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GM Freeze article: Force Feeding - GM's Impact on the Global South (July 2007)
FORCE FEEDING
GM’s Impact on the Global South
Pilot Edition
Welcome
The number of reports, meetings, statements, research, activities and articles on genetically modified (GM, also called genetic engineering or GE) food and crops around the world and other significant developments in agriculture is huge. It is the intention of Force Feeding to keep readers abreast of developments in this rapidly changing area including lots of links to references and websites.
It is aimed at policy makers and politicians. Our aim is to provide a short digest of sourced information on GM crop developments around the world which are significant for people involved in developing policy and thinking about regulating GM crops and related biotech research in Southern Countries.
We will provide you with news and information that you may not be able to get from “official” sources.
We will try to be factual and provide links for more information on each piece. Please take time to
complete this and return to pete@gmfreeze.org the feedback sheet which asks for you opinions on our new service attached to the email
We hope you like Force Feeding and can make use of the information and analysis it provides.
! Who Needs GM for drought resistant rice?
A team of Japanese Researchers at Shizuoko University have been experimenting with crossing
African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud) and Asian rice (Oryza sativa L) to produce strains that perform
well under the drought conditions so common in parts of Africa. The crossing is by conventional
breeding techniques only and no genetic modification or other forms of biotechnology are involved.
New rice for Africa (NERICA) was compared with Asian rice and millet under drought conditions in the field. The team measured stomata conductance in the crops and soil water content. Dry weights of all the cultivars were measured at harvest. The researched concluded, “It became clear that there are some lines in NERICA that show high growth with small absorption of water and they seem to be
appropriate for long periods of cultivation in drought condition”.
Although very encouraging, the NERICA breeding programme has some way to go before African rice farmers will be able to sow new drought resistant varieties, but this research is a highly promising start. See www.cropscience.org.au/icsc2004/poster/1/3/2/852_fujiim.htm
! Agrofuels Food v Fuel
Bioethanol and biodiesel have suddenly become the “answer” to tackling both security of supply and climate change for northern industrialised states. However, the debate about whether food or fuel should take precedent is hotting up. Agrofuels is the term being adopted by many campaigning groups to describe intensive monocultures grown to produce bioethanol or biodiesel to distinguish them from other biofuels, such as methane or biomass, which can be produced sustainably at local level.
The level of interest in using crops to produce fuels for vehicles has been hiked up by the big
increases in oil process in 2006 and the growing realisation that many of the predicted impacts of
burning fossil fuels on the world’s climate have already started to happen. The US and EU are both
advancing plans to convert crops such as maize, wheat and sugar beet into ethanol, which in the first instance will be blended with petrol. Sorghum is also being touted as a potential crop in Africa for ethanol production Soya, palm oil and oilseed rape are enthusiastically championed as sources of bio diesel. The biotechnology industry is heavily involved in projects to increase yields from crops. The holy grail is to find a most efficient way to convert cellulose into starches and sugars that can then be fermented to make ethanol. Oilseed rape has also been genetically modified in an attempt to enhance the yield of oil throughout the plant.
One of the many arguments used to justify the vast R&D expenditure on GM crops has been the
need to feed an expanding population. This argument now seems to be taking second place to the
need to engineer crops to maximize biofuels production. Major partnerships have been set up, eg
between BP and Du Pont. In February, BP announced a $9.4 million investment in India to produce
biodiesel from Jatropha curcas, a nonedible oil bearing crop. BP, in partnership with The Energy and
Resources Institute, will cultivate 8,000 hectares of land that is currently designated as “wasteland” to produce 9 million litres of biodiesel per year. Where the “wasteland” is located and what impacts on Indian biodiversity, pastoralists and grazing lands might follow such a change in land use remain to be seen or to be assessed. See www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=171&contentId=20...
Shell has acknowledged that using food crops for fuel when there are people short of food is "morally inappropriate". However, despite pledging to concentrate efforts on biofuel development using wood chips and plant wastes, the company did not rule out using food crops as a feedstock: “Sometimes economics force you to do it." See www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=13103
George Monbiot has explored the morality of the fossil fuel hungry north utilizing land in the South to
grow transport fuels. See www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worsethanfossilfuel/ and Panos’ excellent briefing at www.panos.org.uk/resources/reportdetails.asp?id=1089
A campaign for a moratorium on EU incentives from agrofuel crops, agrofuel imports and agroenergy monoculture has been launched by on international coalition. To sign up to support the moratorium visit www.econexus.info/biofuels.html
! Roundup Resistance Grows
The Proponents of GM herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crops claim they will reduce the amounts of weed
killers used and hence the fuel needed to transport them and spray them. Evidence is mounting from around the world on the growing number of weeds which are exhibiting resistance to Monsanto’s Roundup through natural plant evolution and pollen transfer from GM plants. Even at this stage of their commercial life some people are questioning the longterm viability of GMHT plants.
