Genetically modified crops exist. World hunger exists.
That’s about as much common ground as could be found by a Monsanto researcher and an anti-technology philosopher during a panel discussion that was part of the Growing Together: Cultivating Food Security Assembly held in Winnipeg Oct. 14-16.
The discussion was based on a question of whether GM crops could help alleviate world hunger.
“It’s one tool (among many others),” said Curtis Rempel of Monsanto, who was involved in developing Roundup Ready wheat.
“One tool too many,” curtly replied Brewster Kneen, who publishes the Ram’s Horn newsletter.
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University of Manitoba crop scientist Gary Martens tried to represent a middle ground on the issue. He said GM crops could be part of the solution in the fight against world hunger, even though he thought many other issues seem more likely to lead to real solutions.
From the outset, the different philosophies of Kneen and Rempel foreshadowed their failure to find a bridge between their pro and anti-GM viewpoints.
Rempel said he believed new crop technologies such as genetic modification could lead to better crops that provide more food while protecting the environment against harmful farming practices such as excessive tillage.
Since the technology is delivered in seeds themselves, farmers in the developing world could obtain and store it if they had money to pay for companies like Monsanto to profit from inventing new crop technologies that fit their conditions.
Kneen said he found the process, not just the product of biotechnology, to be an ethical problem.
He described the scientific creation of GM crop lines as “essentially violent, as is any colonialism,” because it is done “without respect for the integrity of the organism.”
Kneen said turning to new technology to solve world hunger is missing the point, because hunger is not a technological problem.
Martens said farmers quickly embraced biotechnology when it was introduced because they are good decision makers and the new products offered advantages.
But once the new products had been adopted by most farmers, the overall advantages fell, with companies such as Monsanto taking some of the margin and lower market prices caused by the added productivity of the new varieties taking away more of the profit margins. Farmers in the end have probably gained little, he said.
Martens is concerned by GM crops because of possible dangers of pollen flow, GM crops’ reliance on the same set of pesticides already being overused, the tendency of biotech companies to promote technological rather than management solutions to agricultural problems and the loss of farmer control over seed.
While Kneen focused on GM crops as an example of industrial farming gone wrong, Rempel questioned why GM crops would be viewed as a significant problem in the face of all the many problems that directly cause world hunger.
“Why isolate GMOs,” Rempel asked.
