"Why Genetically Altered Food Won't Conquer Hunger"

[Carl Remick]

[From today's NY Times.  Key point:  "The real problems {causing world
hunger} are poverty and inequality. Too many people are too poor to buy
the food that is available or lack land on which to grow it
themselves."]

Why Genetically Altered Food Won't Conquer Hunger

By Peter Rosset

Oakland, Calif. -- In the debate over genetically altered foods,
proponents like Senator Richard Luger, the Indiana Republican, argue
that such products will be essential if we are to feed the world. 

But this claim rests on two persistent misconceptions about hunger:
first, that people are hungry because of high population density, and
second, that genetic engineering is the best or only way to meet our
future needs. 

In fact, there is no relationship between the prevalence of hunger in a
given country and its population. For every densely populated and hungry
nation like Bangladesh, there is a sparsely populated and hungry nation
like Brazil. 

The world today produces more food per inhabitant than ever before.
Enough is available to provide 4.3 pounds to every person every day: two
and a half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of meat, milk
and eggs, and another of fruits and vegetables -- more than anyone could
ever eat. 

The real problems are poverty and inequality. Too many people are too
poor to buy the food that is available or lack land on which to grow it
themselves. 

The second misconception is that genetic engineering is the best way to
boost food production. There are two principal technologies on the
market. Monsanto makes "Roundup Ready" seeds, which are engineered to
withstand its herbicide, Roundup. These seeds -- usually soybeans,
canola or cotton -- allow farmers to apply the herbicide widely. 

Monsanto and several other companies also produce "Bt" seeds -- usually
corn, potatoes and cotton -- which are engineered so that each plant
produces its own insecticide. 

Some researchers have shown that none of the genetically engineered
seeds significantly increase the yield of crops. Indeed, in more than
8,200 field trials, the Roundup Ready seeds produced fewer bushels of
soybeans than similar natural varieties, according to a study by Dr.
Charles Benbrook, the former director of the Board on Agriculture at the
National Academy of Sciences. 

Far from being a solution to the world's hunger problem, the rapid
introduction of genetically engineered crops may actually threaten
agriculture and food security. 

First, widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant seeds may lead to
greater use of chemicals that kill weeds. Yet, many noncrop plants are
used by small farmers in the third world as supplemental food sources
and as animal feed. In the United States, the Fish and Wildlife Service
has found that Roundup already threatens 74 endangered plant species. 

Biological pollution from genetically engineered organisms may be
another problem. Monsanto is poised to acquire the rights to a genetic
engineering technique that renders a crop's seeds sterile, insuring that
farmers are dependent on Monsanto for new seed every year. Farming in
the third world could be crippled if these genes contaminate other local
crops that the poor depend on. And such genes could unintentionally
sterilize other plants, according to a study by Martha Crouch, an
associate professor of biology at Indiana University. Half the world's
farmers rely on their own saved seed for each year's harvest. 

A true solution to the problem of hunger depends on attacking poverty
and inequality among both producers and consumers of food. A food system
increasingly dependent on genetically altered seeds takes us in the
wrong direction. 

(Peter Rosset is director of the Institute for Food and Development
Policy and co-author of "World Hunger: Twelve Myths.") 

[end]

Carl