Another article (abridged) from Colin Todhunter about food
production and the influence of GMO which is worth re-posting as it
concentrates not on the arguments about safety but the capitalists’
need for increasing profit, no matter the cost, and also the accompanying geo-political
issue.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not essential for
feeding the world, but if they were to lead to increased productivity, did not
harm the environment and did not negatively impact biodiversity and human
health, would we be wise to embrace them anyhow?
The fact is that GMO technology would still be owned and
controlled by certain very powerful interests. In their hands, this technology
is first and foremost an instrument of corporate power, a tool to ensure
profit. Beyond that, it is intended to serve US global geopolitical interests.
Indeed, agriculture has for a long time been central to US foreign policy.
“American foreign policy has almost always been based on
agricultural exports, not on industrial exports as people might think. It's by
agriculture and control of the food supply that American diplomacy has been
able to control most of the Third World. The World Bank's geopolitical lending
strategy has been to turn countries into food deficit areas by convincing them
to grow cash crops – plantation export crops – not to feed themselves with
their own food crops.” Professor Michael Hudson.
Agriculture is the bedrock of many societies, yet it is
being recast for the benefit of rich agritech, retail and food processing
concerns. Small farms are under immense pressure and food security is being
undermined, not least because the small farm produces most of the world's food.
Whether through land grabs and takeovers, the production of (non-food) cash
crops for export, greater chemical inputs or seed patenting and the eradication
of seed sharing among farmers, profits are guaranteed for agritech corporations
and institutional land investors.
The recasting of agriculture in the image of big
agribusiness continues across the globe despite researchers saying that this
chemical-intensive, high-energy consuming model means Britain only has 100
harvests left because of soil degradation. In Punjab, the 'green revolution'
model of industrial scale, corporate dominated agriculture has led to a crisis
in terms of severe water shortages, increasing human cancers and falling
productivity. There is a global agrarian crisis. The increasingly dominant
corporate-driven model is unsustainable.
More ecological forms of agriculture are being called for
that, through intelligent crop management and decreased use of chemical inputs,
would be able to not only feed the world but also work sustainably with the
natural environment.
When on occasion the chemical-industrial model indicates
that it does deliver better yields than more traditional methods (a generalization
and often overstated), even this is a misrepresentation. Better yields but only
with massive chemical inputs from corporations and huge damage to health and the
environment as well as ever more resource-driven conflicts to grab the oil that
fuels this model. Like the erroneous belief that economic 'growth' (GDP) is
stimulated just because there becomes greater levels of cash flows in an
economy (and corporate profits are boosted), the notion of improved
agricultural 'productivity' also stems from a set of narrowly defined criteria.
The dominant notions that underpin economic 'growth', modern agriculture and
'development' are based on a series of assumption that betray a mindset steeped
in arrogance and contempt: the planet should be cast in an urban-centic,
ethnocentric model whereby the rural is to be looked down on, nature must be
dominated, farmers are a problem to be removed from the land and traditional ways
are backward and in need of remedy.
Despite the environmental and social devastation caused, the
outcome is regarded as successful just because business interests that benefit
from this point to a growth in GDP. Chopping down an entire forest that people
had made a living sustainably from for centuries and selling the timber,
selling more poisons to spray on soil or selling pharmaceuticals to address the
health impacts of the petrochemical food production model would indeed increase
GDP, wouldn't it? It's all good for business. And what is good for business is
good for everyone else, or so the lie goes. The 'green revolution' and now GMOs
are ultimately not concerned with feeding the world, securing well-rounded
nutritious diets or ensuring health and environmental safety. (In fact, India
now imports foods that it used to grow but no longer does; in Africa too, local
diets are becoming less diverse and less healthy.) Such notions are based on
propaganda or stem from well-meaning sentiments that have been pressed into the
service of corporate interests. Motivated by self-interest but wrapped up in
trendy PR about 'feeding the world' or imposing austerity to ensure prosperity,
the publicly stated intentions of the US state-corporate cabal should never be
taken at face value.
Only the completely naive would believe that rich
institutional investors in land and big agribusiness and its backers in the US
State Department have humanity's interests at heart. At the very least, their
collective aim is profit. Beyond that and to facilitate it, the need to secure
US global hegemony is paramount. The science surrounding GMOs is becoming
increasingly politicized and bogged down in detailed arguments about whose
methodologies, results, conclusions and science show what and why. The bigger
picture however is often in danger of being overlooked. GMO is not just about
'science'. As an issue, GMO and the chemical-industrial model it is linked to
is ultimately a geopolitical one driven by power and profit.
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