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How Saving Seeds Can Save the World, Part 2

1/23/2013

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How Seed Saving Can Save Us All

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Summer Kalei Borowski, Major: Marketing, Hometown: Kailua-Kona, HI

I come from a farm in Hawaii.  A cucumber farm. Where I’ve spent many long hours and days picking, tending, washing, weighing, and packaging in our hot greenhouses.  Seeded by my hands in the dirt and the sun on my back two things resulted from this upbringing.  1) I can hold a cucumber in my hand and tell you to the tenth of a pound how much it weighs.  2) I grew an affinity towards farmers, food, and agricultural justice. 

In reading Nicole’s article last week about how “Saving Seeds Can Save Your Life,” we explored evidence of the adverse effects GM foods on our health.  We also discovered the wild world of agribusiness corruption and monopoly that link directly from these GM businesses.  So next, we naturally raise the questions: Why do farmers farm these crops?  If they don’t want to be caught up in the corporate seed system by Monsanto or other industry giants, forced to repurchase infertile seeds and pesticides each harvest and sell their yields at bottom of the barrel prices, why don’t they just buy seeds elsewhere? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

Why Do Farmers Farm Monsanto?
First, a little history on a big company:  Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world. It controls 95 percent of the market for insect and herbicide resistant cotton traits. In 2008, Monsanto had shares of up to 65 percent for GM corn and soybeans and about 45 percent for GM corn. During the late 1990s and through the 2000s, Monsanto acquired almost 40 companies “creating the horizontal and vertical integration that underlies the firm’s platforms in cotton, corn, and soybeans,” according to a whitepaper by American Antitrust Institute’s vice president and senior fellow, Diana Moss.  Most of the acquisitions were seed companies.

American farmers’ hands are tied.  Not so long ago, traditional methods of seed saving were the norm.  At each harvest, a small portion of a farmer’s crop would be put aside for the seeds to be saved, cleaned, dried, and stored to plant for the next season.  Seed, as a renewable resource, was simply farming’s and nature’s way of sustaining itself. However, today genetically modified crops are so widely grown that the farms that choose to maintain natural growing processes are in great danger of the GM crops of their neighbors cross-pollinating with their own.  Once this happens, the farm is at risk of losing everything.  This is not because their yield is now tainted, but because Monsanto could (and will) sue them for infringement on the company’s patents of bioengineered seed.  Now contaminated, the farm is then left with no other option than to purchase Monsanto seed, in fear that the company will simply come back the following year and sue them again.  

This is not the only scenario in which our farmers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Monsanto is also pushing anti-democracy laws that strip communities of their power to stop GMO crops from being planted in their own counties. Without this control, one GM farm could disrupt the crops of many other farms in the area.  Monsanto has also made it illegal to own seed cleaning (and therefore seed saving) equipment without having it registered, an endeavor that can cost from $1-1.5 million for each machine for each type of seed.  These restrictions, threats, and unaffordable endeavors are forcing our nation’s farmers, against their will, to become a part of the very system that is devastating them.
But the scope broadens.  The Monsanto monopoly not only plagues America; its reach extends far beyond our borders engulfing the entire globe in its enterprise. 

A Global Terror
In 1998, the corporate machine changed India’s farming industry overnight.  With new structural policies put in place by the World Bank, the country was forced to open its seed sector to global industry giants such as Monsanto and switch from farm saved seeds to fertile corporate seeds. This transition required irrigation and fertilization of the seeds which also needed to be repurchased every year due to patents on their non-renewable traits.  This transformation of seed from a renewable resource to a non-renewable input had far-reaching and tragically devastating implications for the nation.

As farmers were forced to re-buy their seeds each year, instead of saving their own for no cost, the indebtedness of peasant farmers rose quickly and dramatically.  This changed the once positive economy to a negative, debt-ridden one. This change was due to two factors: the falling price of farm commodities and the rising price of production, both the product of corporate globalization and trade.

