One only has to look to the hunger crisis in Haiti to see how the debate over innovation and technology in agriculture has degenerated into a cartoon discourse.
In early May, two shipments -- 135 tons -- of hybrid varieties of corn, cabbage, carrot, eggplant, melon, onion, spinach, tomato and watermelon seeds began arriving in Haiti. It was the first installment of 60,000 seed sacks -- more than $4 million worth -- of high-yielding hybrid corn and vegetable seeds donated after months of careful negotiations with government and international agricultural experts.
To say the donations are desperately needed is an understatement. According to the UN, every year 38,000 Haitian children, one out of three, die of malnutrition, and more than half of the country's inhabitants survive on $1 per day. But to some advocacy groups in the United States and Europe, the charity was a nefarious capitalist plot.
Haitian peasant groups, with their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York and with deep ties to international NGOs, marched through Port-au-Prince, carrying "Down with GMOs and hybrid seeds" banners and threatened to burn the donated seed. It was an odd display. Genetically modified seeds are controversial but none was provided, asked for, or anticipated by the Haitian government. These were hybrid seeds, around since Gregor Mendel's time in the 1800s. There is no question that they increase yields over pollinated seeds, whether fertilizer is applied or not. What could possibly be the downside for Haitians?
Unfortunately, the world's poor are often caught in the middle of a ferocious but under-the-radar war over the future of world agriculture and the fate of the malnourished. According to the World Bank, about three-quarters of the 820 million people who live in extreme poverty depend on farming for a living. How should we as a society respond to a crisis of such malignant proportions?
The Haitian protesters, who were directed out of the Peasant Movement of Papaye headquarters in New York City offer one vision. They promote a "sustainable" solution based on organic techniques. The organization works hand-in-glove with Greenpeace, the Organic Consumers Association, and other interest groups, which stand steadfast against any technology that can jump yields.
As they see it, the donations are a Trojan horse to migrate farmers from organic agriculture -- which has been a disaster in the face of persistent drought -- to "industrial" farming techniques. Haiti's agricultural problems, they claim, are not homegrown but foreign imposed. They are the result of "US trade and aid policies that led to the destruction of Haiti's capacity to feed itself," charged the Institute for Policy Studies early in July in an open letter to Monsanto, which donated the seeds. The St. Louis-based firm, they claim, is Darth Vader, "a charter member of the industrial-agricultural complex," and the seeds represent "a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity."
The protesters and their NGO enablers seem caught in amber, circa 1960. Beginning a half century ago, the world began reaping enormous benefits from the "Green Revolution," which focused on the targeted use of specialized chemicals, fertilizers, sophisticated irrigation, mechanization, and the use of new crop cultivars to dramatically improve yields and the nutritional content of crops. Such innovations such as atrazine, an herbicide effective in controlling yield-robbing weeds yet is gentle enough to be used on green shoots, ushered in the no-plow revolution, which reduced soil erosion and the use of carbon belching plows. The advent of agricultural biotechnology offered the opportunity to extend those gains.
The most socially attuned aid groups, including the widely respected Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed more than $1.5 billion to date to agricultural development, have embraced science and technology as the key to boosting productivity. "We are exploring the development of a diverse range of crops that can thrive in different soil types and resistant to drought, disease, and pests," notes the Gates Foundation. "Our partners employ a range of tools and techniques, from traditional breeding to the newest biotechnologies, in the search for solutions that will help small farmers."
The judicious use of agricultural chemicals like atrazine and glyphosate, sophisticated hybrid seeds, and biotech products are essential if we are to use all the tools available to raise yields and combat hunger. While the Western media circulated stories of the Haitian protest, the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture quietly went about the more cogent challenge of addressing its hungry citizenry. It applauded the "generous donation" of the vegetable and maize seeds, which "have been tested in Haiti previously and are well accepted by the farmers." The scare campaign may yet throw a wrench into the aid project, but for now at least, science has prevailed.
Of course this is only the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle. "This global effort to help small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement [to address world hunger] in two," Bill Gates declared at a speech for the presentation of the World Food Prize, last fall. Innovation critics, he said, are presenting us with a "false choice" between a "technological" approach geared to boosting productivity and a so-called "environmental" one focused on sustainability. "We can have both."
There is no zero sum trade-off between technology, productivity and sustainability. The world's poor do not have the luxury to play the ideological games that dominate Western politics. To consign the malnourished to lives of hunger to satisfy romantic notions of agriculture is the worst kind of imperialism.
