Critiquing Biotechnology and Industrial Agriculture
Genetic engineering of crops and foods represents the newest stage of
the industrialization of agriculture, and threatens to increase the control
over our food supply by a small number of transnational corporations whose
first loyalty is to the bottom line, even as the environment, our health,
and the rights of farmers and indigenous peoples are placed in jeopardy.
So-called ‘life sciences’ corporations–who have come into
existence through mergers and takeovers between pesticide and pharmaceutical
giants with seed companies, with the support of compliant government officials,
propagate myths about the safety and benefits of genetically engineered
(GE) seeds and foods. The GE food campaign at Food First focuses on countering
these myths with carefully researched facts. Our research shows that GE
is not a likely solution to world hunger, nor is it a particularly productive
or effective technology to introduce into the agricultural systems of
either the third world or northern countries, while the risks it entails
are potentially great but largely unstudied.
Food First calls for an immediate moratorium on commercial use of GE
seeds and foods until each potential product has passed broadly agreed
upon health and environmental safety tests. We demand that the regulatory
process for GE products be reformed to assure objective and critical review
in the public interest, and we demand that research funding be more fairly
distributed such that more promising, environmentally sound and socially
just agroecological alternatives do not fall by the wayside.
News:
Greenpeace wants
ban on freeing altered organisms (The Dominion, Wellington, NZ)
[posted March 20th, 2001]
Resources:
March 2001
Toward a Political Economy of Opinion Formation on Genetically Modified Foods
Peter Rosset, Ph.D, Co-Director Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
December 2000
FAO Conference Summary: Can agricultural biotechnology help to reduce hunger and increase food security in developing countries?
December 2000
Fact Sheet: Food Aid
in The New Millennium - Genetically Engineered Food and Foreign Assistance
also available as a PDF
July 2000
The Future of our Food
Supply: Biotechnology vs. Agroecology
July 3, 2000, RealPlayer video interview with Dr. Peter Rosset, co-Director
of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy and Dr. Miguel
Altieri, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of California
at Berkeley
July 2000
Can Biology End World Hunger?
Margaret Wertheim, LA Weekly
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/7-wertheim.html
July 2000
Eastern Europe Opposes US Budget Proposals to Push Agricultural Biotech:
Environmental Groups in Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States
Press Release
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/7-11eeurope.html
May 2000
Genetic Engineering
of Food Crops for the Third World:
An Appropriate Response to Poverty, Hunger and Lagging Productivity?
Peter Rosset, Ph.D, Co-Director Food First/Institute for Food and Development
Policy
May 2000
Food First and Third World Network Discuss Sustainable Agriculture
at the 8th Meeting of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development
(Link to Earth Negotiations Bulletin)
http://www.iisd.ca/csd/csd8/04_24side.html
April 2000
Promise and Pitfalls of Using Genetically Modified Crops in Developing
Countries
Ira Flatow, National Public Radio, Science Friday
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/interviews/2000/scifri4-00.html
April 2000
Genetically Modified Food
Melissa Simpson, OneDemocracy.com
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/4-simpson.html
April 2000
Leading Scientists Debate the Merits of Biotechnology
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/biotechdebate.html
March/April 2000
Lessons from the Green Revolution: Do We Need New Technology to End
Hunger?
Peter Rosset, Joseph Collins, and Frances Moore Lappé, Tikkun Magazine
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/opeds/2000/4-greenrev.html
March 2000
Groups Demand Genetically Engineered Foods Undergo Food Additive
Review Process
Rebecca Osvath, Food Chemical News
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/3-27fda.html
January/February 2000
Chemical Giants' Test-tube Foods Threaten Health and Bio-diversity
Renee Kjartan, Washington Free Press
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/news/2000/1-kjartan.html
October 1999
Ten reasons why
biotechnology will not ensure food security, protect the environment
and reduce poverty in the developing world
Miguel A. Altieri, University of California, Berkeley and Peter Rosset,
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland, California
(Also available
en español)
April 1999
Comments Submitted to FDA criticizing weaknesses in the agency's proposed
regulatory framework regarding antibiotic resistance and agriculture
http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/biotech/comments99.html
Op Eds
Biotech's Chancy 'Quick Fix' For Hunger, Washington Times
Posted: [January 2001]
Genetic engineering of food
is not the answer,
Philedelphia Inquirer
Posted: [October 2000]
Enough Food to Feed the Whole
World, Washington Post
Posted: [September 2000]
Action Alerts:
November 1, 2000
Action Alert: Send a letter to the FDA about Geneticly Engineeered
foods.
http://www.foodfirst.org/action/
Backgrounders:
On the Benefits of Small Farms:
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/1999/w99v6n4.html
Monsanto: Food Health Hope:
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/1999/s99-v5-n2.html
Anatomy of a Gene Spill:
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2000/f00v6n4.html
Policy Briefs:
POLICY BRIEF No 4: The Multiple Functions and Benefits of Small Farm
Agriculture In the Context of Global Trade Negotiations
http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/policybs/pb4.html
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