Pre-Monsanto, cotton seed cost Rs 7/kg. It was rain fed, could be inter-cropped with other produce, and was naturally pest resistant.  GM Bt-cotton seed cost Rs 17,000/kg, could only be grown as a mono-culture required irrigation, and actually created new pests.  Because of this, farmers were forced to purchase and use 13 times the pesticides they were previously using.  The switch from biodiversity to mono-cropping also greatly increased the risk of crop failure, as bulk corporate seed is not adaptable to the diverse local environment. Monsanto sold their seeds under falsifications that they would produce yields of 1500/kg/year.  In reality, farmers’ harvests were only 300 to 400/kg/year. Oftentimes even entire crops would fail, leaving peasant farmers in literally dire situations.  This equation of high cost for farmers and unreliable production create an inescapable debt trap and a suicide economy.  

Since 1997, over 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide. The region in India with the highest suicide rate experiences as many as 4,000 per year, that’s 10 suicides per day. Maybe not so coincidentally, this region also has the highest acreage of Monsanto (GM) Bt-cotton.  In acts of protest and hopeless desperation, the main method of Indian farmers taking their own lives is to drink Monsanto pesticides – their only way to escape the incredible debt they have been left in by the company.

And, as the regime of Monsanto doesn't end with the USA so it doesn't end with India.  In the US, a $4 billion subsidy is granted to their own GM cotton growers annually.  This artificially drives down US cotton prices, creating a barrier unattainable for poor African countries to penetrate.  Countries such as Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali, who previously were competitive in this global market, are now losing $250 million every year, perpetuating the same type of suicide economy as India. In 2007, 1,593 farmers in these regions took their own lives- a number that before 2000 was reportedly zero.

But it’s not only the farmers being robbed.  This economy is suicidal on three levels: 
1) To the farmer whose family is now left without a caretaker, whose land is infertile, and whose life is destroyed;
2) To the people in their community who have lost, with the farmer, their food source and will fall even deeper into poverty and hunger; and 
3) To the human species as we devastate the natural worth of seed, biodiversity, soil and water upon which we depend on for our own biological survival. 

The inability to fund commodity production year to year in addition to the unreliability of the mono-culture crops has created unbearable debt for already impoverished farmers.  These debts, un-payable from farm revenues, have driven farmers to take the most extreme of measures.  According to leading global seed rights advocate Vandana Shiva, the bottom line is simple. “Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.”

Seeds of Change
Although suicide economies worldwide are drastic and horrific, they are not inevitability.  Although the majority of US farmers have become cogs in the machine of a dictator, there are a few things that can begin to turn the wheels the opposite way.  Seed saving can be the answer to so many interlinking global problems we are facing today.  Here are some actions that can be taken.
On a global level: 
   • A shift back to natural seed varieties that farmers can save and share [as opposed to non-renewable GMO seeds]
   • A shift to organic farming [from chemical farming]
   • A shift to fair trade and just-commodity prices worldwide [as opposed to unfair trade based on false prices from government subsidies. (Cotton farmers who have made these changes can earn up to 10 times the revenues of farmers still growing Monsanto cotton.)

On a community level:
• Push for labeling of GMO products in your local legislature.  Vote.
• Create community seed banks and promote saving and sharing seeds among farms and gardens.
• Support legal action to challenge seed patents and bio-piracy.

On an individual level:
• Be conscious of the products you purchase. Support organic and fair trade produce.
• Save your own seeds! Grow what you can.  Plant a garden with heirloom seeds and become self-sustaining in any ways you can.
• Support the Seed Freedom Movement and Farmers’ Rights by signing the Declaration on Seed Freedom and learning more at: seedfreedom.in 

Seed saving can be a very simple solution to an enormously complex problem.  Plant native seeds in the ground, help them grow, and return to the natural cycle of the earth.  But simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.  Ahead the obstacles and doubt gravel a long, uphill road.  However, if each of us is aware, hopeful, and prepared to take the first steps toward a sustainable future, we will undoubtedly effect global change.  In fact, “A small group of thoughtful people can change the world.  Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)

Join us next week to meet Kristina and her take on “How Saving Seeds Can Save the Environment!”


Works Cited:
Shiva, Vandana. "From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Why Are Indian Farmers Committing Suicide and How Can We Stop This Tragedy?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. 