Monsanto have issued guideline to US farmers on how to “manage weed resistance”.
See www.monsanto.com/monsanto/us_ag/content/stewardship/tug/2007TUGPDF.pdf
A report published in 2004 analysed herbicide usage in the US and showed that after 9 years of
GMHT crops it was increasing. See www.biotechinfo.net/full_version_first_nine.pdf
Evidence is beginning to accumulate in the Americas that resistance through natural
evolution and the GM gene transfer are both emerging. Surprisingly it appears that natural
resistance development may be ahead of problems arising from cross pollination with weedy
relatives and volunteers. In the USA weed scientists have found Roundup resistance in ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and horseweed (Conyza Canadensis). See www.weedscience.org/Case/Case.asp?ResistID=5261 and http://www.weedscience.org/Case/Case.asp?ResistID=5187
Argentina has also recently seen its first case of glyphosate resistance in Johnsongrass in the north
east of the country. Monsanto have reported that the resistance problems extend to 17,000 – 25,000
acres. See www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=1340...
The first documented case of glyphosate resistance was in rigid rye grass in New South Wales,
Australia in 1996 following two or three applications per year in an orchard over 15 years. This has
been followed by cases in Australia, California, Chile and Malaysia. See www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=1340...
This year saw the USA’s first instances of resistance to glyphosate arising from cross pollination
when genes of GM Roundup Ready (RR) creeping bent grass were found 3.8km downwind of trial
sites in Oregon. See Reichman JR et al, 2006. Establishment of transgenic herbicideresistant
creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) in nonagronomic habitats Molecular Ecology Vol 15 No 13 pp4243 4255 November 2006.
Thus sustaining reduced costs for farmers growing RR crops is proving difficult. The measures
needed to contain the problem being recommended by Monsanto themselves further undermine the
economics of RR crops. Developing countries need to note the global experience of herbicide
resistant weeds very closely and avoid getting hooked into a system that has all the hallmarks of being an unsustainable technology.
! South Africa Draws the GM line at Sorghum
South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa where GM crops are at all widely grown and is used
by the biotechnology industry as a model for others to follow. Recent attempts to license GM
sorghum trials have run into exactly the same type of concerns that have characterised attempts to
commercialise GM crops in the EU.
An application to test GM sorghum inside greenhouses has been turned down by the South African
Agriculture ministry. The application by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was
turned down on biosafety grounds because the regulators were concerned about the potential impact of the GM crops on other sorghum varieties grown in the country.
The CSIR planned to modify sorghum because “the crop has certain inherent deficiencies”. The plan
was “to increase the levels of vitamins and the bioavailability of key nutrients by introducing the
relevant genetic signals into sorghum”. The project is part of the R450million African Biotechnology
Sorghum (ABS) project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, and is aimed at improving nutrition to
promote health, which focuses on improving nutrition levels of bananas, cassava, and rice and
sorghum crops.
This project is an excellent example of trying to solve malnutrition by genetically engineering one crop. It fails to recognize that food security can only be achieved through providing access to land and water to produce a balanced diet containing sufficient proteins, vitamins and other nutrients. Over reliance on just one cop for nutritional requirements leaves people very vulnerable as the Irish peasants found in the 1840 potato famines. See www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2997&a... in brief
! Dead sheep and goats in Andhra Pradesh:
Following the deaths of sheep and goats grazing on the stubble of Bt cotton crops in a number of villages in Andhra Pradesh, the precise cause is still to be established, although some obvious diseases have been ruled out. See www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7507
! GM eggplants tested in India: GM brinjal, or eggplant, is being developed in India amid growing
concern about the safety of the crop and its ability to cross pollinate easily.
See www.csaindia.org/downloads/GE/bt_brinjal_briefing_paper.pdf
! Cyprus – Parliament votes for separate shelves for GMOs: In an unprecedented move the
Parliament of Cyprus has voted to legislate that food containing GMOs should be placed on separate shelves from other foods. The proposal first emerged in 2005 when the US wrote to the Parliament saying such a move would breach Cyprus’s agreement to the WTO. In addition Cyprus wants to declare the island a GMOfree zone because it is not big enough to ensure conventional crops will remain unaffected by biotech ones.
See www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index.php?module=articles&id=4027 and
radio.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=151928
Force Feeding Pilot edition July 2007
GM’s Impact on the Global South
Pilot Edition
Welcome
The number of reports, meetings, statements, research, activities and articles on genetically modified (GM, also called genetic engineering or GE) food and crops around the world and other significant developments in agriculture is huge. It is the intention of Force Feeding to keep readers abreast of developments in this rapidly changing area including lots of links to references and websites.
