[Pil-pc-oceania] food controll

[Martin Naylor]

Control food and you control people, another step into fortress states
   
  >AGRA is Bill Gates' biotech answer to hunger in Africa. Gary Nabhan
has a
>petition for those interested:
>
>http://www.garynabhan.com/openletter/
>
>AN OPEN LETTER FROM SCIENTISTS
>
>TO THE GATES AND ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATIONS
>
>A GREEN REVOLUTION FOR AFRICA?
>
>
>
>We have been prompted to send you this letter regarding the scientific
>fallacies and myths underpinning the plans of the Alliance for a Green
>Revolution for Africa (AGRA), because we are concerned about its
potential

>genetic, environmental, and economic impacts.
>
>
>
>THE GOAL
>
>By its own accounts, AGRA is investing heavily in training "the next
>generation of African crop scientists" to accept an agriculture based
on
>bioengineered crops and the economic structures associated with them.
It
>is
>already evident that Africa's political leaders are under pressure to
>tacitly accept AGRA's initiatives and to cooperate with them. Yet this
>agricultural development scheme, in many ways, follows the same failed
>logic
>that flawed the Green Revolution of the 1960s.
>
>Before AGRA begins full implementation of its potentially disruptive
>agricultural initiative, the following actions must occur.
>
>.  A broad spectrum of scientists and science educators need to fully
>review
>and challenge assumptions in AGRA' planned goals, motives and
>methodologies.
>
>.  Universities need to commit to conducting applied research on
>alternative
>methodologies that may offer Africa more environmentally and
economically
>sustainable agricultural systems.
>
>.  Public debate needs to offer a broader view of African hunger and
food
>security, while committing AGRA to greater transparency and
accountability.
>
>
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>The agricultural development schemes proposed by AGRA follow much of
the
>same failed logic that flawed the Green Revolution in the 1960s, but
now
>the
>stakes are higher. Simply put, the AGRA initiative proposes to rapidly
>develop, and immediately employ, an entire "arsenal" of new seed
varieties

>in order to attack the roots of hunger and to guarantee greater food
>security to future Africans. Although few scientists today believe
that
>techno-scientific solutions alone can save the world from hunger, the
AGRA

>initiative reads as if the solutions will come mainly from outside
funds
>and
>technology.
>
>The rush to "feed Africa" should in no way excuse crop geneticists and
>agricultural development agencies from exercising the precautionary
>principle in evaluating their experiments; neither the Africans
themselves

>nor the diverse African landscapes deserve to be recklessly
experimented
>upon.
>
>The AGRA arsenal of "new" seeds, including genetically modified (GM)
seeds,
>
>    *
>
>      will be placed out into farmers' fields so quickly that they
will
>likely contaminate locally bred varieties and introgress with weeds
and
>wild
>relatives in the centers of origin of cultivated plants such as
sorghum;
>    *
>
>      will be monitored haphazardly, given the industry's current
record,
>and with Africa's high levels of wild and domesticated biodiversity,
much
>more is at stake if contamination occurs;
>    *
>
>      will set up conditions ripe for the rapid development of
resistance
>among pests and diseases to the chemicals genetically-engineered into
the
>crops, potentially increasing virulence and diminishing the African
>potential for food security;
>    *
>
>      will likely increase, not decrease, the use of pesticides and
>herbicides, including those which disrupt relationships with
pollinators,
>soil microbes, soil quality and water quality.
>
>The naiveté of the AGRA initiative with regard to such potential
>biological
>and ecological perils suggests that its managers have never considered
the

>numerous carefully documented case studies compiled over the last five
>decades that both social and agricultural scientists from around the
world

>accept as valid critiques of such naïve strategies.
>
>As ominous is AGRA's reliance on a "silver bullet approach" which
assumes
>that technological fixes alone will solve hunger problems. If it
continues

>on its present path, AGRA will sidestep social, ethical and economic
>issues
>regarding the need for greater equity in land, water and food
>distribution.
>As Nobel Prize winner, Amartya Sen, has well documented,
malnourishment is