"Surviving the Middle Class Crash." Surviving the Middle Class Crash. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

"The Monopoly Named Monsanto." Triple Pundit RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

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How Saving Seeds Can Save the World, Part 1

1/16/2013

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Saving Seeds Can Save Your Life
Nicole Patterson, Major: Biology, Hometown: Minneapolis, MN

Welcome to part one of our blog series “How Saving Seeds Can Save the World.” As a collaborative project between a University of Denver writing course “Food and Culture” and Feed Denver, four DU students will show how seed-saving can save the world. Each of the four parts of the series will tackle seed saving from a different angle. 

For centuries, farmers and gardeners saved the seeds from their produce to put towards the next harvest. In fact, even one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, was an avid seed collector and belonged to seed exchange groups where he would introduce new seed varieties to the farmers in his community.(1)  It was common practice, even on large farms. As recent as 1960, the seed saving rate for US soybean farmers was 63%.(2)  Saving seeds from harvest to harvest enables self-sustainability because farmers don’t need to buy seed annually. Each generation of saved seeds better adapts to the climate, which results in increased yield with less pesticides. 

With the dawn of genetically modified seeds and commercial seed manufacturers, like Monsanto, seed saving has become virtually extinct. There has been a loss of heirloom seeds, which reproduce the same variety of plants for each succeeding harvest, and an explosion of genetically modified, many times sterile, seeds. This shift has completely changed the American food industry. Our supermarkets are filled with Monsanto patented, genetically modified foods.  It is easy to look at a cereal box and find the nutritional information and the list of ingredients, but produce doesn’t come with a nutrition label.  It must be safe, right?
           
I am an obsessive label reader.  When I heard about this project, I knew exactly what I wanted to focus on, nutrition and health. While I definitely give in to my chocolate cravings now and then (OK, maybe on a daily basis) I try to eat as much fresh produce as possible.  So how does seed saving tie into my nutrition obsession?  To be honest I had never thought much about where my Safeway-bought fruits and veggies came from.  I try to buy organic fruits and vegetables when my dwindling college budget allows.  When buying organic, I thought that I was paying for less pesticides and contaminants.  It never occurred to me that the genetic makeup of an organic tomato might be different from the non-organic variety.  I thought that a tomato was a tomato, and seeds were well… seeds.  I didn't know that my beautifully round tomatoes were genetically engineered to increase shelf life.  After watching Robyn O’Brien’s talk about the adverse health consequences associated with GM (genetically modified) foods, I was propelled to delve deeper.  I also wanted to know how seed saving could help consumers and producers take control over their own food sources.

Genetically Modified Foods are Bad News
We are bombarded with messages about eating organic, avoiding preservatives, and reading labels for artificial flavoring. Nutritional guidelines tell us that it is hard to go wrong if you focus on fresh, unprocessed food; however, genetically modified produce has proven to be harmful to our bodies.  Now what is a genetically modified food?  I will try not to get too technical, but genetically modified plants contain altered DNA.  The DNA from the original plant is cut, and foreign DNA is strategically inserted in order to alter the plant’s characteristics.  This all starts with the seed.  Seed manufacturing companies, like Monsanto, genetically engineer seeds that will produce plants that last longer during transportation and maintain a near perfect aesthetic for picky shoppers.  The GM seeds are also able to withstand large amounts of chemical pesticides and herbacides.(2)  New copyrights laws and Supreme Court decisions have allowed the patenting of these genetically modified seeds, turning the seed market into a very competitive, industrialized industry.  Monsanto is the leading culprit, producing 90% of the GM seeds in the US market.(3) 

So what is so bad about GM plants?  It all comes down to the foreign DNA and the increased use of pesticides and herbicides.  Our bodies usually breakdown foreign DNA fragments before they can cause any damage; however, blood tests have shown that some foreign plant DNA may go undetected in the blood stream.(4)  Whether or not the foreign DNA can be incorporated into our own DNA sequence is yet to be determined, but many animal studies have produced alarming evidence that GM foods are harmful.  One study conducted with mice that were fed GM corn and soybeans showed significant disruptions in liver and kidney function.  The GM food is having adverse, toxic effects on the mice.  This is suggesting that the seed engineers are introducing harmful substances into the food by incorporating foreign genes.  Monsanto has also been incorporating toxins into seed DNA like Bt, which actually functions as a pesticide to kill insects.  Would we ever intentionally eat a toxic pesticide?  Probably not, but the reality is that GM plants are being engineered with these chemical components.  

