Ag biotech destroys food security

The GM industry has been promising for decades that genetically modified crops will revolutionise farming, and even solve world hunger. But none of their promises have come to fruition. There is little if anything to suggest the ‘next generation’ GM technology will be any different. Meanwhile, GM remains a distraction from the critical issues facing food and farming that can’t simply be solved by tweaking genes. What does GM really look like? Nearly all commercially released GM crops are produced by three chemical companies: Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bayer. Despite the pro-GM lobby’s promises that these products would lead to decreased pesticide use, the truth has proven to be quite the opposite: The use of Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weedkiller, Round-up, has skyrocketed since the introduction of glyphosate-resistant GM crops, becoming the most used weed-killer in the world. The blanket spraying of these weedkillers on GM crops is associated with environmental damage in North and South America, from degraded soils to the loss of food plants for wildlife such as the iconic Monarch butterfly. And these crops create herbicide-resistant ‘superweeds’, trapping farmers into an increasingly expensive arms race where the only winners are the chemical companies. There is also a long history of these GM crops contaminating other farms, which can be financially disastrous and poses a huge problem for organic farmers. At present, there are no commercial GM crops grown in the United Kingdom But we are still supporting these GM systems by importing them for much of our animal feed. If you buy: non-organic eggs, milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat or farmed fish from UK supermarkets, the chances are the animals behind those products were fed GM feed. We need a shift in priority to food security “GM is a huge distraction. It is diverting a massive amount of time, effort and attention from the really crucial issues facing food and farming - like looking after our soils. We have already degraded 25 to 40% of soils worldwide and unless we work very hard to reverse this damage, it will be impossible to feed the growing population healthily. GM is dangerous because it allows us to accelerate in the wrong direction for a short while longer.” Helen Browning, Soil Association Chief Executive We need to see a shift in priority to solving our underlying food problems. Techno-fixes like gene editing mustn’t distract from this. We need to: regenerate soils, diversify crops, use fewer chemicals, bring back wildlife and switch to foods that are better for us and the planet. This needs a dramatic shift towards farmer-led innovation and agroecology to create a climate and nature friendly future. Currently farmer-led research sees less than 1% of public research and development funding. Find out what our asks to the Government are around this and others here.