GMO Myths and Truths

and the Caribbean have found that organic and
agroecological farming can combat poverty in an
environmentally sustainable way:
● Farmers growing organic crops for export and
domestic markets in Latin America and the
Caribbean had higher incomes than a control
group of farmers using chemically-based
methods. Reasons included the lower cost
of organic technologies; the substitution of
labour and organic inputs for more expensive
chemical inputs that often require access to
credit; premiums paid for organic products;
and the strong long-term relationships that
organic farmers developed with buyers, which
resulted in better prices. As a bonus, organic
production was associated with positive effects
on the health of farm workers. Concern about
pesticide poisoning was an important factor in
farmers’ adoption of organic farming. 38
● The income of farmers in China and India
improved after they switched to organic
systems and was greater than that of farmers
using chemically-based methods. The study
concluded that the promotion of organic
agriculture among small farmers can contribute
to poverty alleviation. 39
● Certified organic farms in tropical Africa
involved in production for export were more
profitable than those involved in chemicallybased
export production. The result was
decreased poverty and increased food security
for farming communities, as people had more
money to buy food. Also, organic conversion
brought increases in yield. 40
● Organic systems in Africa were found to
raise farm incomes as well as agricultural
productivity. Reasons for the higher incomes
included lower input costs, as expensive
synthetic pesticides and fertilizers were not
used; and use of local, inexpensive, and readily
available technologies. 29
● The agroecological “integrated rice-duck”
system of using ducks and fish to control pests
in rice paddies in Japan, China, India, the
Philippines, and Bangladesh has cut labour
costs for weeding, reduced pesticide costs,
increased yields by up to 20%, and boosted
farm incomes by up to 80%. 41,42
7.2.3. Who owns food?
Traditionally, most food crop seeds have not been
owned by anyone. Farmers have been free to save
seeds from one year’s crop for the next year’s crop.
Around 1.4 billion farmers in the Global South rely
on such farm-saved seed for their livelihoods. 44
But this ancient practice is being undermined.
The transgenes used in creating GM crops are
patented and owned by GM companies. The
patents forbid farmers from saving seed to plant
the following year. They have to buy new seed each
year.
While an increasing number of non-GM seeds
are also being patented (in many cases by the big
GM companies such as Monsanto, Dupont, and
Syngenta), GM seeds are easier to patent as the
artificial genetic constructs can be more clearly
identified and there are fewer legal “grey areas”. 45
So for the time being, at least, GM will remain the
technology of choice for the seed multinationals.
In the United States and Canada, the presence
of a company’s patented GM genes in a farmer’s
harvest has been used by GM companies,
particularly Monsanto, as the basis for litigation
against the farmer. Contamination from crosspollination
happens readily, so the harvests of
many farmers who have not planted Monsanto
seed have tested positive for GM genes and
Monsanto has sued them for patent infringement.
This has pushed many farmers into switching to
buying Monsanto’s seed, because then they are
safer from litigation. Farmers’ claims that they
have not intentionally planted GM crops have
not protected them from having to pay large
cash settlements or damages as a result of civil
lawsuits. 46
Patented GM seeds transfer control of food
production from farmers to seed companies. GM
companies co-opt centuries of farmer knowledge
that went into creating locally adapted and
genetically diverse seed stocks by adding one
GM gene on top of the collective creation of
generations of farmers.
Patents also transfer control of the food supply
from the Global South to developed countries
in the Global North. This is because most of
the world’s genetic resources for food crops are
in the South, whereas most patents are held in
GMO Myths and Truths 113