There has also been concern over the use of “marker genes” in GM plants.  These genes have been used by GM food engineers to aid in DNA splicing and recombination.  The jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been used in many GM plants as an easy visual marker.  Animal studies have not suggested that GFP levels in GM foods are at toxic levels, but there are many other marker genes that have not been tested.(1)  Do we put drugs on the market that have had absolutely no testing?

If you watched Robyn O’Brien’s talk about GM foods, you would hear that she started researching the safety of GM foods after one of her children suffered a allergic reaction.  The genes in GM plants produce new proteins that can possibly trigger an allergic reaction.  The increase in GM food consumption has coincided with the increase in food allergies.  Today, 89% of the soybean acres contain GM crop.  It has been discovered that sections of the protein produced in genetically modified soy is identical to known allergens. The GM soy is much more likely to cause an allergic response than non-GM soy.(5)

Why is our government allowing dangerous GM seeds on the market?  Many countries, such as France, Hungary, and Peru have already banned the use of some genetically modified seeds.  Sarkozy himself said that “The French government keeps and will keep its opposition against the cultivation of the Monsanto 810 maize on our soil.”(2)  The control of large seed companies, like Monsanto, has defined the US agricultural system.  We are losing natural plant diversity, contaminating our soil with chemicals, and even worse we are polluting our bodies. Don’t we deserve, at the bare minimum, to know what we are putting into our bodies?  Some states have tried to take a stand against GM food.  California, for example, attempted to pass an amendment this year that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods.  Unfortunately this amendment did not pass, but that does not mean that GM labeling is a lost cause.  It is common practice in other countries.

How Can Saving Seeds Help?
To combat the growth of GM plants and to promote seed saving, there are many vehicles of change. 

On the global scale, there needs to be increased regulation and testing in the seed market.  While I would love for GM seeds to be banned altogether, this cannot happen overnight.  The current seed industry discourages seed saving because non-GM crops are becoming contaminated by the GM seeds simply through wind dispersion.  This has resulted in hundreds of patent lawsuits.  Although less cost-effective, it is simply easier for farmers to buy GM seeds from Monsanto rather than risk contamination. Until GM seeds are better regulated and tested (or banned) we can still work to avoid GM foods.  Buying organic foods is one way to reduce the risk of GM consumption, although organic labeling regulation is not a perfect system.  The only way to guarantee pure, fresh produce is to grow it with uncontaminated seeds.  Saving seeds removes farmers and consumers from the corrupt GM seed market.  

At the community level, seed banks and urban gardens are great alternatives for growing completely GM-free produce.  Feed Denver has a working urban farm (Sunnyside Farm) in the Highlands community and is also beginning to form a seed library.  To get more information about the seed library, check out this link! If you are interested in starting a garden or farm in your community please explore the Feed Denver website or attend an urban farming class.  

There are also things that you can do individually.  Starting a garden with heirloom seeds, keeping a personal seed bank, and supporting local organic farms are all easy ways to protect your health. 

Check back next week for part 2 of our series: “How Saving Saving Seeds Can Save Us All.”

Works Cited:
1.      Ikuta, Benjamin. “Genetically Modified Plants, Patents, and Terminator Technology: The Destruction of the Tradition of Seed Saving” Hein Online. (2009) 567:571-72.

2.      Mascarenhas, Michaeland and Bush, Lawrence. “Seeds of Change: Intellectual Property Rights, Genetically Modified Soybeans and Seed Saving in the United States” The Authors: Journal Compilation 2006

3.      Gucciardi, Anthony and Barrett, Mike. “Monsanto Declared Worst Company of 2011” Natural Society. Dec. 6, 2011.

4.      Dona, Artemis and Arvanitoyannis, Ioannis. “Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods” Food Science and Nutrition. (2009) 49:2, 164-175.

5.      Institute for Responsible Technology. “Genetically Engineered Foods May Cause Rising Food Allergies” Spilling the Beans. (2007).

           

 


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