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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] USDA Gift to Monsanto
  • Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:16:43 -0600


ISIS Press Release 26/08/08
USDA Gift to Monsanto
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDAgifttoMonsanto.php
The US Department of Agriculture’s give-away insurance rates for GM crops
risk bankrupting the public coffers. Prof. Joe Cummins

The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is part of the Risk Management
Agency (RMA) that serves under the USDA (United States Department of
Agriculture), a Federal Executive Department (or Cabinet Department).The
USDA-FCIC safeguards the economic stability of agriculture through a system
of crop insurance and provides the means for research in devising and
establishing such insurance. It is managed by a Board of Directors, subject
to the general supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

On 12 September 2007, the FCIC Board of Directors approved a Biotech Yield
Endorsement (BYE) pilot programme submitted under section 523(d) of the
Federal Crop Insurance Act. The result is that farmers growing Monsanto’s
genetically modified (GM) maize receives crop insurance at a greatly reduced
cost of between 20 and 70 percent.

The BYE programme was crafted by the Monsanto Corporation and its first
beneficiary is limited to its GM maize. This insurance bonanza is intended
for farmers planting Monsanto’s GM maize that has Bt genes against corn borer
and root worm stacked with a gene for tolerance to Round-up herbicide. The
FCIC Board of Directors, at its 14 August 2008 meeting, approved additional
seed technologies for premium rate reduction for producers planting certain
corn hybrid varieties; i.e., those containing Bt genes for corn borer and
rootworm stacked with genes for tolerance to herbicides such as glyphosate
and glufosinate. The companies benefiting from the largesse of the USDA
give-away insurance include besides Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta and Pioneer
Hi-Bred [1, 2].

The crop insurance policies insure producers against yield losses due to
natural causes such as drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, frost,
insects, and disease [3]. It is clear that the stacked GM maize lines are
protected against corn borer and rootworm, but not particularly well
protected against drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, frost and disease,
nor against the numerous insect pest that are likely to take advantage of
reduced competition from borer or root worm. It may be that the stacked
maize lines will benefit from a USDA give-away insurance that specifically
protects against any such secondary insect pests; for they have indeed
already emerged in China and India as the result of growing Bt cotton [4, 5]
(see Why Prince Charles is Right, SiS 40 and Deadly gift from Monsanto to
India, SiS 39)

FCIC is presuming that the stacked GM maize lines will consistently produce
more than conventional or organic maize, but that has not been proven
scientifically. It is based solely on an act of faith on the part of the USDA
bureaucrats.

Why then do these new GM constructs deserve the gift of reduced insurance
cost at the US taxpayers’ expense? Have the taxpayers been consulted before
such egregious largesse has been doled out to well-heeled farmers and the
corporations who licence the GM seeds?

The rest of the farming community may feel especially aggrieved at this
blatant display of favouritism on the part of the FCIC. After all, insured
organic farmers were not compensated for damages from epidemics of fungal
disease, even though the conventional fungicides were ineffective against the
fungus disease. It seems that FCAC is taking on the role of sugar daddy to
the GM industry and compliant farmers. And that may go a long way towards
promoting universal GM farming practices and bankrupting the public coffers.
References

1. Pugh, S. FCIC BOARD EXTENDS BIOTECHNOLOGY PILOT COVERAGE AREAS AND
QUALIFYING HYBRIDS 3008 http://www.rma.usda.gov/news/2008/08/fcicbiotech.html

2. Witt,T Pilot biotechnology yield endorsement Insurance Standaards Handbook
2008 and Succeeding Years,
http://www.rma.usda.gov/handbooks/20000/2008/08_20070.pdf

3. Crop Policies Risk Management Agency Actual Production History 2008
http://www.rma.usda.gov/policies/

4. Shiva V and Ho MW. Why Prince Charles is right. We need GMO-free food and
agriculture for food security. Science in Society 40 (to appear).

5. Kalaspurkar R. Deadly gift from Monsanto to India. SIS 38 - Letters to the
editor. Science in Society 38, 51, 2008.





  • [Livingontheland] USDA Gift to Monsanto, Tradingpost, 08/26/2008

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