People originally thought that genetically-modified (GM) seeds like corn and soybeans were being modified specifically to produce better yields per acre, thus feeding more people while using the same amount of land.
n fact, this is the inherent promise that agri-biotech giant Monsanto (MON – $122.17) – the leading global provider of agricultural products and systems (including GM seeds) – posts on its website: We apply innovation and technology to help farmers around the world be successful, produce healthier foods, better animal feeds and more fiber, while also reducing agriculture’s impact on our environment.
In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the whole thing is a corporate conspiracy to bundle crop seeds and herbicides (weed killers) under a single company banner, in this case Monsanto and its former subsidiary Bayer CropScience. Other agribusiness giants are busily engineering the same sorts of scenarios to corner the multi-billion dollar agricultural industry worldwide, but Monsanto is still the leader. This has the result of driving almost all the profits from modern agriculture to a single corporation. Monsanto couldn’t be happier. Farmers (and environmentalists) are becoming less sanguine.
I call it a conspiracy because it would be like genetically engineering meat animals (cows and chickens) that only eat a certain type of feed, and then creating that feed under a banner of proprietary ownership. Believe me, this is the real direction of cloning, not providing meat animals who generate more mass per pound of feed. But back to GM seeds.
Monsanto’s GM soybeans now make up more than 90 percent of the U.S. soybean crop, and its GM corns (Roundup Ready and Liberty Linked) make up a similar proportion of U.S. corn crops.
Monsanto’s GM soybeans and corn are created to be resistant to glyphosate, an organophosphate herbicide also known as Roundup (also made by Monsanto). With weed resistance reaching epidemic proportions, (a revolt seen elsewhere in the natural world as bacteria-overcome antibiotics) stronger and stronger herbicides are needed to produce crops. Monsanto is at the forefront of the industry, tailoring propriety herbicides to fit their proprietary, GM crop seeds.
This would be good if Roundup reduced overall usage of herbicides and the environmental burden of runoff into streams and lakes, but it doesn’t. In soybean crops, Roundup loss rates – compared to the herbicide alachlor – were half that of alachlor. In cornfields, Roundup loss rates were equal to both alachlor and linuron, another popular herbicide. The claim that Roundup stays where it is applied, and degrades quickly compared to other herbicides, is simply not true. Roundup is highly soluble in water, and – because of its chemical nature – toxic to aquatic systems. Though described as likely non-carcinogenic, all the science isn’t in yet, and Monsanto dollars undoubtedly drive the reported outcomes of these studies.
Most important, Roundup is not used in the absence of other herbicides. Atrazine, a highly toxic herbicide, is still widely used in GMO cornfields, in part to combat widespread and rising weed resistance to Roundup. Finally, the surfactants used in Roundup (ethylated amines) are likely as toxic to aquatic systems as is the herbicide itself. Unfortunately, the proprietary nature of formulations makes it difficult to assess the true scope of the problem.
Lastly, a study from the University of Kansas shows that GM crops are actually less productive than normal seed strains, by a factor of almost 10 percent. To highlight the point, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development concluded (April 15) that GM foods are not the quick fix to world hunger they were once promoted to be.
Unfortunately, Monsanto has already locked up the Grain Belt of America in binding contracts with farmers who, even if they wanted to switch back to natural corn and soybean seeds, will find GM seeds cropping up in their fields as a result of cross-pollination or actual invasion. When this happens, as it is the case more and more often, these contracts allow Monsanto to sue the farmers, even when the GM seed occurrence is a result of genetic pollution and decidedly unwanted.
Thanks, Monsanto, one of the least socially conscious corporations on the planet. It couldn’t be worse than the situation in India, where farmers are committing suicide over the failure of their farms, or Mexico, where Monsanto’s GM corn has quietly invaded native stands of maize, decimating strains that survived intact over thousands of years and now stand close to extinction.
The problem with GM seeds (and most faulty science) is that, having gone forward, there is no way back. With money as the only motive, profit-driven corporations always leap before looking, dragging the rest of us down to down, figuratively and literally, with them.
Disclosure: I don’t own Monsanto stock.