It is aimed at policy makers and politicians. Our aim is to provide a short digest of sourced information on GM crop developments around the world which are significant for people involved in developing policy and thinking about regulating GM crops and related biotech research in Southern Countries.
We will provide you with news and information that you may not be able to get from “official” sources.
We will try to be factual and provide links for more information on each piece. Please take time to
complete this and return to pete@gmfreeze.org the feedback sheet which asks for you opinions on our new service attached to the email
We hope you like Force Feeding and can make use of the information and analysis it provides.
! Who Needs GM for drought resistant rice?
A team of Japanese Researchers at Shizuoko University have been experimenting with crossing
African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud) and Asian rice (Oryza sativa L) to produce strains that perform
well under the drought conditions so common in parts of Africa. The crossing is by conventional
breeding techniques only and no genetic modification or other forms of biotechnology are involved.
New rice for Africa (NERICA) was compared with Asian rice and millet under drought conditions in the field. The team measured stomata conductance in the crops and soil water content. Dry weights of all the cultivars were measured at harvest. The researched concluded, “It became clear that there are some lines in NERICA that show high growth with small absorption of water and they seem to be
appropriate for long periods of cultivation in drought condition”.
Although very encouraging, the NERICA breeding programme has some way to go before African rice farmers will be able to sow new drought resistant varieties, but this research is a highly promising start. See www.cropscience.org.au/icsc2004/poster/1/3/2/852_fujiim.htm
! Agrofuels Food v Fuel
Bioethanol and biodiesel have suddenly become the “answer” to tackling both security of supply and climate change for northern industrialised states. However, the debate about whether food or fuel should take precedent is hotting up. Agrofuels is the term being adopted by many campaigning groups to describe intensive monocultures grown to produce bioethanol or biodiesel to distinguish them from other biofuels, such as methane or biomass, which can be produced sustainably at local level.
The level of interest in using crops to produce fuels for vehicles has been hiked up by the big
increases in oil process in 2006 and the growing realisation that many of the predicted impacts of
burning fossil fuels on the world’s climate have already started to happen. The US and EU are both
advancing plans to convert crops such as maize, wheat and sugar beet into ethanol, which in the first instance will be blended with petrol. Sorghum is also being touted as a potential crop in Africa for ethanol production Soya, palm oil and oilseed rape are enthusiastically championed as sources of bio diesel. The biotechnology industry is heavily involved in projects to increase yields from crops. The holy grail is to find a most efficient way to convert cellulose into starches and sugars that can then be fermented to make ethanol. Oilseed rape has also been genetically modified in an attempt to enhance the yield of oil throughout the plant.
One of the many arguments used to justify the vast R&D expenditure on GM crops has been the
need to feed an expanding population. This argument now seems to be taking second place to the
need to engineer crops to maximize biofuels production. Major partnerships have been set up, eg
between BP and Du Pont. In February, BP announced a $9.4 million investment in India to produce
biodiesel from Jatropha curcas, a nonedible oil bearing crop. BP, in partnership with The Energy and
Resources Institute, will cultivate 8,000 hectares of land that is currently designated as “wasteland” to produce 9 million litres of biodiesel per year. Where the “wasteland” is located and what impacts on Indian biodiversity, pastoralists and grazing lands might follow such a change in land use remain to be seen or to be assessed. See www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=171&contentId=20...
Shell has acknowledged that using food crops for fuel when there are people short of food is "morally inappropriate". However, despite pledging to concentrate efforts on biofuel development using wood chips and plant wastes, the company did not rule out using food crops as a feedstock: “Sometimes economics force you to do it." See www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=13103
George Monbiot has explored the morality of the fossil fuel hungry north utilizing land in the South to
grow transport fuels. See www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worsethanfossilfuel/ and Panos’ excellent briefing at www.panos.org.uk/resources/reportdetails.asp?id=1089
A campaign for a moratorium on EU incentives from agrofuel crops, agrofuel imports and agroenergy monoculture has been launched by on international coalition. To sign up to support the moratorium visit www.econexus.info/biofuels.html
! Roundup Resistance Grows
The Proponents of GM herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crops claim they will reduce the amounts of weed
killers used and hence the fuel needed to transport them and spray them. Evidence is mounting from around the world on the growing number of weeds which are exhibiting resistance to Monsanto’s Roundup through natural plant evolution and pollen transfer from GM plants. Even at this stage of their commercial life some people are questioning the longterm viability of GMHT plants.
Monsanto have issued guideline to US farmers on how to “manage weed resistance”.
