soy and maize have encouraged growers
to spray an estimated 174 million more kilos of
herbicides. In 2007-08 alone, herbicide use on
GM crops there rose by 31.4 per cent.
4. GM crops cause the emergence of
devastating super-weeds
Over-use of glyphosate (Roundup), the herbicide
used on GM crops, has caused the rapid spread
of resistant weeds, such as pigweed, rye grass
and mares tail. GM canola has been shown to
pass on its herbicide tolerance genes to some
wild plants, turning them into uncontrollable
super-weeds.
I remain implacably opposed to
the genetic modification of our
food, and here, in the simplest,
briefest terms, is why.
1. GM doesn’t increase crop
yields
Instead, the pattern is initially good
harvests that decline dramatically
thereafter. Even the US department of
Agriculture admits “GM crops do not
increase yield potential”.
Diet & Health Today
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