Monsanto in Brazil:
Facing growing opposition from family farmers
and the
courts.
GMO's Benefit
No One but Multinationals Like Monsanto (Opera Mundi, Brazil)
"The only ones to benefit from GMOs
have been the multinational biotechnology firms that patented them. Having
conquered a growing slice of the global market for highly-monopolized seeds, their
goal is long-term profits, indifferent to the impact on the environment, public
health, or family agriculture."
Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus: His theory about the limits of food production and the inevitible decline in populations have been disproven before. So why are biotech companies like Monsanto still defending themselves with Mathusian arguments?
In
a contemporary remake of the Malthusian
argument, the proponents of GMOs allege that they are
necessary to ensure food to a world population on the rise in the context of ever-shrinking
farmland.
Serving
as a subsidiary argument is the theory that herbicide-tolerant, pesticide-resistant
GMOs would avoid the use of greater quantities of
pesticides, and that GMOs resistant to drought would allow for the adaptation
of plants to the climate changes now underway.
If
that isn't sufficient, proponents still hang their hats on so-called “good GMOs” - plants that are “engineered” to provide greater
amounts of vitamins, other vital nutrients, and even vaccines, resolving the
problem of poor populations without access to food and medication.
But
just as Malthus was defeated by history - because humanity today produces much
more food than in the past, having grown at rates never anticipated - current
demographic studies show a clear tendency of the planet's population toward stabilization
in the coming decades. First world countries today have diminishing populations,
and even countries like Brazil show fertility rates below what is necessary to
replace the population.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
So
what about the promised reduction in the use of pesticides? To the dismay of
all who work in the public health sector, over recent years, Brazil has become
the largest consumer of pesticides on earth. And the situation is likely to worsen,
because due to the well-known development of pesticide resistance in invasive
plants, glyphosate
- the most widely-used pesticide with transgenic soybeans - is no longer effective.
The
“solution” found by biotechnology companies are new GMOs
tolerant to 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic
acid, a relative of the herbicide Agent Orange, which was used
by the North Americans in Vietnam. The National Biosafety Technical Commission is
about to release genetically-modified soy and maize that are tolerant to 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic
acid.
Finally,
so-called “good GMOs,” which serve essentially a
propagandist role, will be a hard sell. It has proven impossible to convince easterners
to eat several bowls of “golden
rice” every day, just as it doesn’t make sense for research to concentrate
vitamins in certain foods, instead of trying to ensure the right of everyone to
an adequate and balanced diet.
In
addition to Brazilian agribusiness, the only ones to benefit from GMOs have been the multinational biotechnology firms that patented
them. Having conquered a growing slice of the global market for highly-monopolized
seeds, their goal is long-term profits, indifferent to the impact on the
environment, public health, or family agriculture.
Ten
years after the commercial release of GMOs in Brazil
- Monsanto's Roundup-Ready
soybeans, thanks to a provisional measure from the Lula government - it is high
time for the country to begin demanding serious scientific research to assess
the harm GMOs have had on health, the environment,
and family agriculture.
*Marijane Vieira Lisboa,
sociologist, professor at PUC-SP, member of the National Biosafety
Technical Commission, representative of consumer entities.
