Press Release
Genetic Engineering is NOT meeting the needs of the poor!

18 May 2004 (Beijing/China)- "FAO is retrogressing from the global momentum against genetic engineering in food and agriculture" says Sarojeni Rengam of the International Planning Committee (IPC) Asia of the NGO/CSO, referring to Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) recently launched report endorsing genetic engineering in the midst of Monsanto's withdrawal of genetically modified (GM) wheat due to strong opposition from North American farmers.
In the FAO report which drew strong criticism from members of the IPC Asia, entitled "The State of World Food and Agriculture 2004", it urged significant private and public investments in new genetic technologies for major food crops of the poor such as rice, wheat, white maize, potato and cassava and the so called "orphan crops" which include cowpea, millet, sorghum and teff.
FAO's recommendation comes despite increasing evidence on the adverse ecological and health impacts of genetically engineered crops and resistance from governments and farmers to the technology.
"We are not guinea pigs", says Philippine farmer leader Danilo Ramos, reacting to FAO's report which explicitly endorsed bio-engineered food crops as a tool in the war on hunger.
In 2002, Zambia rejected genetically engineered corn food aid from the US despite being confronted by hunger and starvation. The call of Zambians was "Better dead than GM-fed". Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe rejected the shipment of GM food aid to their countries as well.
Genetically engineered crops have been commercialized without the benefit of comprehensive safety tests and impact studies. Recent studies have shown alarming health findings such as the transfer of DNA from GM food to the human gut which proponents earlier assured as an impossibility.
Social movements, particularly farmers, have strongly opposed genetic engineering in food and agriculture due to health concerns and the potential impacts of GM crops in undermining the rich agricultural biodiversity in farmers' fields which constitute the base of world food security.
Leaders representing small food producers have been claiming that GM crops promote farmers' dependence on transnational corporations for seeds as all GM seeds in the market today are owned and sold by the world's biggest players in seeds and agro-chemicals which also enjoy virtual monopoly control over all processes, products and tools involved in genetic engineering through intellectual property rights.
"This fact debunks FAO's claim in the report that genetic engineering will benefit the poor if public institutions control the technology. Control of genetic engineering by public institutions will also not erase the health and environment hazards that come with the technology", explains Rengam, who is also the Director of the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PANAP).
Proponents of GM crops, including FAO in its report, proclaim that genetic engineering will reduce the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides by farmers, and thus would be beneficial for human health and the environment.
However, recent studies in the US contradict this claim with evidence showing that there is a substantial increase in the use of herbicides on herbicide-resistant crops over the past three years. Dr. Charles Benbrook of the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center found that many farmers planting herbicide-tolerant crops have led to incrementally spray more herbicides to keep up with tougher weeds that evolved and the emergence of resistance in certain weed populations.
The claim of proponents on increased production through the use of GM crops has also been shattered by recent experiences in developing countries. The state of Andra Pradesh in India declared Bt cotton as a failure, yielding less and shorter staple size than ordinary hybrid cotton.
"The FAO report trumpets the entry of the so-called Gene Revolution from the Green Revolution, completely ignoring the devastation caused by the latter technology" says Elenita Dano of SEARICE who also attended the NGO/CSO Consultation.
She explained that the Green Revolution package of technology consisting of high-response modern varieties, chemical pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers have jeopardized the environment through genetic uniformity and the erosion of the genetic base of major food crops, soil degradation, contamination of ground water, and massive pest and disease infestations. Dependence on chemical inputs and commercial seeds has brought millions of farmers to indebtedness, landlessness and further impoverishment. Farmers and farming families have also been exposed to the hazards brought by chemical pesticides to human health.
The promised potential yields of Green Revolution crop varieties were never really attained in actual field conditions, and actual yields have reached a plateau since the 1990s. While it is true that public research institutions led the Green Revolution, the technology that it promoted has paved the way for the emergence and later expansion of a few giant agri-chemical and seed transnational corporations.
"When will FAO ever learn?" asks Dano. She explained that decades after the Green Revolution, the number of hungry and malnourished people has ironically increased despite the substantial jump in yield and production of major food crops such as rice.
"FAO's report is contradictory to the statement of Assistant Director General of the FAO for Asia-Pacific, Dr. He Changchui" says Dano, referring to the keynote delivered to the NGO/CSO meeting in Beijing recently where the ADG expressed that "the world now lives in a paradox of hunger in the midst of plenty".
"We urge the FAO and Governments to realize the principles of food sovereignty, which gives rights to farmers and communities to produce their own food and make decisions on food and agriculture" says Irene Fernandez of Tenaganita, also an IPC member. "The Green Revolution experience shows that the problems in food and agriculture do not require technological solution but systemic social and political transformation that directly addresses the unequal distribution of the world's resources", concludes Fernandez.

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Contact: Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director of Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, P.O. Box 1170, 10850 Penang, Malaysia; URL: www.panap.net, email: panap@.panap.net., handphone: (60) 16 478 9545