The World Socialist Movement sits on the fence when it comes
to the claims and counter-claims about the safety and benefits of GMO foods. Like other
controversial technology such as nuclear energy or fracking, we believe that it
has to be an informed choice of people in a socialist society whether these developments are
deemed useful or not. We do however think that current debates on those topics can
be unduly influenced by vested business interests.
You've probably heard some form of the
following statement several times before: "It will be awfully difficult,
if not impossible, to feed the world's growing population without genetically
modified crops." It’s the line of biotech seed manufacturers such as
Monsanto and philanthropists such as Bill Gates. It appears to have its roots
in a report issued by the United Nations, which estimated that food production
will need to nearly double from 2008 levels by the year 2050 to accommodate at
least a couple billion more humans, and singled out genetic modification as one
important tool to improve agricultural yields in the coming decades.
In 2014 nearly 94% of corn and 93% of soybean grown in the
United States were cultivated from genetically modified varieties. But this is
a pretty empty statistic, because it assumes that the only use for corn and
soybean harvests is human food. That simply isn't the case. 44% of last year's
corn harvest went to animal feed, another 44% became ethanol fuel, and the
remaining 12% went to "other" uses that included food and sweeteners.
In 1980, well before the ethanol boom of the mid-2000s and commercialization of
biotech crops in 1996, the percentage of the nation's annual corn crop that
went to "other" uses, such as human foods and sweeteners, was 12% --
exactly the same proportion as in 2014. However, the amount of corn grown
overall swelled 142% in the same time period. Since the majority of America's
combined corn and soybean harvests don't go to food, we can justifiably assume
GMO foods aren't helping to more adequately feed the world.
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Further to this is an article by Colin Todhunter (not a 'conspiracy theorist' but a journalist who covers the subject of GMOs in detail) which refers to the Gates Foundations links to Planned Parenthood.
"The issue of genetic engineering cannot be fully understood without looking at the global spread of US power. The oil-rich Rockefeller dynasty helped promote the ‘green revolution’, which allowed the US to colonise indigenous agriculture across large parts of the planet. By projecting power through the WTO, IMF and World Bank, Washington has been able to make food and agriculture central to its geopolitical strategy of securing global dominance.
As with the control of food and agriculture, the US also regards depopulation as a potential geo-strategic tool (see this) in the quest for control of global resources. What better way to achieve this via a (GM) tampered-with food system that US agribusiness has increasingly come to dominate?"
The article is here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/21/sowing-the-gm-seeds-of-depopulation/
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