See www.monsanto.com/monsanto/us_ag/content/stewardship/tug/2007TUGPDF.pdf
A report published in 2004 analysed herbicide usage in the US and showed that after 9 years of
GMHT crops it was increasing. See www.biotechinfo.net/full_version_first_nine.pdf
Evidence is beginning to accumulate in the Americas that resistance through natural
evolution and the GM gene transfer are both emerging. Surprisingly it appears that natural
resistance development may be ahead of problems arising from cross pollination with weedy
relatives and volunteers. In the USA weed scientists have found Roundup resistance in ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and horseweed (Conyza Canadensis). See www.weedscience.org/Case/Case.asp?ResistID=5261 and http://www.weedscience.org/Case/Case.asp?ResistID=5187
Argentina has also recently seen its first case of glyphosate resistance in Johnsongrass in the north
east of the country. Monsanto have reported that the resistance problems extend to 17,000 – 25,000
acres. See www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=1340...
The first documented case of glyphosate resistance was in rigid rye grass in New South Wales,
Australia in 1996 following two or three applications per year in an orchard over 15 years. This has
been followed by cases in Australia, California, Chile and Malaysia. See www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=1340...
This year saw the USA’s first instances of resistance to glyphosate arising from cross pollination
when genes of GM Roundup Ready (RR) creeping bent grass were found 3.8km downwind of trial
sites in Oregon. See Reichman JR et al, 2006. Establishment of transgenic herbicideresistant
creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) in nonagronomic habitats Molecular Ecology Vol 15 No 13 pp4243 4255 November 2006.
Thus sustaining reduced costs for farmers growing RR crops is proving difficult. The measures
needed to contain the problem being recommended by Monsanto themselves further undermine the
economics of RR crops. Developing countries need to note the global experience of herbicide
resistant weeds very closely and avoid getting hooked into a system that has all the hallmarks of being an unsustainable technology.
! South Africa Draws the GM line at Sorghum
South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa where GM crops are at all widely grown and is used
by the biotechnology industry as a model for others to follow. Recent attempts to license GM
sorghum trials have run into exactly the same type of concerns that have characterised attempts to
commercialise GM crops in the EU.
An application to test GM sorghum inside greenhouses has been turned down by the South African
Agriculture ministry. The application by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was
turned down on biosafety grounds because the regulators were concerned about the potential impact of the GM crops on other sorghum varieties grown in the country.
The CSIR planned to modify sorghum because “the crop has certain inherent deficiencies”. The plan
was “to increase the levels of vitamins and the bioavailability of key nutrients by introducing the
relevant genetic signals into sorghum”. The project is part of the R450million African Biotechnology
Sorghum (ABS) project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, and is aimed at improving nutrition to
promote health, which focuses on improving nutrition levels of bananas, cassava, and rice and
sorghum crops.
This project is an excellent example of trying to solve malnutrition by genetically engineering one crop. It fails to recognize that food security can only be achieved through providing access to land and water to produce a balanced diet containing sufficient proteins, vitamins and other nutrients. Over reliance on just one cop for nutritional requirements leaves people very vulnerable as the Irish peasants found in the 1840 potato famines. See www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2997&a... in brief
! Dead sheep and goats in Andhra Pradesh:
Following the deaths of sheep and goats grazing on the stubble of Bt cotton crops in a number of villages in Andhra Pradesh, the precise cause is still to be established, although some obvious diseases have been ruled out. See www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7507
! GM eggplants tested in India: GM brinjal, or eggplant, is being developed in India amid growing
concern about the safety of the crop and its ability to cross pollinate easily.
See www.csaindia.org/downloads/GE/bt_brinjal_briefing_paper.pdf
! Cyprus – Parliament votes for separate shelves for GMOs: In an unprecedented move the
Parliament of Cyprus has voted to legislate that food containing GMOs should be placed on separate shelves from other foods. The proposal first emerged in 2005 when the US wrote to the Parliament saying such a move would breach Cyprus’s agreement to the WTO. In addition Cyprus wants to declare the island a GMOfree zone because it is not big enough to ensure conventional crops will remain unaffected by biotech ones.
See www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index.php?module=articles&id=4027 and
radio.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=151928
Force Feeding Pilot edition July 2007
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by OLUWASEYIFUNMI KOMOLAFE ARIGBEDE on -
Greetings Jocelyn, I would like to share this on the My WorldFamily page on facebook...including a weekly link to Force Feeding. How are you?...i hope all is beautiful with you and yours:)
Blessings,
SeyiFunmi
-
Permalink Reply by Jocelyn Jones on -
Greetings SeyiFunmi
That is a great idea. www.gmfreeze.org is the site it comes from so you might want to dig around and see what is most relevant from your point of view.
What I am going to do is put up an article a week for a while and then maybe shift to another topic.
E ku ise o
Jocelyn
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