Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

http://www.primalseeds.org/corporation.htm


Since 1970 multinational companies have bought or taken control of nearly a
thousand, once independent, seed companies. The purchase of Pioneer Hi-Bred
in 1999, the world's largest seed company, for $7.7 billion by Du-Pont, is
part of a trend of concentration of power in the life sciences industry.
The $23 billion global seed trade is now dominated by a handful of giant
corporations.   

A survey by anti-trust officials at the EEC revealed returns on sales of
seeds of 40-45%. Commercial breeders inevitably target their products at
affluent farmers with the most favourable growing conditions. The
development of new crop varieties is determined by the agenda of corporate
profit and not the needs of growers, consumers or the environment.


Hybridisation
The commercial agricultural seed market began with the development of
hybrids. Prior to World War I the seed trade consisted of merchants of
exotic plant seed collected from the colonised world. Farmers were
persuaded to buy hybrid seed because of its high yield. As seeds collected
from hybrid crops loose their vigour, farmers were forced to purchase new
ones each season.
.
Patents          
Multinational corporations have succeeded in gaining patent rights over new
crop varieties. In 1970 the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act was passed.
Plant protection regimes offered opportunities for profit and created the
incentive for corporate interests to buy control of the seed industry.
Thousands of patents have been granted on plants. Indigenous plants that
have been used for centuries have been patented, this practice has been
termed biopiracy. Commenting on the international property (TRIPS) of GATT
which will enforce patents and intellectual property rights
internationally, James Enyart of Monsanto stated "Industry has identified a
major problem in international trade. It crafted a solution, and sold it to
our own and other governments".
        Reliance on chemical inputs
Chemical fertilisers are needed for the increased energy demands of the
modern varieties. Rows of uniform crops grown in the monocultures present
any easy target to pests. Pesticides are relyed upon to compensate for lack
of resistance to pests.
        
Before the 1940's very few pesticides were used on crops. Now 800 million
pounds of pesticides alone are used on US farmlands each year and yet crop
losses from pests are on the increase. The big producers of agro-chemicals
have bought control of seed companies in order to produce seeds that
require doses of their chemicals.

.
        Preventing farm saved seed
An estimated 1.4 billion of the world's poorest people now depend for their
survival on farm saved seed. Hybrid seeds and their required fertilisers,
pesticides and irrigation systems have trapped many of the world's poorest
farmers into a cycle of debt.
        In the US Monsanto are vigorously pursuing their proprietary rights. 
Using
investigators to identify farmers suspected of saving their seed, Monsanto
threaten criminal charges and damages in excess of $1 million.
.
        Squeezing out the small producer
The high capital costs involved in industrialised agriculture, purchasing
seeds, chemical inputs, irrigation systems, machinery and fuel, favour
large scale producers. While capital costs escalate, the prices farmers
receive for their produce are in decline.
        Costs to US farmers of seeds and agro-chemicals rose 86% between 1987 
and
1997.
.
        Exploiting poor countries
The centres of genetic diversity of all major food crops lie within
countries of the tropics. The International Agricultural Research Centres
(IARC's) are publicly funded institutions which have a pivotal role in
setting the agenda for agriculture in the south.
        The IARC's pass large quantities of crop varieies from the south to 
the
north's breeders. In 1982 the UN OECD estimated that the south's wheat
genes are worth $500 million a year to the US.
.
        Loss of agricultural biodiversity
Thousands of years of evolution resulted in a massive diversity of
landraces adapted to differing localised growing conditions. This diversity
is rapidly being lost, a process which began in the nineteenth century, and
has accelerated rapidly in the last 30 years.
        Although it is impossible to know how much diversity has been lost, a
survey by the Rural Advancement Foundation (RAFI) found that approximately
97% of US Department of Agriculture lists had disappeared in the last 80
years.
.
        Static Seeds
Modern commercial varieties are static, that is, bred and sold to farmers
each year, rather than being replanted from farm saved seed. Replanted seed
is dynamic, co-evolving with an adaption to the local ecosystem.
        There is a lack of commercial incentive for breeders to develop new 
open
pollinated varieties. Such varieties could be replanted from saved seed
allowing localised adaptations.
.
        Uniformity
In landraces hundreds of genes may be involved in conferring resistance
against a pathogen. Plant and pathogen co-evolve in the local environment,
resistance is thereby dynamic and not stabilised.
        Modern plant varieties often rely on the same single gene to confer
resistance. Large areas planted with these crops exert strong selection
pressure on pests to overcome the defence mechanism, and the gene is then
effectively used up.
.
        Soil degradation
The substitution of chemical fertilisers for organic methods of returning
nutrients to the soil, such as composting, crop rotation and manure creates
lifeless dusty soils prone to soil erosion.
        An estimated 24 billion tonnes of soil are eroded from the world's
agricultural land each year. Dust levels in the lower atmosphere have
tripled in the last 60 years.
.
        Irrigation
Modern hybrid seeds require large amounts of water often necessitating the
construction of irrigation systems and dams. In poor countries the
experience is that dams service the rich minority and disrupt the natural
watersheds essential to poorer farmers.
        To build these dams, fertile soils in river valleys have been flooded 
and
millions of people have been forcibly moved from their homes creating a
social and environmental disaster.
.
        Genetic engineering
GE is a dangerous and unnecessary technology that is driven by corporate
demand for profit GE will exacerbate all the problems of chemical
industrial agriculture and bring new problems like genetic pollution.
        This sort of future would be disastrous for ecosystems, small farmers 
and
food consumers.
.
Conclusion
Commercial interests currently dictate the path of research and development
of new crop varieties. There is a chronic shortage of research looking at
the adverse effects of, and the alternatives to, the chemical paradigm.
Scientists are discouraged from co-operation and publishing their work by
the secrecy required for patenting.

It is a myth that large, intensive farms growing modern high response seed
are efficient. Such measures of efficiency exclude social and environmental
costs. Numerous studies indicate that utilising practices such as mixed
cropping, small farms practising alternatives to chemical agriculture can
produce greater yields.

Sources

"Colonising the Seed" by Gyorgy Scrinis
http://www.netspeed.com.au/cogs/gen3.htm

"The Gene Giants: Update on Consolidation in the Life Industry" RAFI
Communique, 3/30/1999
www.rafi.org

"From the Good Earth", by Micheal Ableman, published by Harry N. Abrams