GM Crops - The Elephant In The Room? - Sustainable Agriculture Still Low Down On EU Climate Change Agenda
Main Category: Water - Air Quality / AgricultureArticle Date: 22 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT
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GM crops can and already do play an important role in reducing the negative environmental impacts of agriculture and feeding a growing population in a worsening climate, reveals a report published today by EuropaBio[i]. Furthermore, this contribution will only increase as their cultivation becomes even more widely adopted around the world. Nevertheless, this fact continues to be ignored by many EU regulators, as is evidenced by its repeated non-appearance on DG Environment's Green Week agenda.
'It's both worrying and perplexing that the impact of agriculture, in general, gets such a low billing on next week's agenda and that the benefits of green biotech will likely not even be mentioned" said Nathalie Moll, Director of Agricultural Biotech at EuropaBio, "Even more so when you consider that whilst we scramble to discover and apply new technologies to reduce emissions in the fossil fuel-based economy, we reject tried and tested solutions in agriculture - the second most impactful sector."
Today's report highlights the significant potential of Agricultural biotech to reduce GHG emissions, help crops adapt to a changing climate and produce more food from less available land. In this way, green biotech contributes to the range of options to help farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices that can tackle tomorrow's challenges. As a result, for over ten years now, millions of farmers around the world have chosen to cultivate GM crops on 125 Million hectares[ii] of land to increase their yields whilst using fewer precious natural resources.
"It's high time we got our messages straight" added Willy de Greef, Secretary General of EuropaBio "Climate change poses a huge threat to the survival of millions around the world through famine and disease. It's our responsibility to stop talking shop and start leading by acknowledging, endorsing and applying the full range of tools available, including safe agricultural biotech solutions." he concluded.
i http://www.europabio.org/positions/GBE/PP_090619_Climate_Change.pdf
ii ISAAA Press release February 11 2009
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EuropaBio
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GM Foods, Not Sustainable Agriculture
posted by shogg on 23 Jun 2009 at 11:43 pmThe article in this week's Medical News regarding the usefulness of GM crops in developing a "sustainable" agriculture reads like a propaganda piece for GM crops. Who wrote it? A PR person for Monsanto? GM crops carry all sorts of risks, including the spread of herbicide resistant genes (already happened) to weeds, unknown effects of inserting animal/fish genes into plants, plus there is NO proof that GM crops actually have increased yields or require less water.
In fact, Monsanto has been sued at least once by cotton growers because the cotton did not perform as advertised by GM. Finally, since when it is a good idea to have genes of all sorts of crops for basic foods owned by the a few huge corporations? Why is it BETTER for farmers in poor nations (or any nation) have to buy seed every year instead of being able to save it and perhaps even do some breeding to select for those individuals of that crop that do best in the grower's specific climate? Can't do that w/GM seeds because the companies own the genes of the seeds and as many US & Canadian farmers have discovered, Monsanto will sue for an alleged violation of its ownership at the drop of a hat--including if pollen from a GM crop goes into a farmer's field of the same crop but NOT GM seed.
However, there are studies that indicate: (1) organically grown produce can have as good of yields as "conventional agriculture"; (2) organically grown crops often require less water because the good condition of the soil, use of ground cover crops, mean that the soil retains much more moisture than conventionally (including GM) crops. (3) why not plant seed from native crop species that are known to do well in a given region? It's been demonstrated that when some native Americans grow & eat their traditional diets (not GM crops) they are much healthier. Why not go for heirloom & regionally developed seed rather than the usual corporate one size fits all (& makes a crop extremely vulunerable to a specific pest, see 1974 corn crop in US, also current rust problems w/wheat--what if spelt is resistant? With GM it's either owned or gone because the corporations drive out what they can't own/patent.
The EU is SMART much smarter than the US (pretty much corporate run) in this respect.
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