Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

"At stake, they believe, is no less than control of the world's food supply."

Family seed business takes on Goliath of genetic modification
Control of world's food supply at stake, Montreal growers argue
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=1be275ca-cd91-4bfc-96a6-f311f7514bb4

Montreal Gazette; Canwest News Service

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Heather Meek leafs through the seed catalogue she wrote on the family 
computer, on winter nights after the kids went to bed.

There are Kahnawake Mohawk beans and Painted Mountain corn; Tante Alice 
cucumber and 40 varieties of heritage tomatoes.

Selling seeds is more than just an extra source of income on this organic 
farm an hour northwest of Montreal.

For Meek and partner Frederic Sauriol, propagating local varieties is part of 
a David and Goliath struggle by small farmers against big seed companies.

At stake, they believe, is no less than control of the world's food supply.

Since the dawn of civilization, farmers have saved seeds from the harvest and 
replanted them the following year.

But makers of genetically modified (GM) seeds -- introduced in 1996 and now 
grown by some 70,000 Canadian farmers, according to Monsanto, the world's 
largest seed company -- have been putting a stop to that practice.

The 12 million farmers worldwide who will plant GM seeds this year sign 
contracts agreeing not to save or replant seeds. That means they must buy new 
seeds every year.

Critics charge such contracts confer almost unlimited power over farmers' 
lives to multinational companies whose priority is profit. They say GM seeds 
are sowing a humanitarian and ecological disaster.

But Trish Jordan, a Canadian spokesman for Monsanto, explains that requiring 
farmers to sign "technology use agreements" allows companies to recoup the 
cost of developing products.

"Farmers choose these products because of benefits they provide," Jordan 
says. "That's why we're successful as a company."

The debate over GM seeds has come into sharp focus as the world faces a 
food-price crisis that threatens to push millions into starvation.

In recent months, riots have erupted from Haiti to Bangladesh in the wake of 
soaring costs for staples like bread, rice and corn.

The crisis has prompted calls to step up investment in biotechnology to 
improve crop yields in developing countries.

"At a global level, it's a problem that's not going to be solved by organics 
or focusing on local food," says Douglas Southgate, a professor of 
agricultural economics at Ohio State University.

"Dealing with the problem on a global scale involves using biotechnology."

But Ottawa author Brewster Kneen, a fierce opponent of GM seeds, counters 
that biotechnology, as practised by companies like Monsanto, is not the 
answer.

"The point was never feeding the world or saving the environment," says 
Kneen, author of several books about agriculture and biotechnology, including 
Farmageddon: Food and the Future of Biotechnology. "It's about wealth, not 
about health."

Developing new seed varieties was long a congenial affair where federal 
government scientists shared information and distributed samples to farmers 
for testing, says Kuyek, a researcher for GRAIN, an international non-profit 
organization that promotes agricultural biodiversity.

But in the 1980s, he says, the federal government began privatizing 
agricultural research.

Worldwide, GM crops have grown 67-fold in 12 years, now covering 690.9 
million hectares in 23 countries, according to the industry's Council for 
Biotechnology Information.

Canada is the fourth-largest grower of GM crops, which cover seven million 
hectares. About half of the corn and soybeans grown in Quebec and Ontario are 
GM crops.

Sauriol and Meek started their first seedlings 13 years ago in their 
four-room apartment on de Bullion St. Now, the Ferme de Bullion delivers 
fresh produce to 200 Montreal families every week.

The tiny leeks, sown in February, poked up through the soil like small blades 
of grass.

They won't be ready for harvest until November.

This week, Alexander Muller, assistant director of Food and Agriculture 
Organization, warned that loss of agricultural biodiversity threatens the 
world's ability to survive climate change.

"The erosion of biodiversity for food and agriculture severely compromises 
global food security," said Muller, who heads FAO's Natural Resources 
Management and Environment Department.

Muller's words resonate with farmers Meek and Sauriol, whose four daughters 
help with the painstaking work of cleaning seeds over the winter.

"Growing seed is a big job," says Meek.

"But if you don't grow your seed, you lose your power."