Jon Entine, a columnist for Ethical Corporation magazine and CEO of ESG MediaMetrics, a sustainability consultancy, is the author/editor of "Crop Chemophobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution", to be published this November by AEI Press
Follow Jon Entine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JonEntine
As a farm owner I am more and more appalled everyday by the bahavbior of the antiGM people. The Haiti protest by the antiGMers is beyond comprehension. Hybrid seeds were protested too? Good grief, these antiGM people have no idea what hybrid even means.
Monsanto has a long history of killing people and destroying the environment.
But you want to trust a known criminal to provide seeds.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Monsanto++crimes&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
wow,
how naive or bought are you?
--I do not work for Monsanto in any way shape or form and have never taken a penny from them. I did include a chapter from a Monsanto executive in a book I edited (Let Them Eat Precaution) years ago--that executive, Bob Horsch, now works for the Gates Foundation.
--I do have a book coming out this November on agricultural chemicals--Crop Chemophobia--and of course have a previous book on GMOs and agriculture, Let Them Eat Precaution.
--I too believe there are real issues/concerns about the patenting of genes used in agriculture. I don't believe that's an issue in this controversy excoriating Haiti and Monsanto for this donation.
Jon Entine
Here is a short video I shot of the June MPP protest against Monsanto, a march from Papay to Hinche:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-kzhF5UYh0
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=QWzQAAAAEBAJ&dq=hybrid+seed+patents+monsanto
Gee I wonder what patents could still be valid after all these days.
As if you didn't know.
These trolls are pros, this is how Big Business manipulates public option.
Most of the Monsanto lovers are very recent joiners to Huff.
That's fine with me,
Just realize that people here have all sorts of different agendas, some of them not in your best interests.
Monsanto is a criminal Multinational
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Monsanto+is+a+criminal
====================
1. I thought that patenting was limited to GMO seeds. I didn't realize it extended to hybrid seed. IBut it makes sense. Could those more knowledgeable comment on this.
2. I don't think there are any trolls on this set of comments. However, your behavior comes the closest by being insulting and making accusations against others without any evidence.
3. I've been on Huff-Post for a year. My specialty is vaccines and vaccinations, hence the picture of Dr. Jonas Salk as my avatar. I know of some of the others here from that topic.
4. On other blog entries a Monsanto employee whose job is to follow sites such as Huff-Po made a few comments correcting some errors.
5. You have zero evidence that anyone is actually working for Monsanto and hiding that here.
6. I find being called a shill/troll really nasty. It is a useful technique used by those who don't have evidence to back up their claims. But here's the weird thing: Even if anyone here was a shill for Monsanto, they can't prove that anything written (with a few quibbles) is wrong. Look what I did, I didn't realize that hybrids were patented, so I said so.
First let me thank you again for pointing out hybrids are patented. I was mistaken in assuming they are not. Considering the large number of gene rearrangements that occur during hybrid-crossing and based on the fact that hybridization has been practiced since the time of Mendel, I found it hard to believe that companies would patent hybridization. But there are always ingenious (read devious) corporate lawyers who would find a way to patent even this ancient technology.
Moving on to your accusations- time and again on this thread you have insinuated that people who disagree with your opinion must be paid to work for Monsanto. You have no evidence to prove this.
You yourself have made erroneous claims about the science and when this was pointed out you chose to ignore it and move on to another topic or make inane arguments. Sometime you insult the commenter.
Regarding your accusation – I’m an Indian agricultural scientist working on a temporary research visa in the US. I am here because of a wonderful collaboration between India and the US whereby US public universities provide scientific training to scientists from lesser developed nations so that they can assist in improving agriculture in their home country. I hope one day to start my own research lab in one of the many agricultural universities in India.
was a Preemptive attack by a Monsanto Propaganda agent.
Google Monsanto, learn your enemy.
http://www.nelsonfarm.net/issue.htm
Elsewhere Monsanto states that after getting burned by farmers violating the confidentiality clause in settlements, it would no longer allow them to be included in settlements.
Since 2001, how many cases have demonstrated Monsanto acting unfairly in enforcing its patent rights? My guess is very few. Note that I'm not defending Monsanto's patents, but only asking if its enforcement tactics have been unfair.
They should pay for advertizing on huffpost
instead they get their 'independent' friends to write this
www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1002286.htm
In summary: Seed deliveries started May 1. Plantings followed immediately. No burnings have happened except that one token protest.
At the request of the Haitian government, the seed went to an area where some of Haiti's better-financed farmers have lots of experience growing these kinds of hybrids. This amounts to providing assistance to the farmers who need it least. The rationale is that these are the guys with the best chance of delivering the best harvest, which is desperately needed during the crisis.
