If the gross agribusinesses had their way, every single one of us would have to pay them to stay alive, and they make much of two arguments.
Firstly, they tell the world that the results of their very expensive research are the only way whereby farmers can produce enough food to feed a growing human population, without any form of proof of this preposterous claim.
Secondly, they may perfectly correctly claim that their products are capable of countering certain problems of crop-yield and pest-control, but they are unwilling to admit that they have never done any substantial in-depth research into the side-effects of the genetic modifications which they have made.
The reasons for both arguments deserve detailed examination, and the dangers represented by unwelcome side-effects need to be overcome. Research has shown many disquieting results in the reduction in the number of varieties still in existence among many plants and animals.
Almost all these vast conglomerate businesses now seem to have their central base in the USA, where unbridled capitalism is the rule, and is even encouraged. This is the ideal habitat for them to escape blame for the inevitable losses that they cause to the poorest peoples on our planet.
It is axiomatic that seed should, wherever possible, be saved from each harvest for the next cycle of growth, and any contractual provisions which ban or restrict this should be automatically declared illegal and ineffective.
Much has been made of 'developments' in the growing of what we in Europe call maize (and in the USA is called 'corn', while in English English corn is another name for wheat), whereby yields are increased enormously, but the agribusinesses fail to tell the world about the often-found need for the increased use of fertilisers and the ultimate desertification of the soil due to failure to rotate crops. Furthermore, they try to hide from us the effect of their products on eco-diversity, when it seems to any thinking person that it is normal that different soil and other growing conditions and varying climates should often give an advantage to different local strains. There is every reason for us to encourage the growing of as wide a selection of different kinds of every vegetable and fruit as can possibly be preserved. In addition history has shown that individual strains of certain plants can suffer greatly from epidemics which can wipe out vast quantities of produce, and there is no certainty whatsoever that the research undertaken by the agribusinesses can give an answer to this ever-present threat.
It may sound simplistic, but it nevertheless remains true that small can be beautiful, and we risk our freedom and our lives when we ignore the warning signs of desertification, which have always dogged humanity. We only have to remind ourselves that North Africa, much of which is now sterile desert, was once the bread-basket of Rome. We should also not forget the developments which have been made over the centuries in many otherwise inhospitable lands by intelligent farmers who have made the desert bloom without indulging in expensive patentable genetic modifications.
It was a serious mistake for W.I.P.O. (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) ever to have entertained the idea that patents can be filed for plant varieties, and there should be a strong international movement to abolish all such patents. They allow these over-powerful corporations to hold developing countries to ransom merely to be able to give their peoples a minimum diet, and the greatest scandal is their tendency to use their power and ill-gotten wealth to crush any resistance to their greed and desire to drain every single last coin into their coffers.
Unhappily, these corporations have been able to buy enormous political power, and developing nations have little chance of receiving any help from the richer countries to resist the unjust pressures which hold them back from any harmonious steady growth of their own produce, specifically adapted to their growing conditions.
To put it simply, it is useless for rich states to make supposedly 'charitable' gifts to the poorest if they do not also curb the indecent power of the agribusinesses which are defacing our world. These businesses are impoverishing our poorest brothers and sisters and we cannot buy ourselves a good conscience by sending a few coins to 'help the poor'.
These businesses are not the only villains in the piece, and the world should also ensure the freedom of peoples to maintain the sustainable development of many means of producing food, including fishing, and the key-word is always sustainable. The wiping out of the cod population in the North Atlantic is a terrible example of what naked human greed can do, and there is a similar risk in other waters for many varieties of fish and other marine creatures, some of which risk extinction.
The world has to work together for the good of us all, and a good first step would be to end all patents on plant varieties, and impose the strictest of controls on all forms of genetic modification of plants and animals for food. There is no justification for a situation where such huge profits are made at the expense of the rest of us, and in particular of the poorest in the world.
The seeds of life are a basic human right and have to be available to all, without distinction, and above all to our poorest brothers and sisters.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
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