The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

how multinational corporations control food 309the trick of “stem shortening,” in breeders’ jargon, through the introductionof a gene for dwarfism.*This is how, in the space of a century, wheat yields increased from aboutfour hundredweight per acre in 1910 to an average of thirty-two hundredweight,while the height of wheat stalks decreased by three feet. But this exploitwas accompanied by a side effect criticized by opponents of the greenrevolution: an increased use of phytosanitary products, without which the“miracle seeds,” as the CIMMYT varieties were called, were of absolutely nouse. In order to produce such a large quantity of kernels, the plant had to bestuffed with fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), which eventuallybrought about a decline in the natural fertility of the soil. In addition, it hadto be watered copiously, which depleted aquifers. Furthermore, extremevegetal density was manna for insect pests and fungi, which meant the massiveuse of insecticides and fungicides. Finally, the obsession with yieldsbrought about a general decline in the nutritional quality of the kernels anda reduction in the biodiversity of wheat, a number of varieties of which simplydisappeared.In the 1960s, aware of the irremediable nature of the losses associatedwith its promotion of high-yield varieties, CIMMYT opened a “germoplasmbank,” which now stores at –3ºC some 166,000 varieties of wheat. To supplyit, its associates comb countrysides around the world in search of raregrains, such as the wild wheat specimens found at the Iranian edge of theFertile Crescent, which its technicians were in the process of labeling whenI visited the center.Nonetheless, CIMMYT’s dwarf varieties have spread around the world.In the North, including the Communist countries, breeders used them intheir cross-pollination programs. The countries of the South, led by India,sent technicians to be trained at the center, nicknamed the “School of theWheat Apostles.” In 1965, an unusual drought devastated the wheat crop inthe Indian subcontinent, and there was a threat of famine. The governmentof Indira Gandhi decided to buy eighteen thousand tons of high-yield seedsimported from Mexico, the largest transfer of seeds in history. Trainedby CIMMYT, Indian agronomists propagated the green revolution in the re-*Today, to further shorten stems, large wheat growers have no hesitation in applying to their crops ahormone, euphemistically named “plant growth regulator.”