The seed deliveries will continue for about a year. The farmers getting the seed have no intention of burning it.
Proceeds are hoped to help these farmers purchase more implements, fuel, seed and fertilizer in the future, strengthening the Haitian farm sector.
Aren't facts wonderful?
Oh wait,
Monsanto has tons of money to spread around,
that explains it.
Isn't amazing the intelligent people can sell their souls to the company for room and board.
Big business is by law, predatory, deceptive, whatever it takes, is what pleases the shareholders.
Monsanto is a particularly bad multinational. Time to figure out what groups are on your side, and which groups are out to rob and enslave you.
You have the internet, look them up, remembering they have unlimited pr money, to start, think tanks, schools, political parties, and web sites.
They discredit Greenpeace and others every chance they get. It's their job.
It's the big corporation shtick.
How many BP, Monsantos, Enrons, do you need to get the picture?
As far as Mr. Entine being accused of being a shill, I don't see that in the prior comment. Mr. Entine provides enough evidence of his own for readers to determine with his own history of articles. A shill or not, his angle is always entirely predictable.
Think people! We need to stop Monsanto before they help anyone else!
(Paranoid much Research? They make pills for that now.)
scary.
world domination is what all corporations are after.
we may boycott disney and starbucks but once food and drink are only available at walmart what are you going to do?
Jon Entine's point is that the folks who oppose this charitable donation are irrational anti-science fanatics who pose a threat to progress. He could not have done a better job of proving his point.
Look at the comments from people who disagree with Entine. The vast majority contain major factual errors. They confuse hybridization with genetic engineering. They don't realize that the Haitians asked for the donation, accepted it enthusiastically, and planted it happily. They make false, unbelievable claims that The Green Revolution didn't save millions from starvation.
When their errors are explained, they change the subject.
Overall, Entine has managed to prod another group of pampered, overfed, ignorant Westerners to make the outrageous claim that it's a bad idea to help starving families. I have a feeling that a lot of people will make copies of these comments to help prove that opponents of agricultural technology are a bunch of cranks.
Are all you opponents of this donation actually Monsanto shills? It would be hard to find a clearer demonstration of anti-science lunacy.
June????????
But you linked to May before???????????
Yes, Haitians are burning these Monsanto poison seeds.
You don't write "Haitians will burn or plan to burn Monsanto poison seeds." Which is really bizarre because the article you link to states: "In response to the earthquake in Haiti, agribusiness giant Monsanto pledged 475 tons of seeds to Haitian farmers. Distributed by USAID, these seeds would have grown into hybrid corn, pest-resistant tomatoes, and other vegetables. However, they will be burned!"
That's future tense. So you can't even get that right.
I've followed the story for a while. The only burning I'm aware of was a pound or so of red color seed burned on June 4, 2010.
Please provide evidence of other burnings of this seed. Please provide quotes as your summaries are suspect.
If you look at my new comment above, you'll find a link that should dispel some of the strange ideas you spread.
Perhaps you should reflect on the reasons you seem to gravitate toward unreliable sources of information. It seems that every "fact" in your head is wrong. Please stop spreading this nonsense; the world has enough craziness already. It doesn't need more.
Buy Monsanto seeds, buy herbicides directly from them, buy special fertilizer...and then hand over your land while trying to pay for all this.
And of course terms like 'judicious use of chemicals" and "less water" need to be slightly elaborated.
This is isn't science phobia. It is a suspicion of the motives here.
If you are so convinced Monsanto is evil, then you should both be avoiding stepping into the trap of criticizing something that is completely positive. You have demonstrated that your judgment stinks.
they want to use our tax dollars to enter this market
this isn't generosity
Haiti has prolems but not becuase od the wrong seeds
If there is a food shortage in the world why is there so much idle land in ohio, maine, etc etc
I'm pretty familiar with the tax code sections relating to charitable donations. I never heard of such a thing, and I doubt that it exists.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31547.html
ops.
1.There is a need for seeds in Haiti.
-----------------------------------------------------
UN workers had conducted on field assessments in Haiti after the quake and this is what they say
" Rapid assessments undertaken by FAO and its partners in the Agriculture Cluster have shown that “host families” caring for displaced people are spending their meagre savings to feed new arrivals and consuming food stocks.
In many cases these poor people are resorting to eating the seeds they have stored for the next planting season and eating or selling their livestock, in particular goats"
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/40177/icode/”
Unfortunately, Haitians have already started eating into their seed stocks.
