Victoria's Green Matters - 27th Oct 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

Environmentalists have always known that genetically modified (GM) foods would not feed the world. It was claimed by the manufacturers of GM seed that drought resistant, salt resistant and pest resistant crops would increase yields for starving populations in the developing world.

Hunger has reached epic proportions, a recent report claims, as poor farmers are faced with increasing costs for pesticides and herbicides. Insects that were a small problem when growing cotton in China have now increased by 12 times since GM seed was adopted. Super weeds have been a consequence for soya farmers in Brazil, requiring twice as much herbicide than before.

GM technology is literally owned by three of the world’s largest corporations which control the price of seed, allowing them to increase prices at will e.g. Monsanto controls 95% of the seed market in India and prices have risen dramatically. Many Indian farmers have committed suicide in the last 15 years due to falling into debt because of the cost of seed.

Far from adding to food security in developing countries, the opposite has happened because most GM crops are now being grown for biofuels which have taken land away from food production.

There is more than enough food for everyone in the world today – it is simply wrongly distributed. Here in the affluent west we demand to eat and waste far too much food instead of eating seasonal foods, locally produced, and encouraging the rest of the world to do the same.