Gene World
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005
GE/GM Propaganda
ISAAA, a major PR organisation funded by GE/GM companies, has released
a report claiming a massive global uptake of GM crops, but the Network
of Concerned Farmers (NCF) claims the findings are misleading.
"It is not that farmers benefit from GM technology; farmers are
not being offered anything that cannot be achieved with non-GM biotechnology,"
said NCF national spokesperson Mrs Julie Newman. "Figures show
the area of GM has increased in certain countries, but this is mainly
because most of these farmers have relied on heavy subsidies from governments
or from the GM companies themselves," she noted.
A report prepared last year by the Soil Association in the UK revealed
that North American subsidies have increased in direct proportion to
the area of crops grown – and still it has been predicted that
US farm exports will plunge a further 10% this year due to lower prices
and increased competition.
Countries like Argentina have been supplied free seed, chemicals, machinery
and expertise from the GM companies, and such moves have transformed
sustainable farming into a soybean-based monoculture and caused an exodus
of traditional farmers and crops.
The NCF believes that because Australian farmers have cheaper, non-GM
alternatives and good agricultural practices, farming would be more
sustainable without GM crops.
[Source: NCF press release, 12 January 2005,
http://www.non-gm-farmers.com]
[From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005; published by
The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny,
Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]