Fifteen million farmers are hostage to the GMO

Fifteen million farmers are hostage to the GMO, and 250,000 farmers - reduced to poverty - have taken their lives in recent years. It is the chilling complaint launched by the Indian scholar and activist Vandana Shiva: 70% of the global trade in seeds is now controlled by just three large corporations, and genetically modified organisms, which were to increase production and reduce pesticides, are affecting the world agriculture. The bluntly states a new report, entitled "The GMO Emperor has no clothes", drawn up by as many as 20 international organizations and published by Navdanya International, an association based in Florence. Presented from the outset as a potential solution to the global food crisis, the erosion of soils and the use of chemicals in agriculture, GMOs today cover more than a billion and a half acres of land in 29 different countries. But it does not seem to have kept their promises.



Among the disappointments of GMOs, the pest control: the new crops have facilitated the spread of pests and even more dangerous. In China, where insect-resistant Bt cotton is widely used, the parasites are in fact increased by 12 times since 1997. Not only that, a search in 2008 of the International Journal of Biotechnology found that any benefits due to the cultivation of this type cotton had been canceled in both the Republic and in neighboring India by the increasing use of pesticides needed in increasing amounts precisely to combat these new "super-pests". Same fate for growers of biotech soybean in Brazil and Argentina, from the conversion of their crops, they had to double the use of herbicides to get rid of super-weeds are able to grow an inch a day (like the weed pigweed ). And this without even the benefit of having crops more resistant to sun or drought.

According to The Gmo Emperor has no clothes. Global Citizens Report on the State of GMOs, GMOs have only a few multinationals led to a disturbing dominance. Suffice it to say that the only Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta now control 70% of global trade in seeds. A fact that makes the three biotech giants to establish (and raise) the prices at their leisure. But that is precisely why, according to scientists, is having devastating consequences on many of the more than 15 million farmers have become their customers.

In Africa, South America and especially in India, suicides of farmers unable to support the increasingly high costs of intensive agriculture imposed by genetically modified organisms have come to unacceptable levels. Only in the Asian country, remember Vandana Shiva (Navdanya International presiding) over the past 15 years, people who have taken their lives for this reason have exceeded 250 thousand units, almost one every half hour, from 1996 to the present.

In addition to the environmental and social impacts, scientists fear the health consequences, although not yet officially established. Not only in the countries 'poor', but also in the U.S., who 15 years ago launched gm crops: Today the United States is the world's largest producer, with 93% of soy, 80% of cotton, 62% of canola and 95% of sugar beet.

In Europe genetically modified organisms have not yet penetrated as in the rest of the world, but lacks a little: "The EU - the report says - imports 70% of feed, mostly corn and soybeans from the United States" and almost always genetically modified. Consequently, even where not allowed, GMOs "are potentially present in corn flour and soy listed as ingredients in many food products."

A fact that should not cause alarm, Mark Buckingham GM's industry's Agriculture and Biotechnology Council, which on the contrary praised the enormous potential benefits of these technologies. "From India to South Africa, millions of farmers have already evaluated the positive impact that GM technology can have on their work," says Dr. Buckingham: "The world population will reach nine billion by 2050. Significant increase in collected is therefore necessary, especially in developing countries. "

The continuous progress of the research, also, according to Buckingham GMOs could lead to even deal with challenges such as climate change: "It is developing a technology for drought tolerance, which will allow crops to deal with trouble-free periods of low soil moisture ". GMOs as a solution to environmental problems? By Vandana Shiva, in reality, "the model of GM discourages farmers to try farming methods more environmentally friendly," and corporations that promote it are "destroying the alternatives" for the sole purpose of "focusing on profit."