2. Hybrid seeds procured from another country have worked before in Haiti.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAO(Food and Agriculture organization of UN) details one such project in 2008 where quality bean seeds from Guatamala with higher yield potential and resistance to Golden Mosaic Virus were distributed to poor and vulnerable farmers in Haiti. The seeds obtained for $300,000 has produced $5 million in bean crops. In this case the seeds made the difference because yields from local varieties was poor (link2- see pg 6 of pdf for more details)
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/29457/icode/.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTHAITI/Resources/HaitiBrochureEng.pdf
The seed company coats the seed with the fungicide. They also color the seed to indicate that it has been treated. If you watched the great burning of the Monsanto hybrid maize seed, you would see that the seed is colored red. By the way, I think the great burning involved less than a pound of seed.
You plant the treated, colored seed into the ground. It grows into a nice hybrid crop of maize. The grown maize is not colored red. It is safe to eat.
A majority of the commercially stocked seeds in the world are treated for protection from pathogens. The seeds are generally color coded. This is not an evil practice that Monsanto does exclusively. Organic farming also recommends seed protection. For eg: Take a hypothetical situation where an organic seed company was donating a few tons of seeds. As per their practice, they would treat potato, tomato and bean seeds with horse compost extract, cattle compost extract or bleach.
For Corn, Soybeans, Peas, Legumes, one recommendation is to spray with the Trichoderma & Mycorrhizal species of microbes that are antagonistic to other fungi.
Copper and sulphur sprays are also used as organic fungicide. These seeds are exclusively treated for sowing purposes. The organic seed company would not recommend consuming these seeds.
http://www.growseed.org/seedtreatments.html
http://www.vegetable-gardening-made-easier.com/organic-fungicides.html
what next, benefits of Walmart?
It's as if the PR folks at Monsanto were looking for a way to make their critics look especially stupid. Certainly, this donation has had that effect. There is absolutely no rational opposition to this donation. The fact that people work so hard to invent these wacky excuses manages to expose this group as a bunch of brain-dead anti-science fanatics.
Somebody in Monsanto's PR department deserves a promotion.
Pollution in Anniston, Alabama
In 2002, The Washington Post carried a front page report on Monsanto's legacy of environmental damage in Anniston, Alabama related to its legal production of polychlorinated biphenyls, a chemical once used as a common electrical insulator, 40 years ago. Plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit provided documentation showing that the local Monsanto factory knowingly discharged both mercury and PCB-laden waste into local creeks for over 40 years.[37] In a story on 27 January, The New York Times reported that during 1969 alone Monsanto had dumped 45 tons of PCBs into Snow Creek, a feeder for Choccolocco Creek which supplies much of the area's drinking water. The company also buried millions of pounds of PCB in open-pit landfills located on hillsides above the plant and surrounding neighborhoods.[38] In August 2003, Solutia and Monsanto agreed to pay plaintiffs $700 million to settle claims by over 20,000 Anniston residents related to PCB contamination.[39]"
" Monsanto is attempting to evade responsibility for decades of its toxic operations."
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/genetic-engineering/ge-industry/monsanto
The list of Monsanto crimes is huge and continuing.
This post is about a completely positive donation of much needed seed. Nothing else. THe author's point is that people who are dumb enough to oppose this completely positive act are irrational.
Trying to use such unrelated information - from a very suspicious source - just proves Entine's point. Your whole approach is irrational.
Forgive me for being skeptical. I can't believe that anyone who can't get facts straight and can't keep focused on the subject could possibly be a scientist.
----------------
Please reinstate the comment by research I replied to. It relied on this quotation: "According to interviews by this writer with representatives of Mexican small farmer organizations, they then find themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each year, under conditions they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot afford."
My edited response:
By now, you know that the seeds donated are a mixture of hybrid maize seeds and non-hybrid vegetable seeds. As I'm sure you know, seed companies don't need technology agreements with farmers because they control the seed lines used to create the hybrid seed. Only GMO seed is sold with technology agreements.
No one knowledgeable is going to apply your quotation to hybrid seeds. Here are the two relevant sentences.
"Monsanto is known for aggressively pushing seeds, especially GMO seeds, in both the global North and South, including through highly restrictive technology agreements with farmers who are not always made fully aware of what they are signing. According to interviews by this writer with representatives of Mexican small farmer organizations, they then find themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each year, under conditions they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot afford."
http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/haitian-farmers-commit-burning-monsanto-hybrid-seeds
Oops. The quote applies to GMO seed, not hybrid seed. If you had left in the previous sentence, it would have been obvious. Perhaps that is why you left it out.
Monsanto probably already owns the local seed companies too.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/genetic-engineering/ge-industry/monsanto
Monsanto is just another united fruit company, trying to own the worlds farmers,
but you love them.
wow.