>not a function of the absolute amount of food available, but rather,
of
>the
>inability of the poor to access food. Further, African research
>institutions
>will be more tightly linked to private global seed corporations in
ways
>that
>challenge current international treaties protecting farmers' rights
and
>benefit-sharing.
>
>Africa's farmers have been developing their own locally adapted and
>socially
>appropriate crops varieties, technologies and management strategies
for
>centuries. Unless their local knowledge is seen as a critical resource
>(wealth) useful in resolving these problems, AGRA will rely on a
top-down
>outside-expert approach that is bound to fail. The African Union also
has
>model legislation for genetic resources, which proposes farmers'
rights,
>prior-informed consent, and benefit sharing, all of which the AGRA
>initiative ignores.
>
>
>
>INVITATION TO AGRA
>
>We as scientists and members of the world community propose that the
Gates

>and Rockefeller teams delay their "big build-up" long enough to listen
to
>both agricultural and social scientists who have had at least a
quarter
>century of experience in documenting the perils of this approach and
in
>finding suitable alternatives based on social and environmental
justice
>and
>food sovereignty. We urge the financiers and staff of AGRA to accept
an
>invitation to an open forum , to be held in 2008, that addresses these
>issues head-on, rather than relegating them to the margins.
>
>
>
>QUESTIONS FOR AGRA
>
>A few examples of many questions, which need urgent public attention
and
>debate, are as follows:
>
>1.) As scientists, we know that public sector plant and genetic
research
>is
>increasingly funded by biotech companies, and public research agendas
>follow
>private imperatives. This growing private dominance in the direction
of
>research and in control of the world's seeds is matched by
increasingly
>stringent intellectual property regimes.
>
>.  Will new seed varieties developed by AGRA for Africa be patented or
>will
>the industry's seed breeders honor farmers' rights?
>
>.  As farmers' varieties are used for parent material in breeding,
will
>you
>honor benefit sharing of profits back to the earlier breeders of the
>parent
>materials? How will AGRA do this?
>
>2.) Companies in the USA introducing herbicide-tolerant crops must
obtain
>special permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
leave

>higher levels of herbicide residue on the crop, thus increasing
consumer
>exposure to agrochemicals (e.g., glyphosate, glufosinate). Yet
>herbicide-tolerance remains the chief focus of agricultural biotech
>research. The latest twist is dual herbicide-tolerant crops (Pioneer
>soybeans tolerant to both glyphosate and ALS inhibitors). What
measures
>will
>be taken to protect consumers from this increased agrochemical
exposure?
>
>3.) Genetic engineering has provided only four commercialized biotech
>crops
>(soybeans, corn, cotton and canola) that feature one or both of the
>following two traits: herbicide-tolerance (68% of world acreage);
>insect-resistance (19%); and corn and cotton "stacked" with both
traits
>(13%). Innumerable field trials have been conducted to develop biotech
>crops
>with other traits, from enhanced nutrition to drought-resistance, with
>little or no success. Given this track record of great expense with
high
>failure, why offer high finance to this particular technology, while
>under-funding alternatives?
>
>4.) Research has demonstrated that genetically-modified pollen of some
>crops
>can drift up to 24 kilometers from its source to contaminate other
>varieties. What are the ways you propose to reduce genetic
contamination
>of
>local varieties, bred over centuries, from GM varieties?
>
>We encourage scientists to direct other questions such as these to
AGRA's
>leaders, and request that AGRA formally respond to them on its website
and

>at open forums.
>
>
>
>For Reference:
>
>Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA): www.agra.com
>
>Recommendations for a "rainbow evolution" respecting Africa's diverse
>ecology:
>
>http://www.interacademycouncil.net/CMS/Reports/AfricanAgriculture.aspx
>
>African farmers' rights, priori-informed consent (PIC) and
benefit-sharing:
>
>African Union. 2000. "AU Model Law on Rights of Local Communities,
>Farmers,
>Breeders and Access." Available at
>http://www.grain.org/brl/?docid=798&lawid=2132
   
  martin


   


       
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